LR police credit Tasers with fewer uses of force

Little Rock police reported that use-of-force incidents decreased for a third straight year in 2014, a trend the department tied to a rise in officers equipped with confrontation-deterring Tasers.

Officers used force in 258 instances last year, down from 271 incidents in 2013 and 316 the year before that, according to internal data released by the department this month.

In previous years, the number of use-of-force incidents hovered above 400. Last year’s tally is about a 40 percent decrease compared with 2008 and 2009, when officers used force in 429 and 430 instances, respectively.

The department defines use of force as contact ranging from soft hand grips, the most common, to deadly force, such as firearm use. Along with pepper spray and batons, the Taser is toward the end of the use-of-force “continuum,” a progression of approved methods to subdue uncooperative suspects.

Assistant Chief Hayward Finks said the Taser’s primary effect is psychological, discouraging suspects from challenging officers and leading to fewer applications of force.

“A lot of times people see that the officer’s equipped with a Taser and they’re more compliant with the commands of the officer,” said Finks, a 27-year veteran of the department. “So we don’t have to use force at all simply because the officer’s equipped with the Taser.”

That doesn’t mean the devices have merely been props since the department began buying more of them in 2011.

There were 40 instances of officers using a Taser on suspects last year, up from 36 in 2013 and 14 each of the previous two years.

Through increased local tax funds and a federal Justice Assistance Grant, the department bought 200 Tasers

over the past three years and standardized use of the weapon. The total cost has been $449,701.90, according to financial records released by the department.

Little Rock police had just 25 Tasers assigned to supervisors and special units before 2011.

Th e plastic, handgun-shaped device can immobilize suspects up to 25 feet away. It fires two dart-like prongs that deliver 50,000 volts.

Finks said the department is buying another 100 Tasers and plans to have officers trained and equipped with the devices by the end of the year. Police plan to ultimately have every sworn officer equipped with the devices.

The department had 551 sworn officers after its most recent recruiting class graduated last month.

As use of force incidents decrease, so have officer injuries. Police reported that 26 officers were injured while subduing suspects last year, down from 32 in 2013, 43 in 2012 and 47 in 2011.

Finks said the data mirrors findings by national law enforcement groups and independent researchers that show Tasers greatly increase officer safety. Among the most-cited studies by police agencies is a 2009 report by the Police Executive Research Forum. That study determined officer injuries decreased 76 percent when Tasers were used in an arrest.

“Whatever you’re doing when that voltage hits you, the first you think is, ‘ Stop doing that,’” Finks said. “You don’t want any part of it. And that’s why I say the mere presence of that Taser is a deterrent, because people that have seen anybody that has been tased, or they’ve been tased, they don’t want any part of it.”

The safety of the device, officially referred to as a conducted electrical weapon, has been disputed by civil rights groups as its use has risen. Because Tasers cause muscles to involuntarily seize, there’s a risk of secondary injury from falling.

The U.S. Department of Justice studied claims that Tasers may cause death through cardiac disruption and determined in 2011 that the risk for such injuries was low.

In Little Rock, civilian injuries caused by officer use of force have declined in recent years, but without annual consistency. Civilian injuries dropped from 93 to 88 in 2014. That’s more than the 83 injuries reported in 2012, but data over a longer period show the number has indeed fallen.

In the three years before police began expanding Taser use, an average of 107 civilians were injured each year by officer use of force. In the three years since then, the annual average dropped to 88.

While the data suggest a change in the way Little Rock police interact with suspects, Finks echoed recent statements by Chief Kenton Buckner that community perception can be as important as department statistics.

Buckner, who was out of town for a family funeral and unavailable to comment, has often framed comments on improving police-community relations in national context, referring to civil unrest in Ferguson and New York related to deadly use of force.

Little Rock Police Department policy requires officers to warn suspects a Taser can be used on them for not cooperating. It also states that officers must “loudly announce” when a Taser is being deployed.

The Tasers are outfitted with cameras that begin recording when the weapon is fired.

“As far as perception with the community,” Finks said, “and I know across the country that is a hot topic — uses of force and excessive force used by some law enforcement — we think that the use of Tasers actually helps that image, or building that relationship [with the community]. Because even with the arm bar takedown or when we have to physically put hands on, someone looking from the outside that doesn’t have an intimate knowledge of how police work is conducted, might see something that they think is inappropriate.”

Little Rock police reported seven uses of deadly force in 2014, five of which resulted in the death of a suspect.

Officers have used pepper spray in fewer instances each of the past three years — 40 in 2014, 44 in 2013 and 102 in 2012.

The downtown division has historically led the department in uses of force, and continued in 2014. Police reported 96 use-of-force incidents in the division last year, while 86 incidents were logged in the southwest division and 73 in the northwest division.

Canine bites and baton strikes accounted for eight of the 258 use-of-force incidents last year.

One canine bite incident was classified as accidental. In August, while a police dog’s handler wasn’t home, the animal escaped his pen and bit two people.

Police began recording the use of headlocks and lateral vascular neck restraints — also known as chokeholds — in 2012. Since then, officers have used the maneuvers on 24 occasions.

Once classified under broader use of force categories, police have begun specifically noting those maneuvers and several others, such as wrist locks and shoulder pins, in recent years.

“We’re constantly seeing more scrutiny to types of force that are used by law enforcement,” Finks said, “and so things that may not have been concerning five [or] 10 years ago, in this environment, as things evolve, we have to pay closer attention to what we do, how we do it and why we do it.”

There were six excessive force complaints filed with the department last year, down from 12 in 2013 and eight in 2012.