Experts back San Francisco police chief on use of Tasers

San Francisco, Detroit and Memphis are the only big U.S. cities whose police departments do not use Tasers. It is so EASY to find so-called "EXPERTS" to extol the virtues of this weapon that - no matter what any bought and paid-for expert says - has the potential to kill. It is unfortunate that, either critics of taser use in San Francisco didn't organize themselves (and I include myself in that) or the reporter bought the party line - hook, (thin blue) line and sinker.

The "train may have left the station" in SF. Detroit and Memphis - this is your wake-up call.

Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, February 18, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO -- The San Francisco Police Commission heard a litany of expert testimony Wednesday to support the police chief's proposal that the department's officers be equipped with electronic stun guns.

Chief George Gascón has pushed for Tasers, stun guns that disrupt a target's muscle control, and ordered a study of officer-involved shootings shortly after coming on the job in late July. That study, released earlier this year, concluded that one-third of 15 officer-involved shootings over a five-year period might have been avoided had officers had the devices.

San Francisco, Detroit and Memphis are the only big U.S. cities whose police departments do not use Tasers.

Gascón said before the meeting that a policy on Taser use as a "less lethal" option would take 90 days to develop and that deployment could take a year or more. Officials with the Police Executive Research Forum who studied seven departments that used Tasers and six that did not found a 78 percent drop in officer injuries and a 40 percent drop in suspect injuries with the deployment of the devices. They stressed that the weapons must be tightly controlled with strict training.

Critics of Tasers, however, argued that they are not the nonlethal weapons the maker advertises. A specialist from the Los Angeles-area American Civil Liberties Union has noted that research is lacking on the use of the Taser's role in 400 in-custody deaths since 2001.

However, another ACLU official told the commission that Tasers are highly effective and humane. Scott Greenwood, a civil rights lawyer and a general counsel for the ACLU in Ohio, said Tasers have been vital in improving the use-of-force records of Cincinnati police, which went from 18 police-involved shootings one year to zero the next.

He noted that departments across the country slashed shootings by half or to zero in just the first year of implementation, cutting injuries to officers. "Every jurisdiction has had a double-digit drop," he said.

Greenwood also said SFPD's policies and practices make it "late to the game" when it comes to Taser use.

"The train here has really left the station as far as throughout the country," Greenwood said, adding that the SFPD's policy resembles the practices used 25 years ago in East Coast departments and its officers "lack a full tool kit."

He faulted the department's policies, which leave officers little choice between verbal orders and opening fire.

"This shouldn't even be a close question," he said. "You should approve his (Gascón's) request tonight for all the right reasons."

San Francisco Sheriff Mike Hennessey noted that his agency has used a Taser 12 times over the last eight years and that merely pointing the device's laser guide light at suspects has caused them to say, "OK, I give up." The Sheriff's Department uses the device both in the jail and in serving warrants.

"The Taser can be a deterrent in many situations when a person realizes they are about to be Tased," he said. "I find it has been a very effective tool."

He said the only drawback is expense, including training and the $35 cost per cartridge.