It is good to see one lawmaker exploring changes that could cut down on the number of fatal shootings by Vermont police agencies.

Sen. Vincent Illuzi, a Republican representing Essex and Orleans Counties, has always been a law and order type of guy—he’s also state’s attorney—so he can’t be dismissed as a bleeding heart. Last week, it was Illuzi who took the lead on the troubling issue, in a letter to the Vermont Criminal Justice Training Council.

He asked the Council to look into new technologies which would help police agencies disable potentially dangerous people without shooting them.

Since 2000, according to the Associated Press, police personnel in Vermont have been involved in 11 shootings, of which seven have been fatal. Vermont Atty. Gen. William Sorrell has ruled that all of the shootings were justifiable, but some of the deaths have left questions about whether better police procedures would have avoided a fatal result.

Those questions were particularly poignant in a case in Orange County, where state troopers fatally shot a mentally disturbed person, Joseph Fortunati, 40, during a standoff on a rural road in Corinth. Fortunati had been reported to the police by his father, who warned them that his son was mentally unstable, was armed, and was afraid of police. Police atttempted to subdue him by firing bean bags, but the incident ended when Fortunati was shot to death and his distraught father arrested on charges that were later dismissed.

In his letter to the Training Council, Sen. Illuzi took the discussion beyond the matter of police procedures into the topic of new technologies that might assist them. There are new weapons that can temporarily blind suspects, or cause intense heat, or emit incapacitating odors, he said.

"There is no reason why Vermont cannot and should not be on a par with other police agencies regarding the deployment and use of these technologies as appropriate," he said in his letter to the Training Council.

Certainly, Vermont law enforcement officials must be able to protect themselves and the public, even by using lethal force when no other options are available. But if technology or different training can provide those other options, police will undoubtedly welcome them. We thank Sen. Illuzi for his initiative.