Publication Date: Friday, July 16, 2004
Police consider purchasing tasers
Police consider purchasing tasers
(July 16, 2004) Say equipment will create safer conditions for officers, suspects
by Bill D'Agostino
The Palo Alto Police Department is considering purchasing tasers in an effort to reduce injuries to officers and suspects, Police Chief Lynne Johnson reported this week.
"It would be used to safely subdue a person who wasn't complying with directions from an officer," Johnson said.
The taser guns would shoot a dart that would inject 50,000 volts and 5 watts into the suspect's central nervous system, causing muscles to contract and the suspect to be paralyzed for around 15 seconds, Johnson said. The dart would have a range of about 21 feet.
They would "probably" not be used on pregnant women, but are believed to be safe with people with pacemakers and heart conditions, she added.
Johnson hopes to purchase the tasers for all patrol officers this year. At $700 to $800 each, the purchase would cost the department more than $80,000 total, she said. She was hoping to not take the money from the city's funds, but rather from grants or another "alternative funding sources."
The police will meet with the city's Human Relations Department in September to discuss the possible purchases. The City Council will also review the department's policy on their use. The police were also planning to have a demonstration.
Officers would still carry batons and guns, but might cease carrying mace if the tasers were purchased..
They're not like the stun-guns that police offices used against Rodney King, Johnson noted. More than 1,700 agencies in the nation have purchased them, she added.
In January, San Jose's police department purchased tasers for all of their patrol officers after a Vietnamese mother was shot and killed by an officer after she threatened him with a vegetable peeler. A Mercury News investigation last month found that officers were shooting the tasers at a rate of once every other day, causing some critics to worry the department was using them too much.
San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis told Johnson that the tasers probably saved the life of one suspect, who police would have had to kill if not for the recent purchase.
Palo Alto police had one officer and three suspects injured in 2003 in situations that would have likely called for tasers. In 2002, seven suspects and three officers were injured in similar situations.
"Those injuries would have been prevented" if tasers had been available, Johnson argued.
Staff writer Bill D'Agostino can be e-mailed at bdagostino@paweekly.com
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