Local cops increasingly turn to use of Taser devices and shotgun beanbag ammo.
By Tom Spalding, The Indianapolis Star
Indianapolis, Indiana -- From the shock of a Taser to the bruising impact of a shotgun’s beanbag, new weapons are giving area police agencies alternatives to bullets to safely resolve dangerous situations.
Just this month, three Marion County sheriff’s deputies successfully disarmed a knife-wielding Florida man outside a Northwestside hotel by firing beanbags at him.
“Without having to go with (deadly) force all the time, it’s a better way to end an incident,” said Marion County Sheriff’s Sgt. Tom Sellas, who helps train deputies on the new equipment.
Some 4,400 agencies in the United States and Canada now equip all or part of their forces with Tasers, according to the company that makes the device. It delivers a temporary, muscle-weakening jolt either directly or by a cartridge fired up to 21 feet away.
The beanbags, meanwhile, look like a small sock filled with metal pellets and pack the power of a sharply hit baseball. They can cause deep bruises.
By using these alternative weapons, public safety officials hope fewer potentially dangerous confrontations will end in long-lasting injury or death. Across the country, departments report fewer injuries to officers, as well, because of the new weapons.
But the weapons are not harmless. A 47-year-old Bedford man died of a heart attack after he was stunned at least three times while being processed into the Monroe County Jail in November. The jail now faces a lawsuit over his death.
The weapon remains a less risky choice, however, than a standard sidearm.
Larry Leaf, whose son was killed in May 2001 by a Marion County sheriff’s deputy investigating an apartment burglary, applauds the use of these alternatives to bullets.
“In addition to providing police with a ready option to handguns, it gives them an opportunity to protect life and foster a climate of compliance, instead of enforcement,” said Leaf, who started a police-reform group, the Leaf/Radford Alliance.
The Sheriff’s Department already has used its beanbag-guns three times this year, after not using them at all in 2003. Meanwhile, the Tasers have been used 15 times this year, after 14 uses for all of 2003, said Marion County Sheriff’s Capt. Phil Burton. Fifty-eight Tasers have been issued to sheriff’s personnel, he added.
The Indianapolis Police Department now has about 100 Tasers spread out among the force, which began using them last year. Taser use has steadily grown from one time each in January, February and March of 2003 to five incidents in August, 27 in November and 42 in December.
Much of that increased use, however, stems from the use of Tasers to control unruly people at the Arrestee Processing Center Downtown, rather than to avoid trouble at crime scenes.
Law enforcement officers in Marion County’s townships, as well as in suburban counties, also are using the alternative weapons:
• Lawrence police have obtained a handful of Tasers and will start training in April, said Capt. Brian Bulger.
• A dozen of the Tasers have been used by Hamilton County sheriff’s deputies since the fall, with 12 to 20 more of the devices expected to be in use by year’s end, Sheriff Doug Carter said.
• Morgan County Sheriff Robert Garner said the devices offer a welcome alternative: “If you run up against a nasty drunk or a guy high on meth, or a guy pulls a knife, you don’t want to shoot him.”
Officers, however, say the new weapons do not necessarily mean there will be a dramatic decrease in the number of shootings by regular firearms. In general, officers see the Taser as an alternative to spray repellents, not the use of deadly force when officers feel sufficiently threatened.
There have been 10 fatal police-action shootings in Marion County since 2000, including five since Christmas Day 2002, a Star analysis revealed. That included a Valentine’s Day shooting this year by IPD involving an elderly man who fought with an officer.
Last year, there were no such fatal shootings in Seattle or Miami, whose officers have widespread access to the Tasers.
Burton said Marion County Sheriff Frank Anderson’s goal is to eventually get a Taser into every deputy’s hands. IPD would like to do the same, but that may take years.
That’s what the city of Phoenix, Ariz., did -- equip every officer with a Taser. The total number of police-involved shootings fell in Phoenix from 28 in 2002 to 13 in 2003, and fatal police shootings dropped to nine from 13, said Sgt. Randy Force.
Across the country, 180 new departments a month added Taser technology, said Steve Tuttle, a spokesman for Taser International, manufacturer of the M26 Taser, which costs about $400, and a smaller and more efficient second-generation model, the $800 X26 Taser.
IPD officers use the M26, and are studying the X26, which is used by the Sheriff’s Department.
“When your option is your mouth and your gun, and nothing in between, bad things can happen,” said Springfield (Mo.) Police Maj. Steve Ijames, who created a course on beanbag and Taser use for the International Association of Chiefs of Police. “The beanbag and Taser can defuse” the situation.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.