http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/04/16/MNK81CVF03.DTL
(04-15) 18:47 PDT OAKLAND -- The BART Police Department stripped its officers of Tasers on Thursday, days after a sergeant fired the electric darts of his stun gun at a 13-year-old boy fleeing from police in Richmond on his bicycle, sources told The Chronicle.
BART officials, who said officers would be retrained to use the devices, attributed the decision to the Richmond incident as well as a recent federal court ruling that narrowed the circumstances under which police can use Tasers.
The officials said they could not comment on the Richmond case, citing privacy laws that apply to internal investigations. Interim Police Chief Dash Butler said only that the incident accelerated plans that were already in progress to retrain officers and update policies on the proper use of Tasers, which BART police began using in December 2008.
Sources familiar with the matter, however, told The Chronicle that a veteran sergeant in a moving patrol car fired his Taser several days ago at the 13-year-old boy, who was fleeing from an altercation at BART's Richmond Station on a bicycle.
The darts missed the boy, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/04/16/MNK81CVF03.DTL#ixzz0lH2mN4hA
