BART Police Ordered To Turn In Tasers (Oakland, CA)

[Raineyrocks]

http://www.ktvu.com/news/23164719/detail.html?hpt=T2

EXCLUSIVE: BART Police Ordered To Turn In Tasers

Posted: 2:05 pm PDT April 15, 2010Updated: 10:34 pm PDT April 15, 2010
OAKLAND, Calif. -- Following an incident involving a BART police sergeant inappropriately discharging his Taser, transit agency officials have ordered all its officers to hand in the controversial weapons Thursday until further training could be undertaken, KTVU has learned.

Sources told KTVU that officers received orders on Thursday afternoon from the agency's top brass to turn in their Tasers after interim BART Police Chief Daschel Butler issued a memo with the instructions.

The rank-and-file officers of the BART police department got word of the order Thursday afternoon and could be seen stopping by the headquarters at the Lake Merritt BART station. Officers approached by KTVU said that any questions would have to be answered by commanding officers.

The final straw, apparently, came after an April 1st incident when BART police sergeant who was responding to a call about an alleged assault at the Richmond BART station.

Multiple sources said the sergeant was pursuing a 13-year-old boy who was fleeing the scene on a bicycle and reportedly deployed his Taser at the teen through the passenger window of his vehicle.

Sources said -- and the police chief confirmed -- that the shot missed and the youth was uninjured, but that the way the Taser was used was raising numerous questions.

KTVU spoke with Butler, who said he did not hear about the incident until late last week. An internal investigation commenced on Monday.

"Right now, what they're doing is collecting the Tasers. Because we've had a number of trainings and inspections of equipment, we've decided to go to a "weak-hand draw" with the holsters," explained Butler, referring to Taser holsters that would be worn on the opposite side of an individual officer's dominant hand. "Because of various appellate court and circuit court opinions on the use of Tasers, we've decided to have one last training session and -- at that time -- issue the weak-hand draw holsters."

The court decision the chief referred to recommend that Tasers only be used defensively, not in a pursuit as it appears to have been in this instance. There were also concerns over the fact that the target was a minor and that the officer deploying the Taser was a supervisor.

The BART police officer who improperly fired the Taser is still on duty and has not been disciplined as the internal investigation into the incident continues, according to Butler.

The internal investigation into the incident should be wrapped up by next week.

KTVU also learned that there was a delay in how the incident was reported. Procedure dictates that incidents involving use of force are supposed to be made immediately after they happen. It appears that the report in this use of force incident may have come days later, just before the chief was actually notified himself.

The passage of time between the incident and when he received notification did not please Butler.

"I was not happy about that, actually. Because we have to know about these things to take action," said Butler. "That part of it certainly did rub my feathers in the wrong direction."

Though Butler had already been considering taking Tasers out of the BART officers hands, the incident at the Richmond station sped up the decision. BART police officers will likely have their Tasers returned in a couple of weeks after the final training session has taken place and the new holsters have been distributed.

Taser use by BART officers is also the focal point of Johannes Mehserle's defense in the New Year's Day 2009 fatal shooting of Oscar Grant III, who was killed while unarmed and restrained on a BART platform.

Mehserle, who is nearing trial on a charge of murder, has claimed he thought he had pulled out his Taser and not his handgun, and fired in an attempt to subdue Grant.

A public review of the officers' actions in the Grant shooting was highly critical of the agency's use and training involving Tasers. The BART police force was first armed with Tasers in December 2008, just a month before Oscar Grant was shot.

BART board member Lynette Sweet said it was embarrassing to learn of the latest incident from the KTVU newsroom and was critical of BART General Manager Dorothy Dugger for not informing the board.

"Channel 2 called me this afternoon: 'Do you have a comment on Tasers being taken away because of this incident?' It was the first I heard of it," explained Sweet.

Sweet told KTVU the incident would be discussed during a board meeting scheduled for Friday. The board will meet in closed session to interview four finalists for the BART police chief position and hoped to come to a decision by Friday afternoon.

Sweet said each candidate will be asked about how they will handle the use of Tasers.

"What are you going to do about Tasers? What are you going to do with officer who does something silly like shoot their Taser out of a window at the victim?" asked Sweet. "BART does not have enough insurance to pay for some of the things we do."

Sweet said this latest incident clearly pointed to a need for a new chief.

Copyright 2010 by KTVU.com. All rights reserved.

[error]

"BART does not have enough insurance to pay for some of the things we do."

Could also be read as:

"[Insert PD name here] does not have enough insurance to pay for some of the things we do."

[Kat Kanning]

Aren't they more security guards than cops?

[Raineyrocks]

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/04/23/another-officer-connected-to-fatal-shooting-loses-job/?hpt=T2
03:27 AM ET

Another officer connected to fatal shooting loses job

Another officer connected to a fatal shooting of an unarmed man on a California train platform lost his job, authorities said Thursday.

Tony Pirone was one of several officers on the scene in Oakland when another officer fatally shot the man in the back on New Year's Day last year.

A Bay Area Rapid Transit train system interim chief did not release details on why Pirone left the BART police force. A brief statement was posted on the train system's website.

"I have announced to my staff that Officer Tony Pirone is no longer employed by the District," Interim Police Chief Daschel Butler said. "Mr. Pirone's last day of employment was (Thursday)."

This statement comes a month after BART officials announced that Marysol Domenici, another officer on the scene during the shooting, had lost her job.

The shooting of Oscar Grant, 22, was captured on a bystander's cell-phone video camera. The video was widely circulated on the internet and on news shows, and spurred several protests and riots in and around Oakland.
Post by: The CNN Wire
Filed under: Justice •U.S.

[Lloyd Danforth]

At one time I thought about suggesting that these pigs that wear and use tazers should have to tazer their loved ones before leaving for the job,every day.
But, then it occurred to me that many of them might enjoy it too much.

[Raineyrocks]

At one time I thought about suggesting that these pigs that wear and use tazers should have to tazer their loved ones before leaving for the job,every day.
But, then it occurred to me that many of them might enjoy it too much.

Yeah really!   They need to use the tazers on themselves and see how they like it.