New & Noteworthy...

Shocking plan: Montpelier police want Tasers

By Peter Hirschfeld Times Argus Staff
June 13, 2007

MONTPELIER – A controversial device that literally shocks subjects into submission might soon find a spot on police belts in Montpelier.

Police Chief Doug Hoyt will seek permission from city councilors tonight to spend money on Taser guns that shoot barbed hooks carrying 50,000 volts into dangerous or noncompliant subjects. The technology has won rave reviews from state law enforcement officers who call the weapons a nonlethal option for diffusing perilous confrontations. But opponents in Vermont and elsewhere say Tasers have been implicated in up to 250 deaths nationwide and that loose policies governing their use can result in cruel and unnecessary uses of force.

"The overall driving factor is that more and more officers are being injured enough to be out of work," Hoyt said Tuesday. "They're confronted with persons who are contemplating harm to others, to officers or to themselves, so we're seeing officer injuries, defendant injuries. I think we can do a better job of reducing injuries" with Tasers, he said.

Money for the five Tasers was included in the 2007 budget approved by voters in March, according to Hoyt. Councilors, however, expressed concerns over the introduction of those weapons into the municipal arsenal.

"They had some reservations, and I told them I would come back to them and explain to them in a more in-depth manner what the use of Tasers would be and why," Hoyt said.

The City Council meets tonight at 7:30 p.m. Hoyt is scheduled to address the council at 7:40 p.m.

Hoyt said Tasers fill an important gap in the "continuum of force" officers have at their discretion.

"Take for instance an officer confronted by a person with a knife," Hoyt said. "If that person is threatening the officer or threatening others, he's not going to engage in hand-to-hand skills that aren't safe for anybody involved. He's left with his service weapon. And the outcome could very well be death."

Hoyt said that other nonlethal options, such as pepper spray or batons, require officers to come into close proximity with dangerous subjects. Altercations with unarmed combatants, according to Hoyt, have in recent years resulted in injuries, including a broken leg, for his officers. Many of those incidents, he said, "could very well have been resolved with a Taser."

Members of the Vermont State Police's 16-man tactical unit have been carrying the devices for at least two years. Lt. Robert Evans, tactical unit commander and barracks commander in St. Albans, called the Taser a "great tool to have.

"We have seen very very good success ... And we've seen success because those that utilize them and have them have experience and training and good decision-making skills to use them only when it's appropriate for them to be utilized," he said.

For subjects carrying knives, pipes or baseball bats, Evans said, the Taser offers an alternative to firearms.

State police carrying the weapons undergo a daylong training course during which they learn when to use it, how to fire it and what it feels like to take a shot.

"With any type of munition or any type of weapons system you have, officers need to understand what it does to the people it's being applied to," Evans said. "It's an experience unlike any other when you get hit with one of these things and understand how overwhelming the system is."'

Police file an incident report with the Department of Public Safety after each incident of Taser use, Evans said. All of the incident reviews, according to Evans, have concluded the officer acted within the bounds of department protocol.

Hoyt said his officers would be "encouraged" to take a Taser hit themselves. A certified instructor would teach officers how to use the weapons.

Taser guns have been employed by several other municipal police departments across the state, but not without incident. Last year, the town of St. Johnsbury settled out of court with two young men who filed a civil rights claim after being shot with Tasers by municipal officers there. David Sleigh, the lawyer who negotiated the $10,000 settlement, said the technology may compel officers to use force when none is necessary.

"As you reduce the lethality of use of force, you also decrease the inhibition that would prevent the use of force at all," Sleigh said.

In the St. Johnsbury case, Sleigh said, one of his unarmed clients refused to comply with police orders to exit a vehicle.

"Obviously, if that was a gun, the cop wouldn't have shot either of these two kids," Sleigh said. "The fact that the force was not potentially as lethal as a firearm made it a lot easier for the cop to use it.

"I think there's certainly value to the tool," he said. "But there should be very strict and very explicit police policies governing when a police officer either threatens to use or uses a Taser."

The human-rights organization Amnesty International has called for a moratorium on the use of Tasers pending independent testing of the health impacts of the devices. While the organization applauds the introduction of nonlethal options to police forces, according to Josh Rubenstein, northeast regional director of Amnesty International USA, it is unconvinced that Tasers live up to their nonlethal billing.

"We have been able to document 250 Taser-related deaths in the United States in recent years," Rubenstein said. "We are not claiming that the Taser was the primary cause of death," but people with underlying heart conditions, due to either drug use or poor health, he said, can suffer sudden death as a result of severe electrical shock."In too many police departments there has not been adequate training," he said. "Too often it simply becomes used like it's a toy and it's a serious weapon."

Hoyt said he's aware of the controversy surrounding Tasers, manufactured by the Texas-based company TASER International, and that he's prepared to educate the community on why he believes they're a necessary tool in Montpelier. He'd like to have the Tasers in place by fall.

"We'll make all the information available and show them what it is," Hoyt said. "It's all about choices."