San Francisco Police Chief George Gascón is once again renewing his efforts to arm the city’s police officers with Tasers. This comes in the wake of two officer-involved shootings in the past week.

Last week, a man was shot and killed in the Portola district after police responded to a call of a disturbance at the home he was at.

On Tuesday, a man in a wheelchair, who was armed with a knife and allegedly stabbed an officer, was shot and wounded by police.

Gascón said he believes that if the officers involved in both shootings had had Tasers, things would have been different.

“A Taser more than likely would have ended this scenario, probably at the earlier stages, but we don’t have a Taser,” he said.

The San Francisco Police Commission voted last March against authorizing Gascón to even draft a policy on Taser use for their review.

“We’re continuing to evaluate whether we have the right tools,” Gascón said.

The makeup of the commission is different than when he first pitched the idea, with three new members since the last debate. Gascón said he hopes to bring the issue back in early February.

Click here for SF Chronicle article.

Photo Credit: By jasonesbain (Taser) [CC-BY-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

• Tag: George Gascon, officer-involved shootings, police, Police Commission, Tasers