Police Panel Sharply Limits Flashlight Use

Seven months after a police officer beat a car thief with a heavy flashlight, the Los Angeles Police Commission approved a policy Tuesday that sharply restricts the use of the devices as weapons to emergencies only.

The five commissioners unanimously approved the policy that states that the use of flashlights as weapons is officially “discouraged.”

Commissioners on Tuesday toughened the policy that had been proposed by the Los Angeles Police Department to clarify that a flashlight can be used only “when it is not feasible to use a baton.”

“We want to make it clear the preference is to use the baton,” Commissioner Rick Caruso said.

Commissioners stopped short of the near-total ban adopted by some cities.

Until now, the LAPD had no policy, despite four dozen flashlight-related incidents since 2002.

Before the vote, Los Angeles Urban League President John Mack told commissioners that discouraging the use of flashlights on suspects was a step in the right direction, but that a clearer message would be sent to officers if such use were “prohibited.”

Commission Vice President Alan Skobin said the policy was designed to supplement existing use-of-force guidelines that require that any use of force be reasonable.

Mack, who headed a civilian panel that reviewed the June beating of convicted car thief Stanley Miller, which was videotaped and televised nationwide, said the additional language strengthens the policy.

But Ricardo Garcia, of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said the commission “simply doesn’t go far enough.

“A prohibition on the use of a flashlight as a weapon would have been far better.”

Under the new policy, any use of flashlights as weapons would require a written explanation and a critical review.

Officers would be required to avoid striking the head, neck, groin, spine and kidneys. Primary targets should be bony areas such as shins, knees, elbows and hands.

It is the second flashlight-related reform since the June 23 beating. Officer John Hatfield struck Miller 11 times at the end of a high-speed pursuit that had turned into a foot chase along Compton Creek, leading to a widespread outcry over the amount of force used to subdue him.

In the aftermath, Chief William J. Bratton announced that he had forbidden the use of heavy metal flashlights such as the one wielded by Hatfield. He said the LAPD would develop its own small, lightweight, rubber flashlight.

That flashlight is still being developed, commission President David Cunningham III said.

“We felt that more important than the type of flashlight was developing a policy on the use of whatever light officers possess,” Cunningham said.