Posted on 12/15/2004 12:25:58 PM PST by Lazamataz
LOS ANGELES - The city's police commission unveiled a plan Tuesday aimed at discouraging officers from using flashlights as weapons, except in emergencies.
The proposal comes months after a telvised beating by Officer John Hatfield showed him striking a motorist 11 times following a foot chase. The June 23 incident sparked widespread objection to the use of flashlights as weapons.
"Officers don't mind being held accountable as long as they have a clear policy to follow, and that's what we're providing here," said Alan Skobin, vice president of the police commission.
The proposed policy, to be considered Jan. 11, stops short of the near-total bans on practice enacted in other large cities. It states that flashlights should only be used for light and should only be used as a weapon in very unusual circumstances.
The proposal seems to permit officers to use flashlights to stop violent suspects, said Bob Baker, president of the Police Protective League, the Los Angeles Police Department officers' union.
"We support policies that, at the end of the watch, mean we are going home safe," Baker said.
Ricardo Garcia, criminal justice director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said the proposal was a good start.
"But I'd like to see them move away from even this permissive a use of flashlight," Garcia said. "On the positive side, at least this will give officers some training on how if they're going to strike with a flashlight to do it. Before this, they could pretty much do anything."
At the time of the Miller incident, the LAPD had no formal policy on proper use of a flashlight to subdue a suspect.
After the beating, Chief William J. Bratton said he would forbid the use of heavy metal flashlights like the one used by Hatfield. Bratton said the department would develop small, lightweight rubber flashlights, which it is still in the process of doing.
The new proposal would require a written explanation and critical review whenever a flashlight is used as a weapon.
The beatings will continue until morale improves...
The flashlights we were issued came with several lenses. One was a white opaque lens. My chief asked what it was for, so I told him it was for blind people. He never got it.
I thought that was the purpose of those big mags. Everybody I know who has one (including myself) considers them a tool of self defense. The light projection is just a bonus feature.
Substitute "9MM Ruger" for "flashlight" in the article...it's even funnier.
Formal policy on proper use? Like a Standing Operating Procedure?
1) Shine flashlight into suspect's eyes while chanting "Go toward the light, go toward the light" in a slow, calming voice.
2) Continue this until suspect enters a semi-trance state, then give the signal to your partner or other officer on the scene.
3) Upon receiving the signal, the partner or assistant will find the nearest blunt object and strike the suspect repeatedly (may we suggest a flashlight for this task?)
Hey, we should get together and hang out! I'm staying at the Holiday Purgatory just down the street!
I hope the rubber flashlights are pink.
They would go nicely with plastic handguns and sneakers.
Builds esprit d'corps, doncha know. Gangs, beware.
The new plan will limit the number of flashlight beating that each officer can administer. Officers with more time on the force can of course beat more people with a flashlight than a new recruit.
We are hoping to decrease flashlight beatings by 10%.
lol
So...the current policy is to beat people with flashlights when it isn't an emergency?
I agree about banning flashlights. They should be using their nightsticks!
When the batteries ran down. No more juice.
My local PD carries collapsable batons - why risk damaging a perfectly good flashlight on an unruly suspect?
Apparently, there's a bumper crop: Bus Death Mystery
I'm sure that a bus turning up dead is quite the mystery.
Leave it to the LAPD to set themselves up for a lawsuit.
The Monadnock company here in New Hampshire, which produces the Monadnock Expandable Baton, has a lot of detailed training materials and courses that are necessary if you want your officers to avoid accidentally inflicting serious injury or death on a suspect. There are certain regions of the body, indicated in red on their training chart, that pose a significant risk of serious injury if struck.
If a police officer is going to strike someone in one of those regions with a baton, he'd darn well better know why it was necessary and be able to state it in court if he's planning on a comfortable retirement.
"LAPD Plan to Curb Flashlight Beatings"
Going back to just shooting them?
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