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Another big crowd is expected at City Council tonight with recognition of Black History Month Essay winners and Greer Police Chief Dan Reynolds presenting his department's annual report.
The safest place in Greer this evening will be City Hall.
Greer Police Chief Reynolds Dan Reynolds and his staff will present the 2015 department’s report at the 6:30 p.m. council meeting.
One of the more interesting part of the 2015 report will be the “Use of Control Techniques by Type of Control”. That represents the number of incidents and techniques officers used – discharge of firearm, pointing firearm, deploying Tasers/stun guns, OC (pepper) spray and physically subduing a person.
A Fourth Circuit Federal appeals court in Virginia ruled in December the limited use of Tasers/stun guns by police officers on people evading custody who pose no safety risk to officers or public. The court’s ruling binds South Carolina with North Carolina, West Virginia, Maryland and Virginia.
The use of Tasers should be limited to situations posing “an immediate threat to the officer or a member of the public” and cannot be used in passive situations, such as when a subject disobeys a police command, stated the court.
Typically the Greer police report will include statistics on the crime rates and its density in the city, traffic accidents hot spots, number of arrests made, equipment acquisition such as in car computers, Tasers and body cameras. Confiscated items such as guns, ammunition and meth lab ingredients are detailed with the number of drug arrests.
The Greer Police Academy begins its spring 10-week session Thursday night.
Questions and comments for Reynolds and policing the community must be made in the public forum preceding the start of city council’s agenda portion of the meeting. Council may ask questions during and after the report.