At their Nov. 29 meeting, council members were scheduled to vote on recommendations from independent police auditor Barbara Attard to have written guidelines for Taser use, which was part of her mid-year report to the council. In the report, Attard asked for more access to homicide reports, but reported that citizen-initiated complaints in 2005 decreased as compared to the same time in 2004. There were 189 complaints last year and 166 this year, according to her report.

Attard wanted written guidelines in the police department's duty manual to include limiting the use of Tasers on children, seniors and pregnant women. Attard said she was pleased with police Chief Rob Davis' announcement that the department's new guidelines, which meet or exceed Attard's recommendations, have just been issued. The announcement from the police department came shortly before the city council meeting started.

"This ensures to the community and the city council that we have a policy in place," Attard said.

Davis said the new guidelines were part of the department's constant review and study of the weapon. He added that the police department has been monitoring its own use of the stun gun since April 2004, when every officer was issued a Taser. Davis said that no Taser has been used on pregnant women, the elderly or children under 14. Additionally, he said, of the close to 423,000 contacts between officers and citizens last year, Tasers were only used 174 times. Currently, every officer receives four hours of instruction and is required to file a report after each use.

"I'm highly concerned with how Tasers are used," Davis said.

Police recently used a Taser on a man in the Rose Garden suspected of robbing a guest at a hotel Nov. 24, according to a police report. Police later determined that the man was not criminally involved.

The police chief said he agreed with Attard about having written guidelines, but did not agree with where the guidelines should be located. Attard said they should be in the duty manual, but Davis said policies in the duty manual are kept intentionally short and concise. More involved discussions about how and when to use this weapon should occur during training, he said.

Council members noted that since Davis and Attard already agree on many points, they asked them to work together to resolve their minor differences and to return in January when the council will take up this issue again. Also, because the new guidelines were submitted just hours before the meeting, council members said they did not have time to fully review them.

District 4 Councilman Chuck Reed wanted to know "what works for the line officers so they know what we expect of them."

While three community members called for a moratorium on Taser use, none of the council members took that position. District 6 Councilman Ken Yeager called the Taser a good and beneficial weapon to have.

District 10 Councilwoman Nancy Pyle agreed.

"We need to give our police officers the tools to protect our community," she said after the meeting.