Eugene Police Department’s new Taser program is in the final steps before the testing period begins.
The department’s Use of Force Committee is in the process of drafting the policy for the project, and it is looking for public input on the devices that use electrical shocks to temporarily paralyze a human subject.
“I think Tasers are an excellent alternative to firearms,” said John Ahlen, committee member and second-year conflict and dispute resolution graduate student.
The police department is conducting a four-month-long pilot project to find the safest and most effective way of implementing Tasers as a law enforcement tool.
Members of the police department will attend six to eight hours of training guided by certified Taser instructors and assisted by members of the Defensive Tactics Instructor Team, according to Eugene Police Sergeant Kevin McCormick.
There is still some debate over whether police officers can voluntarily be shot with a Taser during the training, as some instances have resulted in officers sustaining serious injuries, including heart attacks.
The plan is to purchase the Tasers and trade them out before and after shifts, similar to the Springfield Police Department’s Taser system, McCormick said.
The Tasers are meant to be used on uncooperative and aggressive people; however, Tasers can also be used to save lives in certain situations.
Ryan Salisbury, a mentally-ill 19 year old, had a psychotic break in November 2006. When Eugene Police arrived on the scene, Salisbury turned toward the police with a knife in his hand.
“He crossed the magic 21-foot line, and they were allowed to fire upon our son,” Jeff Salisbury, Ryan’s father, said, referring to an imaginary buffer of space that police use to gauge the level of danger in a situation.
Jeff and Denise Salisbury spoke about the events of that night. Jeff Salisbury said he wishes his son would have been shot by a Taser, as it would probably have saved his son’s life.
“This is about real people. This is about life and death,” Jeff Salisbury said. “The police hold a position of trust and they need to build on that.”
A total of 10,608 reports of Taser use during a 72-month period were listed in a Taser International database. Just more than 2,450 of these reports were of Taser use on mentally-ill persons and 45 percent of those were in situations where lethal force would have been justified, according to a report conducted by the University of Minnesota Medical School and the Department of Emergency Medicine and Hennepin County Medical Center. The X26 Advanced Taser System, the model selected by the Eugene Police Department, is an “electronic control device that can immediately stop a truly aggressive, focused, combat trained attacker,” according to Taser International, maker of the X26.
The Taser is drawn from an officer’s utility belt, aimed at the “attacker” using a red laser sight and fired within the effective range of 7-25 feet away. Two “fishhook-like” probes are ejected from a Taser cartridge and pierce the skin while insulated wires deliver a 50,000-volt shock.
“The Taser system … temporarily overrides the nervous system by stimulating motor nerve tissue, taking over muscular control,” according to Taser International.
Each cartridge contains 20 to 30 small confetti-like identification tags, which are expelled when the probes are fired. These tags are imprinted with a serial number so investigating officers can collect the tags and trace them back to the Taser they were fired from.
Eugene Police join the 9,100-plus law enforcement, military and correctional agencies in the United States and abroad in 43 countries that use Taser devices. More than 184,000 Taser brand devices have been sold to law enforcement since 1998.
The use of less-lethal force, including Tasers, has been involved in a variety of complaints and deaths in recent years.
Community member Zachary Vishanoff voiced his opposition during the open forum about an incident he had with Eugene Police involving a crime he said he did not commit. Vishanoff held up a pair of black exercise pants with a 6-inch hole in the crotch where he was shot with a less-lethal weapon while standing motionless.
“Introducing new weapons to problems with the existing weapons arsenal is a way to make a problem that is bad, go from bad to worse, to add in a new controversial weapon. I think your committee would be way better off if you were reviewing the less-lethal force misuse and proper use of all the existing less than lethal weapons,” Vishanoff said.
Another Oregonian, 46-year-old Tim Grant of Medford, went into cardiac arrest and died after police shocked him twice with a Taser gun last year in Portland.
From June 2001 to March 2006, more than 150 people have died in the U.S. after being shocked by Tasers, and 61 of those deaths were in 2005, according to human rights group Amnesty International.
In most cases, deaths have continued to be attributed to factors other than the Taser, such as “excited delirium” associated with drug intoxication or violent struggle, and in 23 cases coroners have listed the use of the Taser as a cause or a contributing factor of death, according to the Amnesty International report.
The Use of Force Committee expressed concerns about creating a policy that will define active versus passive resistance, as well as other forms of less-lethal force such as the de-escalation of a situation. The policy will also detail protocol regarding pregnant women, children and crowded environments.
“We need to know how Tasers will be deployed in a crowded scenario such as a university riot or a crowded Rock N’ Rodeo night,” Committee Chair John Brown said.
In an effort to inform the public as to why and how the Eugene Police Department is including Tasers in its arsenal, the committee is planning a public information campaign. This will include invitations of neighborhood leaders to meetings and events, media exposure and a section on the police Web site for the public to see agendas and e-mail commissioners.
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