SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento Police officials announced its new use-of-force policy Tuesday, a promise that was made after officers shot and killed an unarmed 22-year-old Stephon Clark in his grandmother's backyard.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra recommended 49 changes to Sacramento Police Department's policies that would better define and explain the requirement that force be used only when necessary.
“SPD could also modify their use-of-force training to place greater emphasis on teaching officers to have a guardian mindset," Becerra said. "Meaning that officers emphasize communication over commands, and cooperation over compliance."
ABC10 sat down with Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn to get his response to Becerra’s suggested changes when it comes to use of force.
"In just the last year, every one of our officers in now equipped with beanbag shotguns," Hahn said. "They've always had tasers for years. And everybody has pepper ball guns. Those items weren't in every officer’s hands even a year ago.
"And so, our ability to do things with less lethal [force] now compared to a couple of years ago is much different."
And not only that, Hahn says the department is preparing to roll out a new use-of-force policy.
"We're at the final stage," Hahn said. "The final step is me signing it. So, for example, we're looking at things like drones to search yards before [we] insert people—officers into that yard to search for somebody. We already have K9 dogs, and now we're looking at robots, smaller robots that we can insert into yards."
When asked about a time frame to roll out these new policies, Hahn said "probably weeks."
The new use-of-force policy comes with recommendations from the community who served on a Use-of-Force Training review committee.
"Change is hard," Hahn said. "It doesn't mean that everybody loves everything that goes on, and all the changes. But it does mean that the members of Sac PD are always interested in being the best they possibly can be."
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California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn release use of force report and 49 recommendations.