Vote to give S.F. police Tasers

For 29 years, I have sworn an oath to protect and serve the people of San Francisco. Over the course of my career many things have changed, but police officers’ commitment to the people of this city has never wavered. Beyond keeping the peace, we are often called upon to play the role of first responders, front-line social workers, counselors and protectors. We need every tool at our disposal to control potentially dangerous confrontations without them resulting in injury or death.

San Francisco is one of the few major cities in the United States that has not equipped its police officers with conducted energy devices, of which the most commonly used type is a Taser, despite a 2016 recommendation from President Barack Obama’s U.S. Department of Justice encouraging the city to “strongly consider deploying” Tasers. In November 2017, the San Francisco Police Commission approved the potential use and adoption of Tasers, but it failed to approve any specific policy and delayed implementation of their use indefinitely. The commission voted 6-1 to adopt a policy drafted by the San Francisco Police Department on Wednesday night.

For 13 years, through vigorous debate, multiple hearings and drafts of policies, and with the support of four separate police chiefs, we at the San Francisco Police Officers Association asked the commission to equip officers with tools to more effectively do our job. Our requests were repeatedly ignored.

For our community and our neighborhood police, this was too slow and too uncertain of an outcome. Our department needs a comprehensive Taser policy, and we are asking the public for your help. That is why the POA is putting this matter before San Francisco voters this June as Proposition H.

Should the voters pass Prop. H, it will still need commission approval in terms of formulating a general order on the policy. Now that the Police Commission has passed a policy, the city must confer with the POA before it goes before the commission for final approval. Our belief is the POA and the commission should work in tandem to develop a policy that benefits the department, our citizens and our officers.

We have researched national best practices to craft a policy that will save lives. Prop. H will ensure officers complete annual training requirements to de-escalate violent situations. It will also require reporting and a department accountability review for any occurrence of Taser discharge. Finally, Prop. H mandates automated external defibrillators be available in SFPD vehicles in all districts where Tasers are deployed.

The adoption of Tasers has been proved to reduce the rate of injury across the board, and the National Institute of Justice reported that, in some police departments, the use of a Taser reduced the rate of injury to suspects by as much as 70 percent.

Issuing Tasers to police officers will save lives by reducing officer-involved shootings. Police officers should not be forced to use guns in dangerous situations because they lack an effective, less-than-lethal option. This is why Tasers are used by police departments in nearly every major U.S. city. Yet in San Francisco, politics too often get in the way of practical solutions. Prop. H takes the politics out of our neighborhood safety.

San Francisco’s officers need every tool available to them to keep the peace. We have had no intermediary means of force in between a baton and a firearm to defuse potentially dangerous situations. Tasers are a proven less-lethal option that can keep both our residents and officers safe by decreasing the number of officer-involved shootings and injury across the city.

The POA has been working diligently and has attended every single stakeholder meeting, and it will continue to be engaged with the commission and the Police Department on the other 272 Department of Justice recommendations.

No officer ever wants to discharge their firearm, but our job brings with it great risk. Now is the time to implement a policy that data has proven will save lives, reduce injury and give our officers a tool that can de-escalate a crisis situation without the use of lethal force.

Please join us this June in keeping our neighborhoods safe by voting Yes on H.

Martin Halloran, a sergeant in the San Francisco Police Department, is president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association.