Police will carry
Tasers on patrol

By Ann Petersen

Following completion of electroshock weapons training April 22, Haines policemen on patrol will be carrying the weapons commonly called “Tasers.”

Tasers shoot tethered barbs into the skin of a person from up to 25 feet away, discharging 50,000 volts. After charge loss to air and clothing, about 1,200 volts enter a person at a very low current, according to officer Cassandra McEwan.

Tasers will be used on unarmed, aggressive suspects. If a suspect is being aggressive and has a lethal weapon, officers will use a gun, she said. Police chief Gary Lowe said Tasers are appropriately used after a suspect verbally resists police but before physical resistance.

The department has had a Taser for years, but only one officer was certified to use it.  Now that all officers are trained and an additional weapon has been acquired, all officers on partrol will carry one.

Haines was given the stun guns equipped with cameras for free by the manufacturer. Taser International, Inc. is interested in the effects of the Taser on bears, and is seeking video from the Taser should an officer deem it necessary to deploy the weapon on a bear.

Police describe Tasers as “less than lethal weapons.” Current and voltage levels are pre-set and cannot be adjusted.

As part of the training, officers were required to be shot with the weapon. According to McEwan, “You don’t feel the probes go in, but then you feel total lock-up of all muscles, legs, arms, upper torso, you can’t move your head. On a one-to-ten scale of pain, it’s about a four.” Paralysis and pain last about five seconds, she said.

Jerry Erny, a resident who worked as a policeman 30 years with the Alameda, Calif. police force, said his department used Tasers to subdue suspects without seriously injuring them. “There is a force thermometer that police use… If you have to go from baton to gun to gain compliance, it’s better if the officer can go from baton to taser to gun,” he said.

Erny said that in his personal view, the drawback to the Taser is a pragmatic one. “How much can our cops carry? That’s a lot of gear, people can take (a weapon) off you. Now (an officer) has to protect a firearm and a Taser,” he said.

Erny said his overall view of the Taser is positive. “Imagine going into a house where somebody’s drunk or on drugs. If you can take them down without anyone getting hurt, that’s a good thing.”

But the Taser also has its critics. According to Amnesty International, more than 300 people have died after being shot by it. The American Civil Liberties Union has called for restrictions on police use of the weapon in a report entitled “Stun Gun Fallacy: How the Lack of Taser Regulation Endangers Lives.”

In 2007 in Canada, controversy erupted over the use of the weapons after a video showed an unarmed man die after being shot by one in an airport. The incident and others have led to a revised policy of use of the weapons by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which restricts their use to when there is an imminent threat, not just an actively resistant suspect.

After March laboratory tests showed five out of 52 tasers released a non-standard voltage or current, use of Tasers was discontinued in Quebec until further testing.

A 2007 study by emergency medicine specialists of 1,000 Taser incidents in six different police forces concluded that the weapons had a low rate of serious injury. In the study, 99.7 percent of suspects shot by a Taser had no injuries or mild injuries such as cuts and bruises from falling. One suspect, however, died two days after being shot by it.

According to Science Daily News, William Bozeman, the lead author of the study, said, “The Taser is a weapon and it can clearly cause injuries and even deaths in some cases…The question is how likely is it to cause a significant injury and whether that risk of injury outweighs the benefits it brings.”