ORLANDO, Florida — Police in the Florida city where George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin have backed off a plan to explicitly ban neighborhood watch volunteers from carrying guns while on duty.

Earlier this month, police in Sanford, Florida, announced new rules on how civilian patrols can operate in an attempt to revive the program’s reputation.

Sanford was thrust into the national spotlight last year when Zimmerman, a former neighborhood watch captain, gunned down Martin, an unarmed black teenager. Prosecutors accused Zimmerman of chasing down and killing Martin, but a jury acquitted him in July of murder.

Sanford Police Chief Cecil Smith refused repeated requests to explaining the decision the reversal of the plan.

Smith instead introduced new rules and a new handbook for the town’s neighborhood watch program at a community meeting this week.

Last week, the department had said the new rules would state that residents acting under the authority of neighborhood watch may not carry a firearm or pursue someone they deem suspicious. The Orlando Sentinel newspaper reported the ban upset gun advocates in the area.