Item B: Eugene Police Department Taser Policy

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oversight she perceived the Police Commission as having, giving way to lack of trust from the community. 4. Next Steps on Taser Review Process Mr. Alsup opened the floor for members of the committee to respond to the public comments. Juan Carlos Valle thanked the speakers for their input. He expressed his support for recommendations put forth by the ACLU and said he wanted to help the Police Department to improve their relations with the community. He wanted to make sure that police officers thoroughly understood the impact of Tasers on individuals, and also to ensure that officers were appropriately protected from harm in their work. He commented that there was still time for community members to submit questions to the Police Commission and City Council. Tamara Miller thanked the attending community members participating in tonight’s forum, and also during earlier forums. She also thanked Police Department members for their ongoing aid to the committee. Joe Alsup remarked that when he had applied to work with the Police Commission four and half years earlier, officers had no alternatives to using deadly force. He had seen the need for better options, especially in cases of people experiencing a mental health crisis. He had also hoped to see crisis intervention training implemented, which was begun in the past few years and had become mandatory for all officers to receive. He commented that he viewed the Taser as a serious weapon, yet felt it was superior to the use of a blunt instrument with which to strike someone on the head. Marilyn Nelson also thanked community members for their comments, and noted that the many comments around accountability would also be appropriate for further work of this committee around use of force policies. With extra time in the agenda, Mr. Alsup then passed the microphone to several anonymous people in the audience. One commenter noted that Tasers had been over-marketed, and he felt its use had been rushed into police work. Another comment noted that it was a year ago this month that Ryan Salisbury had died and that it had been said that if Tasers had been available to police officers then, Ryan would still be alive. A further comment noted that for public use of Tasers there was no training or permit required. This person felt that Tasers should be defined as deadly weapons and be banned for public use. MINUTES—Eugene Police Commission May 4, 2010 Page 6 Use of Force Committee – Taser Public Forum