The St. Paul Police Department is weighing new guidelines that spell out when officers can use force and they asked for the community’s feedback Friday.

The department’s draft use-of-force policy is dramatically different from the current one. Police officials said the changes are a way to formalize a cultural shift underway in recent years.

Police Chief Todd Axtell told the city council in 2016 that the department would conduct “a top-to-bottom review” of the policy. And Mayor Melvin Carter said in his inaugural speech Jan. 2 that, starting right away, he would work with the police chief to review and revise the department’s use-of-force policies.

In an interview last week, Carter said he wants to ensure the police use-of-force policy will make a distinction between officers responding to someone who is “passively resisting” versus “aggressive behavior.” He also said the department’s policy should be clear that “our expectation is that officers de-escalate when possible.”

On Friday, Carter called the draft policy “an important step forward to protect the sacred trust between community members and our police officers. … A use-of-force policy that reflects our values is critical to ensuring we can all work together to keep our neighborhoods safe and build a city that works for all of us.”

Police department officials said they spent months researching best practices and policy models from departments around the United States. Axtell and Carter recently reviewed the entire policy, and updated it to include the mayor’s input, according to the police department.

The draft policy “draws brighter lines for officers” about when they can and cannot use force, said Steve Linders, a department spokesman.

It replaces what the department calls an “outdated use-of-force continuum” with a graph that describes five levels of behavior, ranging from a suspect who is showing compliance to passive resistance to aggravated aggression. The document explains what kind of force an officer can and cannot use for each level of behavior.

For example, the draft policy says officers are not to use chemical irritant or the presence of a police dog unless someone is actively resisting or more. The graph also indicates that officers are not to use a baton or Taser unless someone is, at a minimum, aggressively resisting.

“The policy emphasizes the sanctity of life, the use of de-escalation to avoid and reduce the need to use force, and the importance of time, distance, teamwork and communication to increase the likelihood of peaceful resolutions,” Axtell said in a Friday statement. “These are things our officers already do, so it’s important that the policy reflect them and that we hold ourselves to these standards.”

The police department identified “notable updates” to the use-of-force policy as:

Providing clearer guidance to officers on interactions with people who are having a mental health crisis.

Emphasizing officers’ “duty to de-escalate when practical.”

Defining an officers’ duty to intervene if he or she observes “another officer using force that is clearly unreasonable under the circumstances.”

Expanding instances when medical professionals must be called to the scene.

Giving clearer rules about the use of Tasers.

Formally recognizing that every use-of-force case is reviewed with more reporting and supervisor oversight.

Corydon Nilsson, founder of the New North, said he hopes the police department’s request for feedback is genuine and that the department takes the public’s concerns to heart.

“While we appreciate the department’s attempt to revise their ‘use-of-force’ policy, we have not seen any behavior or shift in the culture overall that would make us believe that what is written would actually be implemented in the field,” said Nilsson, who says his St. Paul-based group serves as a police watchdog with a focus on victims who have mental illnesses. “The draft is far too open-ended and still up to the officer’s interpretation of the situation to bring any faith that things like implicit racial bias and actual de-escalation when responding to people in crisis are adequately being addressed.”

Sgt. Sean Zauhar, who works in the police department training unit, said the draft policy aligns with how they’ve already been training officers.

For instance, the draft policy requires officers to give a warning, when practical, before using any kind of force and Zauhar says they do train officers in that way. The current policy only specifies that “(w)here reasonable, some type of warning should be given by the officer prior to initiating deadly force.”

The police department is asking community members to review the draft policy online, and provide feedback through the department’s website.

Community meetings also are being planned.

The police department said it will finalize the policy after hearing from the community, and then officers will be trained in it.

ST. PAUL POLICE DEPARTMENT DRAFT USE-OF-FORCE POLICY