The Eugene Police Department will expand its Taser program as soon as it can afford to outfit more officers with the stun guns, Police Captain Steve Swenson said at a press conference Monday.
Fifteen months and 30 tasings after EPD’s Taser pilot project began, Eugene police officials say the trial period offers convincing results for expanding the program and eventually arming every patrol officer with a Taser.
“Having a Taser available to you is one more option,” Swenson said. “Having one more option available to the officers and to the community is a good thing.”
EPD defines a Taser incident as a situation in which the threat of Taser use or actual Taser deployment occurs. Out of 134 Taser incidents, there were 30 incidents of actual tasing during the past 15 months.
According to Eugene Taser guidelines, “the Taser is considered a less lethal device which is intended to temporarily incapacitate” a violent or potentially violent individual. Swenson said that in six of the Taser incidents that occurred in the past 15 months, deadly force would have been justified.
Swenson called it a “reasonable conclusion” to say that EPD Taser use has saved lives.
When a Taser gun deploys, barbed darts with one quarter-inch long probes discharge into the suspect and deliver an electric current. City guidelines require the current to be active for no more than 15 seconds.
The use of Tasers in the past months has been appropriate and led to decreased injuries in suspects and officers, Swenson said.
Three complaints against EPD for Taser use occurred this year, spawning internal affairs investigations. Two of those cases were judged justified Taser uses.
The one case that remains open is that of Ian Van Ornum, a University freshman last year who police tased during his arrest at a May 2008 rally in downtown Eugene.
Swenson said the department will learn from any mistakes it has made in its trial project.
“Not looking at any case in particular, we like to look ahead at what we may be avoiding in the future and not reflect on what could have been in years past,” he said.
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