Tasers

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February 18, 2011 | 10:28 AM | By

Fear factor

This rather scary-looking, mammoth of a gun has been used in movies like Predator and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. It’s also used by the Memphis Police Department as their preferred method of non-lethal force–the gun actually shoots rubber bullets, about the size of a baby’s fist. Memphis, like San Francisco, does not equip police officers with Tasers, an issue the San Francisco Police Commission will take up at their February 23 meeting, 5:30pm in Room 400 at City Hall.

The San Francisco Police Department, lead by Interim Chief Jeff Godown, believes that adding Tasers to officers’ arsenal would give officers more tools to deal with threats against their safety–short of using the more often lethal option of shooting their guns. Part of the reason for renewed interest in Tasers (the police department has asked for them before) are three officer-involved shootings involving people with mental health issues.

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FILED UNDER: Police, San Francisco Police Commission, San Francisco Police Department, Tasers
February 15, 2011 | 4:58 PM | By

SFPD’s new Taser request likely to face resistance

Ali Winston

An Oakland Police officer readies a Ttaser during an encounter with a mentally ill man on San Pablo Avenue

An exchange during the San Francisco Police Commission’s discussion of its new crisis response policy last week hinted at the attitude of some commissioners towards SFPD’s renewed push to equip patrol officers with Tasers. Although the Commission rejected SFPD’s requests for Tasers last year, citing safety and liability concerns, the police department took up the cause again in the wake of three recent officer-involved shootings of mentally ill people.

Commissioner Petra DeJesus, who led the successful opposition to implementing Tasers last year, raised the issue with Sam Cochran, a retired Memphis Police Department Major who helped create the Crisis Intervention Team model SFPD will adopt. DeJesus asked whether MPD’s CIT officers carry Tasers.

At first, Cochran said, CIT officers were equipped with the less-lethal electronic weapon, but took them out of service because of burns incurred by suspects who were tased after being sprayed with an alcohol-based chemical agent MPD carried at the time. MPD eventually replaced the tasers with the SL-6 impact launcher, which can fire a range of non-lethal projectiles.

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FILED UNDER: Police, Officer-involved shootings, San Francisco, San Francisco Police Commission, San Francisco Police Department, Tasers