DEL.ICIO.USUpdated: 9:11 p.m. December 03, 2008
DeKalb police chief: Tasers for 1,011 cops
County must approve plan to use confiscated drug assets to pay for stun guns
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
A gradual trend toward the use of Tasers by metro Atlanta police could dramatically surge soon with a plan to give the controversial stun guns to more than 1,000 DeKalb County police officers.
Three suburban city police departments — Sandy Springs, Marietta and Alpharetta — have issued Tasers to patrol officers in the last year or so, but the area’s largest departments have either not used the devices or limited them to special squads.
Now DeKalb County Police Chief Terrell Bolton has a plan to issue Tasers to every cop on the street. Bolton will ask county commissioners next Tuesday to use $1 million from a fund of confiscated drug assets to give Tasers to 1,011 patrol officers, detectives and sergeants.
With speedy approval and after officer training, DeKalb’s Tasers could be in wide use in six or seven months, Bolton said.
Previously, commissioners have not funded Bolton’s requests for Tasers and other equipment, but their objections focused on how to pay for them. Bolton had resisted using money confiscated from drug dealers because that revenue source won’t necessarily pay for the cartridges that serve as ammunition for Tasers or for replacement weapons.
But with the county budget tightening and recent drug seizures adding to the confiscation fund, Bolton said he changed his mind after he attended a ceremony recently naming a county park for slain DeKalb officers Eric Barker and Ricky Bryant Jr. Each officer left behind four children.
“I don’t want any more children on my watch without a father,” he said.
Bolton was not suggesting that a Taser could have prevented Barker and Bryant’s shooting deaths last January. But he said he fears an officer trying to avoid using a gun could be killed by a knife-wielding suspect who might have been stopped by a Taser.
Bolton and a special county grand jury also have argued Tasers can reduce police shootings — a potent issue in DeKalb, where officers shot to death 12 suspects in 2006.
One of the fatal 2006 cases and an additional fatal shooting in 2007 fit a scenario often described as ideal for using a Taser to save lives: a knife-wielding suspect confronting multiple officers.
Taser critics such as Georgia NAACP president Edward DuBose cite other cases in which suspects who were stunned with a Taser have died — including two Gwinnett County jail inmates and another man who scuffled with Gwinnett deputies.
DuBose said Wednesday his organization “completely” opposes Tasers.
Bolton has support for his plan from another civil rights leader, Southern Christian Leadership Conference president Charles Steele Jr.
Steele said Wednesday the devices can prevent police shootings as long as officers are properly trained.
“What the problem has been is that people who’ve been given permission to use them … say, ‘oh it’s not a real weapon to a large degree and I’m going to use this gun without thinking of the ramifications,’ ” Steele said.
He said the medical effects of the weapon must be understood. Many Taser controversies have involved official rulings that suspects who were stunned died because drug-fueled “excited delirium” stopped their overheated hearts.
Amid complaints over such cases, manufacturer Taser International in 2005 said repeated shocks could be lethal. DeKalb Chief Executive Officer Vernon Jones quickly ordered a moratorium on Tasers in DeKalb.
But Jones joined Bolton last year in calling for reconsidering the weapons.
Bolton has promised DeKalb will have a medical protocol for treating and cooling suspects who are stunned.
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Comments
By JANET JUBILEE
Feb 1, 2009 9:56 AM | Link to this
Abuse will worsen because we will always have both good and bad in every profession. I support the use of these devises only when there is a clear need to defend in TRUE SAFETY, not when someone disregards an order from a bully cop. Since bully cops are more common today than yesterday and tasers will likely be used in the future, we need to address the situations individually and PROSECUTE BAD COPS WHO use the tasers as torture devises. The next time someone dies from being tased, the cops involved should go to jail and be charged with murder.
By DKPD Vet
Dec 5, 2008 9:52 PM | Link to this
Here's the options...Taser or No Taser.
Taser -
I taser the subject, cuff him/her and we're off to the Dekalb County Jail. No lasting injuries to anyone.
No Taser -
I fight with the suspect. He/She is injured when I breaks his/her bones with an ASP Baton (collapsable steel pipe) and/or I'm injured in the fight.
End result - a supervisor is taken off the street to do paperwork on the use of force, I'm off the street while being treated for and heal from my injuries, another officer has to sit at Grady with the suspect until he or she is treated and released. Long and the short...We have 3 officers off the street that night for sure and I'm off the street for the time it takes to heal.
Or.....I fight till he/she gets the upper hand, then I shoot to stop (we're trained to shoot 3 rounds center mass in less than three seconds...and that includes the time it takes to clear your holster) because I can articulate that I believed (and the average person would believe) my life was in danger.
Which would you rather?
A tasered suspect with no lasting injury and an officer that was not hurt in a fight.
Or.... a dead suspect or seriously injured suspect, with an officer off the street for a mininum of the 3 days it takes to be investigated, see the shrink and requalify on the shooting range (go figure...I shoot someone then have to go back to the range to prove I can hit my target! Isn't that what I just did?) .
Or...3 officers taken off the road...one to babysit a hurt suspect, the responding officer in the hospital for treatment and a supervisor in the office writing the report about what happened.
Hey....either way, I'm gonna take home a Dekalb County Pay Check AND I'm going home at the end of the watch!
It's up to you and the BOC..which do you think is a better course of action for a county that is already running dangerously short police officers!
