MONTPELIER – Lawmakers Wednesday passed a bill aimed at creating a statewide Taser use and training policy, despite stiff opposition from the ACLU and some lawmakers about details of the bill.
The American Civil Liberties Union Wednesday condemned the legislation, saying it will not solve the problem of abuse and over-use of the stun guns.
“I think you’re making a big mistake if you pass this bill,” said Allen Gilbert, executive director of the Vermont ACLU.
The legislation charges the Law Enforcement Advisory Board with creating a policy and ensuring that any officer who has a Taser is trained to use it.
The House Government Operations Committee this session has debated whether to include an entire Taser policy in the bill or trust the LEAB to create the policy itself. The committee ultimately decided on a middle road, including key elements of the policy in the bill and leaving law enforcement to craft the rest.
Some lawmakers Wednesday morning said they feared that those key elements don’t have enough “teeth.” But at a vote on a nearly identical version Wednesday afternoon, the bill passed unanimously.
“I really want to see something much stronger,” said Rep. Joanna Cole, D-Burlington, told her colleagues Wednesday morning.
Other members of the committee as well as LEAB Chairman Rick Gauthier assured her this bill is a foundation and the policy and training will be built above and beyond the guidelines in the bill.
Lawmakers said they can revisit this topic in the future, if needed. They are racing a Friday deadline to pass bills to the other chamber.
Chairwoman Rep. Donna Sweaney, D-Windsor, Wednesday morning said lawmakers had between now and Friday to work on the bill, however the committee revisited it that afternoon and took a vote around 3:45 p.m.
“If we don’t take a first step then I don’t think we’re going to be able to get to where we eventually want to be,” said Rep. Donald Hubert, R-Milton.
Rep. Maida Townsend, D-South Burlington, asked if this bill will ensure “that we would not see a replay of what happened to the gentleman from Thetford.”
She referred to Macadam Mason, a man who died in 2012 after a state trooper shot him with a Taser. Mason is said to have suffered from mental health issues.
Mason’s death set off several simultaneous efforts to create a statewide policy for police training and use of Tasers, something that has not existed thus far.
The bill charges the LEAB with creating the statewide policy and mandates that all police agencies that use Tasers adopt it. It tasks the Criminal Justice Training Council with overseeing training.
The training should be in coordination with the Department of Mental Health, the bill says.
“Whatever we create with this bill is better than what we have right now,” Hubert said.
Rep. Anne Mook, D-Bennington, said she trusts Gauthier, her town’s former police chief, to create a solid policy and ensure proper training.
“I believe that his word is good,” she said.
Tasers are pistol-shaped weapons that fire two probes into a person and deliver a strong shock that causes full-body muscle contraction. The weapon can also be pressed against a person causing pain without muscle contraction.
Gilbert objected to a change in the bill that allows Tasers to be used “in response to an actively resistant subject, if there is reason to believe that using another compliance technique will result in a greater risk of injury to the officer, the subject or a third party.”
The bill also says Tasers can be used in response to an “assaultive subject when lethal force does not appear to be objectively reasonable.”
The original bill called for Tasers to be used only in situations that justify lethal force or “that will directly reduce an imminent risk of a person’s death through self-harm.”
“I’m not sure (the bill) would do anything better. It might do some things worse,” Gilbert said.
Neither an officer, a subject or a third party has to actually suffer an injury before an officer can use an electronic control device, the generic name for Tasers, the bill says.
“When it is safe to do so,” the bill says, an officer should attempt to deescalate a situation using words and should warn before shooting a Taser.
Gilbert objected to the fact that in that section, the word “shall” was changed to “should,” with respect to encouraging verbal deescalation.
Tasers should not be used as punishment or to coerce a subject, or to awaken or gain compliance from a “passively resistant” subject, the bill says.
It also asks police to think twice before using Tasers against “special populations.”
Gilbert objected to the fact that “special populations” is not defined in the bill, although it does say that group includes people with cognitive disabilities or those who are in emotional crisis.
In previous testimony, Gilbert had also asked that officers who use Tasers also use cameras, mounted on their person or the Taser. That requirement is not in the bill. Nor is his recommendation that an independent entity review Taser use.
Taser International CEO Rick Smith also told the committee in previous testimony that cameras cut down on misuse, and also help protect officers against false claims.
At the request of Rep. Linda Martin, D-Wolcott, legislative attorneys added a section that says Tasers shall not be used against animals unless necessary to deter vicious animals that threaten the safety of an officer or others.
The bill mandates three reports about Taser use and training, including an annual report to the Legislature on all incidents involving Tasers that also addresses training and adequacy of funding for mental health collaboration.
Gauthier, who is also the executive director of the Vermont Criminal Justice Training Council, assured lawmakers the policy will have teeth. In previous testimony, he stressed that Tasers are a way to avoid using lethal force.
He also pointed out that use of Tasers, at least among state police, has declined, much in the same way that pepper spray use has declined after a spike in popularity when it was first introduced.
There were 80 Tasers deployed in 2011 and 36 in 2013, according to state police statistics.
Police will receive two trainings, one initial training, which will include mental health training, and an annual refresher training, Gauthier said.
He assured legislators that training will include Vermont-specific and mental health training, in addition to training from the Taser manufacturer.
“We really do teach (Taser) use when nothing else is working,” Gauthier said.
Gauthier said he is still working out a discrepancy about how Tasers need to be tested for calibration.
As part of their drafting process for the policy, LEAB has also scheduled forums meetings in Derby and Bennington to gather public input.
