Here, from start to finish, are the hoops through which Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion had to jump awhile back before equipping his deputies with Tasers.
"I just had to make a decision," Dion said last week. "Radical, isn't it?"
Yes – at least if you're the police chief in Portland.
On Tuesday, Portland Police Chief James Craig will head over to City Hall to lay out his plan for arming a dozen or so of his officers with Tasers – a welcome alternative to a service revolver if ever there was one – for a 90-day trial period.
Now if Portland was like other places in Maine where the Taser is currently deployed, Craig would get a "thanks for the heads-up" from the Portland City Council's three-member Public Safety Committee and be on his way.
But Portland, of course, is like no other place in Maine. Portland is a place where good ideas – and make no mistake about it, the Taser is a good idea – go to get zapped by politicians who think they know better because well, they know better.
What's more, Portland is a place where battle lines can get drawn faster than you can paint a faded crosswalk.
"I did not get elected to be shouted down in the conduct of my duties," said City Councilor Dan Skolnik, who chairs the Public Safety Committee and has in recent weeks become a major thorn (or is it an electrode?) in Craig's side. "I think the chief should let me do my job."
To which Craig replied, "I hate being micromanaged. Other equipment – rifles, high-powered handguns, bean-bag shotguns, pepper-ball systems – did not need to go before the Public Safety Committee" before they were deployed by Portland police.
So why are Tasers getting so much attention?
"Micromanagement 101," Craig replied.
It all started shortly after Craig arrived in Portland from Los Angeles in May. As one of his first orders of business, he asked for and received City Manager Joe Gray's blessing to obtain 10 to 12 Tasers either by borrowing them from the manufacturer or using federal stimulus funds to buy them outright.
But there was a catch.
Gray, while maintaining that he (and not the City Council) has final say over police department operations, told Craig to hold off until Skolnik's committee had a chance to review Craig's proposal. That review, which follows a preliminary meeting with Craig in May, is scheduled for 5 p.m. Tuesday in the council chambers at City Hall.
But going in, this much already is clear: Skolnik is far from comfortable with Tasers, which temporarily disable a subject with a non-lethal, 50,000-volt jolt of electricity and are widely deployed by other departments here in Maine and around the country.
"Personally, I am opposed to the use of these weapons," Skolnik said. "But that's not going to control the way I vote on this."
Rather, Skolnik said, he wants detailed responses from Craig on four areas of concern: officer safety, medical risks to the subject, human rights of the subject, and the cost-effectiveness of the Taser as a law enforcement tool.
"These are perfectly legitimate questions," Skolnik said. "And I'm very confident the City Council has the authority to ask these questions in advance of the department seeking grant money (to purchase the Tasers)."
Translation: If you think you're seeing sparks now, wait a couple of months.
Should Skolnik turn thumbs down on the Tasers along with one of his two fellow committee members (Councilors Kevin Donoghue and Dory Waxman), Gray has made it clear he'll take the matter to the full City Council (where no politically charged issue is safe to touch – ever).
Inevitably, as veteran Councilor Nick Mavodones Jr. noted last week, that will mean "several hours of testimony" on the pros and cons of Tasers at a time when the council clearly has better things to do.
"In my opinion, we...
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