The Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Dept. will pay a total of $165,000 over the next five years for 62 new Tasers to replace those issued to merit and reserve deputies.
In addition, four more Tasers for new courthouse security officers will be obtained for $10,467 with payments spread out over the same amount of time, Maj. Brandon Slate of the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department said.
Slate
Tasers use a high-voltage, low-power change of electricity to induce involuntary muscle contractions that cause temporary incapacitation, according to the National Institute of Justice.
But police agencies are urged by the manufacturer to replace units older than five years to avoid the increased risk of a failure in the field, where an officer could be seriously injured by an assailant.
Tasers are obtained for local law enforcement agencies through Axon Enterprises, Inc. of Scottsdale, Arizona. The same company also sold most of the car and body cameras used today in the Columbus area.
When asked how often deputies and corrections staff use Tasers to resolve an issue, Slate said there were likely no more than four deployments last year.
Advocates say just the sight of the yellow-gun-shaped weapon serves as a deterrent to keep those wanted by the law in line. But critics describe Tasers as a potential health hazard that lead law enforcement to rely on the weapon in unnecessary situations, instead of using other policing techniques.
Other forms of nonlethal weapons used by law enforcement include gun-like mechanisms that fire bean bags and cartridges of pepper spray.
Slate says the sheriff’s department has money earmarked for purchasing the Tasers, as well as for training deputies and courthouse security on how to use them.
Columbus Police officers began to carry Tasers in October 2008 while merit deputies with the sheriff’s department started to issue them in the first half of 2012.
While many use the words Taser and stun guns interchangeably, there is a difference. Stun guns are close proximity devices that require someone to be next to an attacker. Stun guns use a painful shock to discourage further contact.
In contrast, a Taser uses projectile prongs that attach to a target further away — up to 15 feet.
