Physical contact with suspects falls over 6 months
by Stanley B. Chambers Jr.
News & Observer
DURHAM, N.C. — Durham police say six months after the police force began using TASERs that the number of times officers were involved physically with crime suspects has declined.
Physical contact with suspects has declined from an average of six to 1.5 incidents per month, according to police. Pepper spray use is down from 3.8 to 0.75 times a month on average. And use of force reports have been reduced by half.
On average, Durham officers have fired their TASERs three times a month during the six-month period.
Durham police don’t keep track of the number of times an officer points a TASER at someone without firing. About 100 of the department’s 512 sworn officers have been issued the weapon.
“The No. 1 thing is that it cuts down on injury,” said Lt. John Shelton, who oversees the department’s TASER program. “The more often a suspect and officer engage in physical confrontation, the more likely someone will get hurt.”
TASERs, which resemble handguns, produce jolts of electricity using metal prongs that attach to a person’s skin or clothing. The painful jolt is intended to immobilize suspects so officers can detain them without injury. More than 12,500 U.S. law enforcement agencies have them.
Durham police spent three years reviewing the weapon’s safety and use before buying the TASER X26 model, using about $135,000 in drug-seizure and money-forfeiture funds. The model can record video and audio of its usage.
Under Durham police policy, TASERs are appropriate for use in the same situations that pepper spray might be employed, such as during a fight.
That ranking within the “use-of-force continuum” -- the policy that determines the amount of force an officer can use in a situation -- means that TASERs are suitable for use before an officer resorts to physical force, the use of impact weapons such as a baton or the firing of a handgun.
Officers are finding that just having the weapon is a deterrent, Shelton said. He said fights have stopped when a TASER is seen in an officer’s holster.
In August, an officer used the weapon to stop a suicidal person from further stabbing herself. About a week later, another officer used a TASER to stop a woman who was holding two knives while a second officer had a handgun pointed at her.
“It’s proving to be what we knew it would be,” assistant police chief B.J. Council said.
No one has been hospitalized from a TASER jolt, Shelton said. He said the department received one citizen complaint about TASER use, but a review determined the complaint to be unsubstantiated.
The department hopes to eventually arm all patrol officers with TASERs, but that will be based on whether the department can afford it.