The head of the agency that certifies law enforcement officers said he expects to push for state regulation requiring re-certification on the use of Tasers because the policies of individual agencies do not seem to be enough.
One example cited by Ken Vance, executive director of the Peace Officers Standards and Training Council, was the fatal police tasing of a 24-year-old East Point man last spring.
One of the two officers who have since left the department and are now the subject of a lawsuit was not up to date on his certification on the day he used his device to “drive stun” Gregory Lewis Towns Jr., pushing the prongs into his skin.
On that day, 20 East Point police officers were not current on the annual re-certification that is required by the department’s policy, but not by state law, according to documents obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action News.
“Because of the number of complaints that we’re getting, the number of cases that we see about misuse of Tasers, I’m going to ask the POST Council if this is something that we need to look at,” Vance told Channel 2 Monday.
“We’re finding more and more cases where … they have training, but they aren’t doing it annually as is prescribed or recommended by the Taser Corp.,” Vance said. “… It gets to the point to where you see so much writing on the wall where we may not have a choice but to step in and say ‘yes, you will train every year and you’ll report that training to POST’ in order for things to be done right.”
East Point police spokesman Cliff Chandler said while department commanders assign training dates for officers, it’s up to the officer to follow through.
Records show that Weems was among 20 East Point officers who had not been re-certified since 2012.
But Vance said training sometimes isn’t enough and some law enforcement officers simply use Tasers when they shouldn’t.
Weems was placed on unpaid leave for a day in 2011 because of his threatened use of his Taser when he stopped a 71-year-old woman suspected of speeding.
According to a report on an internal investigation, the woman could not find her insurance card for a while, but when she did, she got out of her car and walked toward the police cruiser where Weems and another officer were.
The woman said Weems said he could have “tased her .. but he was afraid that someone would have videotaped him and placed the video on YouTube.”
She said Weems also said he could have shot her for continuing to walk toward the police car after he told her to stop.
Weems arrested the woman for obstruction, but she was quickly released from jail.
Last month, a lawsuit was filed against East Point, Weems and former Sgt. Howard Eberhart by Towns' family. According to documents, Weems and Eberhart activated their Tasers 14 times on April 11, at least once while Towns was sitting in a creek. The medical examiner ruled Towns' death was a homicide.
About the Author
