Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton said Tuesday that he would prohibit officers from carrying large metal flashlights of the type used by an LAPD patrolman to club car theft suspect Stanley Miller -- a beating that was captured on videotape and broadcast internationally.
Bratton told members of the Los Angeles Police Commission that he would soon require officers to carry smaller, rubber flashlights that could not be used as weapons.
"There is a stigma attached to these flashlights that won't go away," Bratton said after he displayed a metal flashlight like the one used to hit Miller and compared it to a much smaller one measuring about 6 inches.
Tuesday's announcement was the first time in Bratton's two-year tenure that he has moved to reform police procedures in response to widespread public criticism, in this case based on the televised videotape.
Last year, he quickly advanced a preexisting plan to restrict police chases after several that were televised ended in crashes and injuries.
In deciding to ban large, club-like flashlights, the LAPD is following major metropolitan police departments including Philadelphia, Chicago, Miami and Detroit, which have banned them after highly publicized incidents involving their use as weapons.
Bratton said he will enact the ban after he receives a report now underway reviewing policies of other police departments.
The move drew a mixed response from civil rights advocates, several of whom had compared the Miller case to the 1991 beating of Rodney G. King.
John Mack, president of the Los Angeles Urban League and the chairman of a special committee investigating the Miller incident, described Bratton's announcement as a "positive step in the right direction," but said the case has revealed systemic flaws at the LAPD.
One such flaw, Mack said, was that LAPD policy does not state a minimum penalty for officers found guilty of brutality or excessive force.
Ramona Ripston, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California called the move "the right step at the right time" and said Bratton was right to ensure that flashlights are not used as instruments of force.
"The effectiveness of a law enforcement agency or police department really depends, to some extent, on how the public perceives them," Ripston said. "If the public perception is that the department misuses equipment to brutalize them, it's not going to be helpful to the department."
