The University Police Department has updated its Taser-use policy to make it more clear. Still, the Tasering of UF student Andrew Meyer would have been appropriate under the updated policy, a UPD official said Monday.
UPD spokesman Capt. Jeff Holcomb said the rewritten policy makes it clearer that UPD officers shouldn't use a Taser on students fleeing or resisting officers passively. The change comes after officers used a Taser on Meyer at a September forum with U.S. Sen. John Kerry.
He said an example of passive resistance could be students staging a sit-in at "Tigert Hall protesting cutting down trees that flying squirrels live in" and refusing officers' requests to move.
In such a case, officers could carry protestors out, and if they comply, they should not be stunned with Tasers, he said.
"But at the point when an officer goes to put a hand on you and you start resisting and pushing, then you've passed to active resistance and it is at the officer's discretion," Holcomb said.
He added that if someone is fleeing after committing a violent crime, the policy would leave it up to an officer to decide whether using a Taser is warranted.
The new policy was implemented immediately, he said.
