Deadly encounters between police and citizens have increased in recent years. And while officer-involved shootings are nearly always ruled justified, mistakes are costly—both in lives and in the millions that the public pays to victims and their heirs.

Some 200 attendees—many of them former San Jose police officers—met at the California Theatre on Thursday to honor the life of Joseph McNamara, the city's former police chief and “father of community policing.”

Joseph D. McNamara served as San Jose's police chief from 1976-91. He was a smart and courageous leader who brought national and international prominence to San Jose, introducing the city to the best practices in law enforcement.

Joseph McNamara, the police chief chief who created San Jose's reputation for having one of the most progressive police departments in the country, has died.

A number of posts over the past week on ProtectSanJose.com,  a blog run by the Police Officers Association (SJPOA), have effectively called into question a series of San Jose Mercury News articles about use of force by SJPD.

The Merc series started with the Oct. 24 posting of a cell-phone video that seems to show SJPD officers beating and Tasing a Vietnamese SJSU exchange student while he is pinned to the floor. The series culminated with a Sunday package a few days later, headlined “Mercury News investigation: San Jose police often use force in resisting-arrest cases.”