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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- More Salt Lake City police will be carrying Tasers, but under tightened guidelines.
Until now, only a limited number of officers, such as SWAT team or gang unit members, have had Tasers.
But Assistant Chief Chris Burbank said the department plans to give them to all 140 patrol officers.
The new guidelines announced Tuesday by Mayor Rocky Anderson are stricter, but not as strict as recommended by the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International, which want Tasers used only in lieu of deadly force.
Anderson maintained the police department's current policy of deploying Tasers as an intermediate-force device, on the same level as batons, but he limited the circumstances in which the weapons are considered appropriate.
Instead of allowing officers to use Tasers on a "dangerous or violent subject" who "communicates" his or her resistance, opposition or attempt to flee, Anderson permitted officers to use the electric-shock devices when a "dangerous or violent subject aggressively resists or attempts to flee."
"I don't think it's appropriate to use a Taser because somebody is verbally expressing their opposition," Anderson said. "That gives a lot of latitude. Somebody could be lipping off to a police officer and that might be construed as verbally opposing or resisting."
Multiple officers are not to use Tasers on one individual at a time.
A second shock is not to be administered unless the subject continues to aggressively resist or attempt to flee.
Tasers may be used on violent or aggressive animals.
Dani Eyer, executive director of the Utah chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, commended the city for seriously studying Tasers and called the policy one of the country's more thoughtful and comprehensive.
But the ACLU does not endorse it.
"The weapons should only be used in life-threatening situations, given the increasing number of Taser-related deaths and lack of independent medical studies," she said.
Anderson said Tasers are not necessarily appropriate in situations meriting the use of deadly force.
"If somebody was coming at me with a gun and lethal force is justified, I'm not sure I'd be confident enough in a Taser to solely depend on that," he said.
The new policy does not allow Tasers to be used as a means of coercion or punishment.
Unless deadly force is warranted, officers cannot use Tasers on the head, neck or genitals or on pregnant women.
Every time a Taser is used, police officials are to review the case to make sure the new policy was followed. Citizens also may bring Taser cases to the Police Civilian Review Board.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
