COLUMBIA — Interim Police Chief Tom Dresner released a statement Thursday in response to the concerns of Columbia community groups regarding the Columbia Police Department’s use of Tasers.
At a City Council meeting on Monday evening, the Coalition to Control Tasers presented the Columbia police with a list of 52 policy guidelines from the Police Executive Research Forum. Columbia police implement half of these guidelines, according to the coalition’s analysis.
Dresner acknowledged the request that the police adopt all of the research forum's guidelines and confirmed that he had sent the Columbia police’s policy to the organization for its analysis.
The police expect a reply from the research forum by next week, and in the meantime “will not be doing anything else regarding the issue” until they know what will happen next, according to the release.