SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – San Francisco is one of only two large cities in the country that do not equip officers with stun guns, a situation the city’s police chief wants to change after police fatally shot a knife-wielding stabbing suspect last week.
Police Chief Greg Suhr publicly renewed a call Wednesday night to add the weapon to his department’s arsenal, exactly one week after five officers shot and killed 26-year-old Mario Woods in the city’s Bayview neighborhood. The shooting was captured on video and circulated widely online, fueling community protests and calls for the chief’s resignation.
The police chief said the fatal shooting could have been avoided if the responding officers had been equipped with Taser stun guns, which deliver 50,000 electrical volts and are designed to temporarily incapacitate suspects without killing them.
Critics say the weapon sometimes kills suspects in poor health and officers can mistake it for a gun, with fatal consequences. Civil rights groups and community activists say that, instead of more equipment, police need additional training in crisis intervention and how to defuse confrontations between police and armed suspects who sometimes are mentally disturbed or under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Suhr and three of his predecessors previously failed to win the police commission authorization for stun guns even as the vast majority of the nation’s law enforcement agencies have been outfitting officers with the weapon, which is shaped like a handgun and often is holstered on the officer’s gun belt. Previous police commissions rejected use of the Taser, saying they were concerned the weapon could kill and maim suspects, especially those with heart conditions.