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Benton police receive grant for Tasers |
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Tuesday, 28 July 2009 |
Benton Police Department has been awarded a Recovery Act Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant that secures funding to purchase Tasers for every officers in the Department.
The grant from the U.S. Department of Justice is for $64,627 and it allows the Benton Police Department to become the first agency of its size in the state to have the ability to equip every officer with a Taser.
Acknowledgement of the grant was made Monday night in a City Council meeting in which the aldermen approved an ordinance to adjust the 2009 budget to include accepting the grant award.
Chief Kirk Lane told the council that the grant will allow the department to purchase 53 X-26 model Tasers with holsters and cartridges. The Tasers also will be equipped with cameras on every unit that record every time one is deployed.
Each Taser has its own unique serial number that will be assigned to a specific officer to add to the accountability of its use, he said.
“Each officer will undergo specified Taser training,” Lane said.
The Benton department has been using a limited number of Tasers since 2006.
“We have established policies and procedures in place for their use which every officer has to follow,” Lt. Kevin Russell noted in a prepared statement about the grant.
In the council meeting, Lane pointed out that since the Tasers were introduced to the department, on-the-job injuries have been reduced drastically, resulting in only one officer injured since 2006.
“And that officer didn’t have a Taser,” Lane said.
The department plans to order the Tasers immediately.
“We hope to have officers equipped with them within the next few weeks,” Lane said.
The chief noted that he has applied for 14 grants and received three for the department. “If we had gotten all of them, it would have amounted to a million dollars,” he said.
All of the aldermen voted to accept the Taser grant.
A Taser is reported to be an electroshock weapon that uses electrical current to disrupt voluntary control of muscles. Its manufacturer, Taser International, calls the effects “neuromuscular incapacitation.”
Someone struck by a Taser reportedly experiences stimulation of his or her sensory nerves and motor nerves, resulting in strong involuntary muscle contractions. Tasers do not rely only on pain compliance, except when used in a specific mode, and are thus preferred by some law enforcement over non-Taser stun guns and other electronic control weapons.
Tasers reportedly were introduced as less lethal weapons to be used by police to subdue fleeing, belligerent, or potentially dangerous suspects, often when what they consider to be a more lethal weapon otherwise would have been used.
The use of Tasers has become controversial following instances of Taser use that have resulted in serious injury and death.
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