21-38 Use of Flashlights to Communicate between Control and Floor Officers.pdf

DONNY YOUNGBLOOD 1350 Norris Road, Bakersfield, California 93308-2231 Sheriff-Coroner Telephone (661) 391-7500 TRAINING BULLETIN ISSUE: 21-38 DATE: October 12, 2021 Use of Flashlights to Communicate between Control and Floor Officers It has long been a common practice in the Detentions Bureau for staff to use flashlights for informal communications between control officers and floor officers at the Pre-Trial and Justice Facilities. Most commonly, this communication takes the form of a floor officer signaling to the control officer to open the door of a particular cell the deputy is standing in front of. While such communication is not prohibited, staff need to take into several considerations before relying on signals via flashlight between control and floor officers. These considerations include, but are not limited to, the following: • Flashlight signals are generally not appropriate for critical or emergency incidents (e.g., medical priority, response to a code red or code yellow, etc.).