Police Light Design on Hold

Police Light Design on Hold
Police Chief William Bratton's proposal to develop a customized LAPD flashlight will be put on hold until he and the Police Commission decides whether to continue allowing officers to use flashlights as weapons, police commissioners said Tuesday.

Bratton announced Aug. 3 that he would phase out officers' two-pound metal flashlights, such as one used in a televised beating of car-theft suspect Stanley Miller six weeks earlier.

Bratton said a committee of Police Department officials would develop a flashlight especially for the LAPD -- making it the only American police agency with its own model.

On Tuesday, however, police commissioners said the LAPD should delay a new design until leaders decide how officers may use the devices. Although primarily for illumination, they may be used to strike a combative suspect in some situations, according to LAPD policy.

"In a way, we're putting the cart before the horse," commission Vice President Alan Skobin said of designing a flashlight without a policy governing its use.

"What we're doing is designing a flashlight and then a policy. What we should be doing is designing a policy on the use of a flashlight and then designing a device to conform to that policy."

So far this year, Los Angeles police have used flashlights in five serious use-of-force incidents and six less-