Part of my job is to jump in and get physical when that is required. Part of my job is to use deadly force when it becomes necessary. Give me a good alternative (...that will insure that I also go home to my family...) and I'll take it.
By Beryl Polonium
Dec 4, 2008 10:29 PM | Link to this
BeatCop145, I am hoping hoping you're a imposter poster.
Some points:
(1) If you're that small, you should be a woman (required affirmative action hire).
(2) If you're whining about having to kill someone that took your baton and hit you with it, you're an idiot (just be a social worker).
(3) You weren't trained in hand to hand fighting??? WTF???
By gwbush
Dec 4, 2008 6:04 PM | Link to this
Back up,Mr. Finest,
I walk in the ghetto day and night /24-7,unarmed!!
You're a plant,a set-up and a sell-out.
C.I.A.,maybe!
By One of Miami Dade Finest
Dec 4, 2008 5:52 PM | Link to this
I am too a Police Officer down here in Miami for Metro Dade my bad Miami Dade PD. We are allowed to use tasers, but I have to tell you. I have used it several times, and I can tell you if it weren't for my taser, the situation would have been alot more different. Yeah I would prefer to use the taser then my H&K .45. DeKalb being as big as it is, they need to cut down on the unjust shooting and start Tasering these animals and yes I am an African American! and yes I called them animals.
If one of these crooks got a hold of you or I they would not think twice about shooting, cutting, or killing us. I commend Chief Bolden for taking the drastic step of getting Tasers for his officer's. I can tell you one thing it will cut down the officer involved shootings. Allow you guys to do police work without worrying about killing a criminal.
By gwbush
Dec 4, 2008 5:32 PM | Link to this
Mr. BeatCop145,
There are no "nuts,druggies,nor criminals". You were Beating and Arresting,
Mothers,Fathers,Sisters,Brothers,Uncles and Aunts!
They sometimes,like your FAMILY,may struggle with addiction,depression,racial discrimination, unemployment,and treated like helots by their country!
YOU would not find it necessary to
Hurt,Kill,Beat,Bruise,or TASER people,if you were Human,and treated others Human.
Do you think to treat your wife and family such as you described?How would you feel if your Mother were TASED?
Even if they were retarded,you would treat them human,wouldn't you?
So, clearly, when scrutinized,you don't look so Human.
We know...Smell that sulfur! The Great Satan! Babylon!,Blue-eyed Pigs!
The Whole World Can't Be Wrong!....So go clean your hoofs and horns....We see through you!
By BeatCop145
Dec 4, 2008 11:02 AM | Link to this
I was a beat cop for 16 years (1992-2008) and now I am an investigator. Many times I had to physically go at it with nuts, druggies, and fight with these criminals.
I have had standoffs for hours with knife wielding subjects that could have ended in about 5 minutes if they had been tasered. Sometimes I had to use more force to subdue and /or fight it out to arrest a suspect and/or wait for backup, hoping that I wouldn't get hurt or killed by him or his buddies. Then it always looked bad if the suspect had a bruise, looked beat up, or was bleeding afterwards.
They didn't train me to fight hand to hand. Using a baton sometimes worked, I have had mine snatched during several fights, and then had to pull my weapon, hoping that I didnýt have to shoot.
I actually had a perp hit me with my baton in the summer of 1995, which gave me a heck of a painful injury. Luckily, backup arrived just before I was going to draw weapon and take it further.
When I was a beat cop I was 5'8 and 145 lbs, wearing an additional 6-10 pounds of gear and body armor. It was often difficult to manage a larger suspect or defend yourself, especially in a physical confrontation, wearing extra weight.
I donýt want anyone putting their hands on me (they donýt want to dance with me or give me a hug for trying to arrest them), trying to beat me or kill me. I donýt want to put my hands on or fight it out more than I have to lawfully arrest or control a suspect.
If I have a suspect that wants to resist or fight, or is out of control, I am going to use the taser. A few volts and the fight is over before it started pretty much.
Once they are out of it with the taser, then slap the cuffs on and the situation is now much safer for everyone. I am not hurt, the suspect is not hurt (just incapacitated briefly), and I don't have to use more hands on or baton to subdue them, which no matter how justified, it will never look good.
I am not advocating tasering someone who simply refuses to obey initially, but if the police have to resort to putting more hands on just to gain lawful control or arrest /defend themselves or others, and would have to resort to more physical force, then the taser is certainly a choice in lieu of fighting it out or wrestling around with the bad guys.
By DLink
Dec 4, 2008 10:40 AM | Link to this
Recession, foreclosures, crime, gangs, domestic violence. There are simply more people living far tighter with fewer of their needs being met. If this taser decision is being made only now, it is most likely being made out of necessity as well.
I don't like the added possibilities for abuse, but I support the decision.
DeKalb Resident.
By scoobydoo
Dec 4, 2008 10:36 AM | Link to this
That's right, ill-lecky;
notice you don't deny my charge.
Who needs a book when one can read non-fiction,sick and low-life ,Scott-live!
You need tasering!
By Intellectual1
Dec 4, 2008 10:28 AM | Link to this
Scoobydoodoo or what ever your name is, you are the reason crime is so high. Your ignorance and pure stupidty is killing our whole race. Those same pigs are the ones you will be begging to come to your rescue when one of "your boyz" points his gun at you when you stiff him his share of your illegal bounty. Go get a life and read a book!
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