By Janice Crompton
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
WASHINGTON, Pa. — As more neighboring police departments turn to Tasers, the Washington Police Department announced recently it, too, will begin using the electronic stun guns even though some national rights groups are advocating a ban on the device.
The department received seven Tasers at a cost of about $800 each from the union representing Washington police officers, the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 95. The department had for the past several years been requesting Tasers, but the financially strapped city had no luck with state or federal grants.
The department’s 30 officers will be required to take certified training classes in the use of Tasers before they can carry them, Chief John Haddad said.
Officers in the Mon Valley, North Franklin and Peters use Tasers.
The Arizona-based company that makes the devices, TASER International, offers training courses covering everything from use of force to decision making and medical issues. Chief Haddad said one officer from the department is undergoing the company’s training courses to become an instructor. He will then teach the course to other officers.
Chief Haddad said seven Tasers should be sufficient for officers on active patrol, but more may be added if necessary.
Usually, police are required to be exposed to the effects of the Taser before they can be certified to use it. In Peters this year, a 64-year-old councilman underwent two shocks to understand how Tasers work before council approved them for the police department.
Chief Haddad said whether that will be a requirement depends on the instructor, along with other policy changes that may be implemented to the department’s existing stun gun guidelines.
“We’ll tweak our policy if needed,” the chief said.
City Councilwoman Virginia Ullom said that although the city didn’t purchase the Tasers, it would oversee their implementation. She said it’s too soon to determine if policies would need to be changed.
“Council will be involved,” she said. “All we know now is we’re getting them.”
Washington Mayor Kenneth Westcott said the city would ensure that the officers receive proper training and that he expects police injuries to be reduced by about 50 percent, saving the city thousands of dollars.
He said that statistics have shown that officer and suspect injuries are reduced after the implementation of Tasers, data that’s documented by police department injury reports and reduced workers compensation claims throughout the country.
“I’d rather see them do that than get into a wrestling match and get injured,” he said of officers using Tasers.
Ms. Ullom said council expressed concern about liability issues, and the mayor said he believed sensitivity training would be an important element.
The devices have come under fire from human rights organizations and attract negative attention usually when they are used on the very old or very young, when they are used on people who are handcuffed or otherwise restrained, and when they are used to subdue passive resistors.
Tasers work by discharging two darts tethered by wires up to 25 feet long that deliver a paralyzing electrical charge that can immobilize a person for five to eight seconds.
The model that Washington police will be using, the X26, packs a 50,000-volt charge, but normally delivers a 1,200-volt pulse when the darts strike a person.
There has been a recent surge in demands that the devices be banned after the Associated Press reported late last month that a committee of the United Nations found that Tasers could be a form of torture, and after reports that six people in the U.S. and Canada died within one week last month after being “tasered.”
Most of the deaths associated with the use of Tasers involve people with heart conditions or who have been using drugs such as cocaine or methamphetamine, but the issue over whether Tasers have directly caused any deaths is medically unresolved.
Last month, two North Braddock police officers escaped criminal charges after allegedly tasering a man asleep in his home, and a federal lawsuit filed last month alleges that Monroeville police used excessive force when repeatedly shooting a man with a Taser gun.
Mt. Lebanon settled a federal lawsuit for $100,000 earlier this year that was brought by a pizza shop owner who was taken to the hospital after he was tasered during a traffic stop in 2005.
Calls for a moratorium on the use of Tasers in Pittsburgh arose in 2005 after police used the weapon on a war protester outside a military recruiting station. Organizers of the protest accused police of being “trigger-happy.”
Debate also was sparked recently when a video was viewed more than 1.1 million times at the Web site YouTube, showing a college student being forced to the ground then tasered by what appeared to be overzealous security officers during a campus forum featuring Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts.
Those are the kind of incidents that give a bad name to an otherwise safe and useful device, said Jon Ridge, Washington County assistant chief probation officer.
A certified instructor who works with Taser-armed police departments such as Peters, Mr. Ridge said officers need to use “very cautious judgment” and certain guidelines when implementing the Taser.
When used correctly, it can save serious injury and even lives.
“If you talk to people who use Tasers, they will tell you the Taser is a pretty effective tool,” he said.
Peters Police Chief Harry Fruecht said the Taser is “the best alternative” he’s come across in years.
The Taser is favored over pepper spray or batons because it’s a safer and more effective method to subdue a suspect, Mr. Ridge said. The company cites the device as a safer use-of-force alternative than other methods.
Part of the accountability measures instituted by the company include the development of an on-board computer system that records a set of data each time the trigger is pulled.
Training in Taser use is consistent because of company guidelines and protocol, and because trainers network regularly, Mr. Ridge said.
The county owns four Taser guns for juvenile and adult probation officers, although none have been fired, Mr. Ridge said.
Usually, the red laser dot that appears before a charge is administered is enough to discourage combative behavior, he said.
It’s also a valuable alternative to restrain mentally ill suspects who are armed, or those high on drugs, who might otherwise be shot because police have no other option.
“The tool itself is fantastic,” Mr. Ridge said.
Copyright 2007 The Pittsburgh Post Gazette