The recent officer-involved shooting death of Mario Woods in San Francisco's Bayview neighborhood has reignited the local debate about lethal force and has triggered calls by San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr and others for the San Francisco Police Commission to reexamine its two previous decisions not to allow sworn personnel the use of Tasers, or electronic control devices.
We agree that the commission should reconsider its stance. While it will never be known if using Tasers would have prevented Woods' death, Suhr and San Francisco Police Officers Association President Martin Halloran both said that stun guns could have had a different outcome.
Woods' death, which was caught on video, is disturbing to watch, and some of the footage seems to contradict what the department has said. Halloran said in a statement this week that once the video appeared on social media, "individuals, along with organizations hostile to the police, began to draw their own conclusions based on eight seconds of footage and nothing else."
"This is an open, active case which is being thoroughly investigated by three independent civilian oversight and law enforcement agencies," Halloran stated. "The results of these investigations will be forthcoming and transparent."
Mayor Ed Lee issued a statement Monday calling for the Police Commission "to do a thorough review of all existing policies regarding use of force to make it perfectly clear that the department's policy is that using lethal force is the last resort." The mayor said he's seen the video, which he called "very upsetting," and is urging changes. He also said the police department, immediately after the shooting, joined a national effort called Re-Engineering Training on Police Use of Force. He has directed Suhr to take immediate action to ensure that officers have more options to resolve situations with the minimum use of force.
Suhr and Halloran stated that in the Woods incident, crisis intervention trained officers attempted to de-escalate the situation and non-lethal force was used numerous times, including pepper spray and bean bag projectiles. Those efforts were not effective in disarming Woods, who had an eight-inch knife.
Stun guns have resulted in the deaths, too, especially if a suspect has pre-existing medical issues. But Suhr's predecessors, George Gasc�"n (now the district attorney) and Heather Fong both tried and failed to get Tasers approved by the Police Commission. San Francisco is a major city and its officers should have more non-lethal options.
But we also understand and agree with points raised by members of the African American community, who met this week to discuss the shooting. NAACP chapter president Amos Brown, a former San Francisco supervisor, called the police department's plan for stun guns "too simplistic," according to a San Francisco Chronicle report. He says the department needs to ramp up diversity recruitment, sensitivity training, and community-based policing, all of which he has told the commission. Brown said that what's needed is trust, and right now the community does not trust the police.
Those same points have been made in cities across the country with officer-involved shooting cases. While we don't know what preceded the video footage in the Woods case, we know the prevalence of questionable officer-involved shootings across the country requires more comprehensive training for police. In many cases suspects are suffering from mental health issues. Fundamentally, officers are trained to shoot to kill if they need to use their gun. Perhaps it's this tactic of training that needs to change. Why couldn't officers shoot Woods in the leg, which could have resulted in a non-fatal injury? Why did they need to shoot him at all if he had a knife, and thus would have had to come into contact with an officer in order to inflict injury? Those are questions we hope these three separate investigations can answer.
That the mayor has responded quickly to this case is also noteworthy.
"This country has seen far too many incidents where conflicts between police and young men of color result in the death of a young person," the mayor said. "In San Francisco, we're not this kind of city. That's not our values."
Better police training and stun guns should again be explored and discussed. Times have changed since the Police Commission last rejected Tasers. Too many people are dying at the hands of law enforcement, and San Francisco is a progressive city that can do something about it for its citizens.