Retired cop John Holman wanted to know what the Auburn Police Department’s policy was regarding the controversial “lateral, vascular neck restraint,” given that Auburn’s officers used the technique 14 times on people in 2014.

Also, he asked, what sort of training and retraining do Auburn’s officers get before they can use the restraint?

Claude DaCorsi wondered how the department’s use of the Taser measured up to that other jurisdictions and how many times it’s been used “is unique to Auburn.”

City Councilmembers directed questions at Police Cmdr. Steve Stocker on Monday evening upon being allowed for the first time ever to see and hear information contained in two annual reports: “The Annual Response to Resistance Summary” and the “Annual Commendations, Inquiries and Allegations of Misconduct Analysis.”

Police Chief Bob Lee said that until now the only people outside of the police department privy to such information over the years had been the town’s mayors.

Here is a sampling of data from the reports:

In 2014 Auburn Police officers responded to 89,350 computer-aided dispatch (CAD) incidents, compared to 71,512 in 2013, and completed 18,174 case reports, compared to 16,321 in 2013.

Officers made 5,189 arrests, compared to 4,414 in 2013, and booked 2,940 of those arrestees into jail, compared to 2,293 in 2013. And in 2014, they issued 9,495 infractions-citations compared to 7,718 in 2013.

According to the reports, there were 96 use of force incidents in 2014, two less than in 2013. Of the 96 occasions to use force, 85 suspects were involved. Of those 85 suspects, 35 reported injuries.

“All injuries were minor scrapes, bruises, small cuts from going to the ground, K-9 bites, and one broken bone,” Stocker said.

According to the reports, Auburn Police officers were compelled to use force once in every 931 CAD incident in 2014, once in every 189 case reports completed, once in every 54 physical arrests, and once in every 31 physical bookings. Only 11 percent of the contacts resulted in a use of force.

In 2014, 32 traffic collisions involved APD employees, and 22 of them were later determined to have been preventable on the officer’s part.

Sixty percent of the allegations that people outside of the department lodged against officers in 2014 resulted in a finding of misconduct, while 86 percent of the allegations that had come from sources within the department resulted in findings of misconduct.

In response to Holman’s questions, Stocker said his experience has shown that officers who use the lateral, vascular, neck restraint tend to use it on people who are larger than they are, often upon realizing that “hands-on or fisticuffs” with some people just won’t work.

As to the training, Stocker said, the department’s defensive tactic instructors have gone through the national certification and are eligible to teach the technique.

“And we do follow the national level of training,” Stocker said. “So, in order for officers to be able to use this technique, they first have to go through the entire initial training, which is a practical test and a written test. And then they have to re-certify every year. We keep on top of that very strictly. So if an officer goes out of certification, his sergeant is notified, and the officer is told they can’t use that technique at that point. It is a technique that we do use, and it is effective.”

Responding to DaCorsi’s Taser question, Stocker said, “I do not believe that’s unique to Auburn. When the Taser first came out, the talk was about 80 to 85 percent effective. The reality, though, is that when we are on the street, about 50-50. In the area where we live, it’s colder most of the time, so when people have a lot of clothing on, heavy clothes on, we use the Taser, and it doesn’t work a lot of times. And then at the same time, depending on the circumstances, the officer has to actually hit the person with the probe, so you have a chance of that probe missing.”

Mayor Nancy Backus said she and Lee recently agreed that the information should be made public.

“We agreed that in the era of transparency that we are going to have we are going to provide this type of information. There is nothing to hide, the good, the bad, the in-between,” Backus said.