Sacramento City Council adopts 'last resort' standard for police use of deadly force

Sacramento (May 4, 2021) The Sacramento City Council voted 8-1 Tuesday to approve a proposal by Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg that embraces and refines the recent recommendation by the Sacramento Community Police Review Commission that the City go beyond state law by stating that deadly force should only be used as a “last resort.”

Mayor Steinberg proposed that the City Council adopt the “last resort” language as City policy and define it this way: “Last resort means peace officers shall use tactics and techniques that may persuade the suspect to voluntarily comply or may mitigate the need to use a higher level of force to resolve the situation safely.”

Sacramento’s new policy goes beyond SB 230 and AB 392, the recent state use-of-force reforms, by including the “last resort’ language and by saying peace officers “shall” rather than “should” use less lethal tactics and techniques before resorting to lethal force.

Mayor Steinberg said his proposal reconciles the key recommendation of the police commission with concerns from the Sacramento Police Department and others that “last resort” lacked adequate definition.

“There’s a balance here,” he said. “We’re trying to save lives.”

Councilmember Katie Valenzuela, who made the motion to pass the mayor’s proposal, also added language that gives the police commission two weeks to review the policy before it takes effect so it can make any additional recommendations for wording changes.

Please click on the button above to read the policy the Council adopted and learn about the state laws surrounding this heavily debated issue.