By Bethania Palma
The San Gabriel Valley Tribune
AZUSA, Calif. — The city voted to invest about $50,000 to purchase stun gun equipment for each of its police officers.
TASERs, devices that subdue people by delivering 50,000- volt electrical shocks, have grown in popularity among law enforcement agencies. While various human rights organizations question the safety and ethics of their use, authorities said the devices are nonlethal and save lives.
Azusa police Capt. Sam Gonzalez said the technology, which is based on immobilizing combative or threatening suspects with a dart-delivered electrical current, is not new to the department.
“Just the threat of TASER has many times resulted in suspects opting to comply and surrender,” he said. “The TASER is well known in the criminal community.”
But while Azusa police before had only a handful of the devices, each of the department’s 63 patrol officers will now be assigned his own starting in the spring, he said.
The Azusa Police Department is one of many agencies that favor the device, which has only grown in popularity.
But human rights organizations have expressed doubts over the safety of the device, distributed by TASER International.
TASER International representatives could not be reached for comment.
The American Civil Liberties Union said TASER-related deaths in the U.S. and Canada now number about 300 since 1999.
“The ACLU takes the position that they should be used only as an alternative to lethal force,” said ACLU staff attorney Peter Bibring.
Bibring said medical research has produced worrisome results.
A study published in a 2006 edition of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology indicated such devices affected hearts of pigs and concluded that they may have “cardiac risks that require further investigation in humans.”
But Gonzalez said being hit with an electrical shock from a TASER produces less bodily injury than other options officers can use in threatening situations.
“A baton is more likely to leave long-lasting injury than TASER darts,” he said. “Once they remove the darts, it’s pretty much over.”
He added officers must undergo a four-hour training session before using the device.
“Our experience with the half-dozen TASERs we have in the field now has been favorable and has saved at least one person I can think of from having to have been shot,” he said. “Adding this tool to each individual officer will potentially protect and save officers and the individuals they are going to take into custody.”
Copyright 2008 San Gabriel Valley Tribune