By Dionne Walker
Gannett News Service
WEST MELBOURNE, Fla. — It was an arrest that drew double takes: A jogger — remarkably fast and stark naked — sprinted past a police car here. The officer gave chase and, unable to get the man to stop, used a stun gun to subdue the man before arresting him.
The incident was captured using a Taser Cam, a stun gun-mounted camera that’s gaining popularity among law enforcement.
At least 11 Florida police departments employ the cameras, part of a cache of police recording devices officers say is growing in importance as law enforcement tactics draw increased scrutiny.
The West Melbourne department purchased the cameras, released by Taser International Inc. in 2006, about a month ago.
Many police departments have become more sensitive to liability and the need to be ready to justify police actions, said Lorie Fridell, an associate professor of criminology at the University of South Florida in Tampa.
“Police are being held to increasingly higher standards because of the demands of the community,” she said. “There’s also been a movement in policing to produce more professionalism.”
The Taser Cam attaches to the $800 X26 Taser, West Melbourne Police Cmdr. Steve Wilkinson said.
“The dash camera only works (on) what’s going on directly in front of the police cruiser,” Wilkinson said. “If the police officer has to get out and run behind the car and use the Taser, the Taser will have video wherever the Taser is pointed.”
And that provides a bird’s-eye view of the circumstances surrounding a Taser’s deployment. In the past, dashboard cameras may have caught only the audio of someone being shocked out of view, leaving room to question officers’ actions.
“Public opinion, in a lot of cases, is not real good on the use of Tasers,” Wilkinson said. "(The Taser Cam) may tend to help show the public that the person being tased really did need to be.”
Wilkinson said officers have deployed the devices twice so far, once on June 2 to take down a 56-year-old man holding a machete at a West Melbourne home, and again Oct. 11 on 18-year-old Zak Anthony King, of Palm Bay.
A recording shows King running along a road at about 7 a.m. wearing only a pair of swimming goggles. Moments later, the clip shows Officer Kenneth Sells chasing the swift King before zapping him, causing him to tumble to the ground.
It remains unclear why King went on his naked jaunt, though police have said he was speaking incoherently and told officers that he also had unidentified “super powers.”
Policing has become an increasingly public spectacle in recent years, subject to scrutiny and criticism.
Beginning with the images of the 1991 beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles, a recent USA Today report said public surveillance of police has exploded to include virtually any passer-by with a cell phone camera.
Now police are responding.
Dashboard-mounted cameras are common across the country. Departments in some cities have considered body cameras to document suspects’ - and officers’ - actions.
And now Taser Cam is becoming popular, according to Taser spokesman Steve Tuttle. He said more than 2,400 law enforcement agencies use the Taser Cam.
It follows highly publicized incidents like the 2007 zapping of a University of Florida student, who yelled “Don’t tase me, bro!” before being shocked. Authorities later were accused of using excessive force.
“The Taser Cam recorder offers increased accountability — not just for officers but for the people they arrest,” Tuttle said in an e-mail. “Until now, it’s been the officer’s word against the suspect’s.”
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