San Francisco police may get the OK to study and pilot the use of stun guns
The San Francisco Police Department may be one step closer to getting Tasers.
A recent spate of officer-involved shootings of mentally ill people has reignited the divisive debate over these controversial weapons, which have never been used by the department.
The police department and other supporters, including former Mayor Gavin Newsom and the former police chief George Gascón, have said that stun guns are a safe, widely used law enforcement tool. But critics say they increase the risk of death and are abused by the police.
Now the city’s police commission — a seven-member panel that guides department policies — appears ready to consider allowing the police to research and propose a pilot program, the first step toward equipping a small number of officers with stun guns.
The commission will vote Feb. 23 on whether to allow the department’s proposal.
Commissioners rejected a proposal in 2004 to allow Tasers, and another by Chief Gascón last year. In January, after officers shot a knife-wielding man in a wheelchair, Chief Gascón demanded that commissioners vote again, adding that Tasers “most likely would have ended this scenario,” but the commission delayed a decision.
But now, as the police department, the police commission and the city at large work together to address the policies and practices regarding policing and the mentally ill, the tide may finally be turning.
On Feb. 9, the commission voted to establish and train a team of patrol officers, modeled after a program in Memphis, to respond specifically to people in mental crisis, de-escalate volatile situations and work with mental health care providers to connect individuals with services.
Acting Chief Jeff Godown has supported the program, making some commissioners more receptive to revisiting the debate. He said that beanbag guns are ineffective and that officers need another alternative, aside from a baton or a gun. The department is also considering the SL-6, a weapon that fires high-impact projectiles. (Memphis uses the SL-6, but not Tasers.) Activists and some commissioners disagree that the weapons are needed.
“Calling the police to do mental health intervention is like calling the mortician to deliver babies,” said Meshá Mongé-Irizarry, the mother of a schizophrenic man who was shot and killed by the police at the Metreon theater in 2001. Mongé-Irizarry is organizing a movement against Tasers.
Commissioner Petra DeJesus questioned the expense. “Are we going to have educated and trained officers to deal with the mentally ill on the street, or are we going to buy Tasers to deal with the mentally ill?” she said.
But the votes appear stacked in the department’s favor. At least four commissioners have said they are open to a closely monitored pilot Taser program.
Read more: http://www.baycitizen.org/policing/story/police-commission-vote-taser-pl...
