The Los Angeles Police Department's manual on procedures runs to 636 pages and covers everything from chokeholds to the type of belts officers must wear, but it includes no specific mention of using flashlights to subdue suspects.
Nor does the department train its officers in how to wield a flashlight.
That's the weapon that an LAPD officer was videotaped using last week to strike 36-year-old Stanley Miller 11 times after a car chase.
Departments in New York, Chicago and Detroit have severely restricted use of flashlights as weapons and, in some cases, have equipped officers with smaller, lighter flashlights.
Now, LAPD Chief William J. Bratton has ordered his department to review the authorized use of flashlights to subdue suspects, saying last week's incident looked "awful, quite frankly."
Deputy Chief Michael Berkow said Tuesday that the LAPD would examine the "best practices around the country" to draw up a specific policy.
In recent years, many of the largest urban police departments have moved to prohibit the use of flashlights as weapons in most circumstances, out of concern that the heavy metal objects could cause more serious injuries than batons.
By contrast, Assistant Chief George Gascon said LAPD officers were allowed to wield a flashlight as an "impact weapon" with aggressive or combative suspects, but only when a baton was not available and only for defensive purposes.
"The flashlight is not the tool of choice," he said.
So far this year, the LAPD has recorded seven use-of-force incidents involving flashlights. In 2003, it reported 15, down from 24 in 2002.
All of those cases were considered "non-categorical use of force," meaning the blows were not administered to a suspect's head or were not likely to cause life-threatening injury, LAPD officials said. In the last three years, the officials said, there have been only a handful of "categorical use-of-force cases" -- those that could cause death.
LAPD officers are allowed to choose the kind of flashlight they use on patrol, and many opt for the large metal type that can potentially be a lethal weapon, department officials said.
A year ago, a special counsel working for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors reported that sheriff's deputies were employing their flashlights more than twice as often as their batons to strike suspects. He recommended that the Sheriff's Department halt the use of flashlights as weapons in all but exceptional circumstances, but the department has not followed the suggestion.
