2004 Annual Report - City of Fairbanks

USE OF FORCE
Incidents which require our police officers to use physical force, beyond simply placing
handcuffs on a subject, are reviewed and tracked by the Department Administration.
Any incident involving use-of-force requires a detailed narrative description which
relates the circumstances leading up to the event, the choices and reasons for force
option(s) used, the results, and a description of follow-up care.
In 2004 the Fairbanks Police Department were required to close 1,838 cases with a
physical arrest, for an average of five persons being taken into physical custody on a
criminal charge every day! There are also numerous cases where subjects have to be
taken into physical custody for medical and psychological screening/evaluation, such
as Title 47’s, suicidal subjects, etc. Of the 1838 arrests and other detention categories
mentioned above, fifty-six (56) were considered “Use-of-Force incidents,” requiring
physical control and restraint beyond normal handcuffing.
None of these fifty-six incidents created significant injuries to the person taken into
custody. There were 6 instances of reported minor injuries, which consisted of minor
scrapes, bruises, or complaints of pain.
In 2004 the Fairbanks Police Department completed its Taser training, transitioning
from the M26 to X26 Taser. As part of this training, every commissioned officer is
required to be “tazed” themselves, so that they have a full appreciation of the Taser’s
effects. In 2004 our officers used the X26 Taser as a method of control 21 times. The
Taser was fired 15 times (shooting two barbs into the suspect’s skin) and 6 times that
were “drive stuns” where no barbs were fired. The primary benefit of the Taser is that
it can temporarily incapacitate a highly-resistive offender, allowing an officer to
handcuff and establish physical control. Prior to the issuance of Tasers, officers often
had to resort to punches, kicks, or baton-strikes while taking a resistive subject into
cusody, all of which posed a much greater chance of injury to the subject.
OC (pepper spray) was used two times during the year, the ASP expandable baton was
used once, and thirty-two subjects were brought under control using “empty-hand
techniques,” without further escalation of force.
The Department’s Use-of-Force training is conducted by certified, in-house
instructors. The Department continues to seek out, evaluate, and invest in new
technology and ideas that will create a safer working environment for the public and
for our police officers.
Page 18