LR board votes to spend $ 79,080 for police Tasers
The Little Rock Board of Directors on Tuesday approved a purchase of 31 Tasers for the Police Department, which is replacing broken Tasers and equipping newly hired officers with the electroshock weapon.
The Tasers will cost the department $ 79,080.76, according to city filings. The weapons are manufactured by Axon, the company formerly known as Taser International. City directors, without discussion, unanimously approved an ordinance authorizing the purchase and an emergency clause that allows the city to immediately buy the devices.
Police Chief Kenton Buckner said the department will continue to invest in Tasers as a less- than- lethal alternative to firearms. Eighteen officers who graduate from recruit school Friday will be equipped with the weapon, as will the next class of recruits that graduates in six months.
Buckner has repeatedly said Tasers, along with de- escalation training that stresses restraint and communication, have helped reduce use- offorce incidents in recent years.
“The Taser is a kind of intermediate tool that we have that helps us during confrontations,” Buckner said.
City Manager Bruce Moore recommended approval of the ordinance, required so that the city can dispense with the normal bid process. Axon is the sole manufacturer for Tasers that meet the Police Department’s specifications, according to a memo from Moore’s office.
The Police Department has made numerous bulk purchases of Tasers since 2011, when it began standardizing use of the weapon. Before then, the department owned just 25 Tasers. Special units and supervisors were the only officers equipped with the device, and it was used infrequently.
The Taser has since become the Little Rock Police Department’s weapon of choice. Each of the department’s 517 sworn officers has been equipped with a Taser, at a cost of more than $ 626,726, according to department records. That figure includes the latest purchase.
Since 2015, officers have used the Taser more than any other weapon. Police data show there were 32 useofforce incidents involving Tasers that year. Pepper spray, which had been the mostused weapon for decades, was involved in the second- most incidents at 28.
The number of use- of- force incidents involving Tasers rose again last year. Police logged 45 encounters in which the weapon was deployed, while the number of incidents involving pepper spray decreased further to 24.
The Taser fires two electrified darts, connected by wires, that send an immobilizing 600- volt current through a person’s body. The weapon also can be pressed against the body in “drive- stun mode” to inflict localized pain without firing the projectiles.
Buckner said the weapon has deterred countless confrontations.
“The individuals who’ve been on that ride,” he said, referring to the electric shock, “if you just pull it out they automatically know the game’s over and you need to stop doing what you’re doing.”
Reports show that Little Rock police use Tasers for more than making arrests. They’ve used the weapon numerous times to stop people from harming themselves.
In February 2014, police were called to a disturbance at a liquor store and found an intoxicated and suicidal man outside. The 52- year- old man repeatedly yelled at officers to shoot him. An officer used a Taser on the man, who was then restrained and taken to a hospital without injury.
In June 2013, police negotiated with a man for 25 minutes as he held a knife to his throat. When the 60- year- old man suddenly began cutting himself, an officer directed a Taser blast to the man’s stomach, took away the knife and began applying pressure to his wounds.
Hospital personnel said police saved the man’s life.
The department also has been accused of misusing the weapon.
The family of Robert Harold Allen, 45, filed an excessiveforce lawsuit against Little Rock police over a Taser incident in 2004. Allen died of a heart attack after an officer shocked him four times. Police said Allen, who used a wheelchair, was fighting with medics who had been called to help him with a medical condition.
A federal judge dismissed the family’s lawsuit.
In May, Dedra Rudley filed an excessive- force lawsuit against the department after she was shocked by a Taser . The suit states that officer Hubert Bryant confronted Rudley outside J. A. Fair High School after she’d been in an argument with the principal in May of 2014. According to the suit, Rudley was walking away from the officer when he shocked her four times in the back.
City Attorney Tom Carpenter wrote in a response to the lawsuit that Little Rock police “thoroughly investigated” the encounter and found that Bryant “acted properly in accordance with [ Police Department] rules and regulations and general orders.”
The suit is ongoing.