“We have heard from our community and from protesters across the nation that enough is enough,” wrote Warren Slocum, the board’s president, in a statement posted on the county supervisor’s website. “We need to take concrete steps to address this injustice.”

In 2018, three unarmed people died after officers used Tasers on them within county limits.

By Friday evening, none of the five county supervisors could be reached for comment.

Video from a board meeting in early May, prior to George Floyd’s killing in late May in Minneapolis, shows the board approved the acquisition unanimously, and it was seen as a necessary expenditure required to replace the department’s aged, 15-year-old Tasers.

David Canepa, a supervisor for the county’s District 5, which includes South San Francisco, Daly City and San Bruno, said the expense was “a matter of common sense.”

The May vote came less than one year after county law enforcement officials revised their use-of-force policies, which included limiting the number of times a Taser can be used against a person to three and narrowing the justifications for use from “active resistance” to “causing immediate physical injury or threatening to cause physical injury.” 

The new devices are considered safer than earlier versions, limiting the amount of time the Taser operates after it hits its target to five seconds, according to board minutes.

The department rejected recommendations by the American Civil Liberties Union to ban the use of carotid restraints, or chokeholds.

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