Police Policy On Taser Weapon Use Detailed

By Andrew Gorosko

The Police Commission has approved a new policy and procedure statement on police officers’ use of tasers, which are computerized “electro-muscular disruption weapons,” that police would use, as needed, to neutralize combative individuals, without causing injury or death.

Police Commission members, earlier this month, approved the new taser policy and many other new and revised policies concerning police weaponry and the use of force.

A taser discharges nonlethal electrical shocks to temporarily stun a person to incapacitate them.

Unlike a typical stun gun, which must be pressed against a person to discharge an electrical shock to stun them, the taser is used from a distance.

The short-range taser looks like a bulky pistol. It contains a laser aiming-sight. When the taser’s trigger is depressed, gas pressure ejects two barbed darts from the device. The ejected darts, which are linked back to the taser by very fine wiring, strike and affix themselves to the person to be neutralized.

After the darts are linked to their human target, electrical charges are sent from the taser to the darts, electrically shocking and temporarily immobilizing the person. The taser is powered by eight AA batteries.

Police demonstrated the use of a taser at a March session of Student Police Academy, which focused on the use of force and restraint.

A taser would be useful in neutralizing a person who may be threatening others with a weapon, such as a knife. A taser, however, is not considered a primary police weapon, and would be used only when more than one police officer is present.

According to the weapon’s manufacturer, the taser uses an electrical signal to override the central nervous system and directly control the skeletal muscles, causing uncontrollable muscular contractions, which debilitate a person and cause him or her fall to the ground and assume the fetal position.

The two tasers that the police department owns would be used in conjunction with the department’s policy on the use of force. The use of force policy is based upon what constitutes a reasonable use of force under given circumstances.

Only police who have been certified to use the taser by a police department taser instructor, and who have shown proficiency in taser use, will be allowed to use a taser. Officers Michael Edis and Steve Ketchum are taser instructors.

Police would periodically be recertified in taser use to maintain their taser skills.

Officers who use the taser would render first aid or medical assistance to the person who is electrically shocked by the device, in the event that the person is injured, according to the policy.

If the darts that are ejected by the taser become lodged in the skin of the person who is the target of the weapon, that person would be transported to a hospital for dart removal. Darts would be handled as biohazard objects, if they become dislodged from the person by themselves.

Following taser use, police officers would write a “use of force” report.