To: All Members
From: Martin Halloran
From: Martin Halloran
The pro and con debate over arming San Francisco police officers with the less lethal option of Electronic Control Devices (ECD), commonly known as Tasers, has been going on for far too many years. During this exhaustive debate, which has lasted 8 plus years, lives could have been saved and serious injuries could have been prevented.
The SFPOA has always supported the use of less lethal options. Many studies have concluded that the use of this tool has saved lives. The last thing our members want is to be forced into a lethal option incident.
The POA also realizes that there are differing opinions but we were beyond surprised when we heard the unsubstantiated comments from one of our own Police Commissioners. Petra DeJesus gave an on camera interview to the media and made inflammatory statements such as “the use of Tasers is a lazy cops way of getting someone to do something.” It is frankly appalling that a long serving Police Commission would make such a comment knowing that there is no data or facts to support this.
The POA takes exception to Commissioner DeJesus’ inflammatory ill-conceived statements and all the hard working men and women in law enforcement deserve better than this. The POA has responded to Commissioner DeJesus and an apology from her is in order.
