The Associated Press
CHICAGO (AP) - Chicago police are set to use electricity instead of bullets or muscle to subdue suspects who resist arrest.
The department announced it will stock each of its 75 police sectors with a Taser stun gun. The guns shoot darts carrying 21-foot wires delivering a zap.
Officer Allen Philp volunteered to take the shock from a stun gun to demonstrate its effectiveness Tuesday. He stood with his back to a fellow officer who shot him with the stun gun. He then groaned and fell as the jolt buckled his knees.
“As soon as the darts hit me, my muscles tightened up and that was it,” Philp said at the Police Academy demonstration.
Chicago is the latest among hundreds of law-enforcement agencies to adopt the weapons. They cost about $400 each.
A one-year study by the Seattle Police Department found they were used there 106 times in 2001, mostly on suicidal people and in traffic-related incidents.
Chicago Police Superintendent Terry Hillard said the stun guns should help cut down on the 1,100 injuries the city’s officers withstood while subduing suspects who resisted arrest last year.
“No two incidents are alike,” he said. “No two offenders are alike. But no matter what the situation, officers must make sure that force is used effectively, but not excessively. That is often a very fine line to walk.”
Chicago police have shot and killed five people so far this year. In each case the department ruled officers used deadly force appropriately.