Glouscester County Times
GLOUCESTER COUNTY, N.J. — Though New Jersey has become the last state in the country to authorize the use of stun guns by police, it may also have become the state where it’s most difficult for a stun gun to be used.
Presumably, a stun gun is a tool that allows a law enforcement officer to subdue a dangerous person with far less harm that a bullet could cause. Yet, the policy issued by state Attorney General Anne Milgram this week is so cumbersome that a police officer caught in a do-or-die situation might find it easier to resort to his service revolver than to run down a checklist of stun-gun rules.
According to the policy, only one officer may use a stun gun in municipalities with fewer than 25,000 people, while larger municipalities may authorize the guns’ use by up to four officers. It’s OK to use such a tool, the new state policy says, on a mentally ill person who is armed and will not surrender to police. Police are not to use a stun gun merely to gain compliance with a police order, however, or to prevent property damage, or to keep a suspect from fleeing.
How, though, is the officer responding to an emergency supposed to know whether a dangerous individual is mentally ill or not? What about an individual who is dangerous to himself or others - threatening to harm a family member, say - by means other than weaponry? It would seem stun gun use would be appropriate in some cases when an officer is not absolutely certain that an individual is armed with a gun, and requiring something less than the use of deadly force.
And, if a stun gun is used on a person who turns out to be sane, could the officer be sued for violating the guidelines?
Opponents point out that stun guns can be dangerous, even fatal, if improperly used. If that is the reason for the attorney general’s hesitancy to authorize broader use, maybe it’s better to leave New Jersey’s ban in place until lower-powered versions that can safely subdue a suspect with even less harm are developed.
Within broad guidelines, police on the scene should have the authority to determine which tool to use in an emergency. It’s fruitless to give an officer a stun gun but tie the hand that would use it.
Copyright 2009 Gloucester County Times