By James Nash, Los Angeles Daily News
Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton’s proposal to develop a customized LAPD flashlight will be put on hold until he and the Police Commission decides whether to continue allowing officers to use flashlights as weapons, police commissioners said Tuesday.
Bratton announced Aug. 3 that he would phase out officers’ two-pound metal flashlights, such as one used in a televised beating of car-theft suspect Stanley Miller six weeks earlier.
Bratton said a committee of Police Department officials would develop a flashlight especially for the LAPD -- making it the only American police agency with its own model.
On Tuesday, however, police commissioners said the LAPD should delay a new design until leaders decide how officers may use the devices. Although primarily for illumination, they may be used to strike a combative suspect in some situations, according to LAPD policy.
“In a way, we’re putting the cart before the horse,” commission Vice President Alan Skobin said of designing a flashlight without a policy governing its use.
“What we’re doing is designing a flashlight and then a policy. What we should be doing is designing a policy on the use of a flashlight and then designing a device to conform to that policy.”
So far this year, Los Angeles police have used flashlights in five serious use-of-force incidents and six less-serious incidents, according to LAPD statistics. Officers use flashlights as weapons less frequently than batons, tasers, chemical agents and beanbags.
But the widely publicized beating of Miller, 36, by an LAPD officer cast a spotlight on the department’s use of flashlights.
Bratton said he wanted to replace the heavy steel flashlights with smaller models that would be useless as weapons.
On Tuesday, Bratton declined to characterize the commission’s action as a setback. He said LAPD officials realized they would need to evaluate the policy on using flashlights as weapons at the same time as they design new flashlights.
“You don’t issue new equipment absent a policy.”
The Police Commission currently is not re-evaluating other policies governing how officers deal with suspects as a result of the Miller incident. But commissioners may look at other policy changes after the LAPD completes its internal review of the incident, said Richard Tefank, the civilian panel’s executive director.
Bratton has called the officers’ response to the June 23 incident “a mess” and said it raised several tactical issues, including the use of flashlights and kicks to distract suspects.