Earlier this year, the Chicago Police equipped every beat car with Tasers. As a result, figures released by the Independent Police Authority indicate that police officers have been putting the Tasers to good use. In the second quarter of this year, 2010, Tasers were discharged 285 times. In comparison to the first quarter of 2010, Tasers were only discharged 74 times and in the fourth quarter of 2009 they were only discharged 39 times. Very few of those Taser discharges have resulted in misconduct allegations. The department is using federal funds to purchase the Tasers. Currently, 280 Tasers are being used by sergeants and field training officers. In March of this year, the department announced that they would be buying an additional 380 Tasers to be deployed throughout the department. This additional purchase of Tasers would make it possible to equip every single beat car on the street with Tasers and most specialized units on the street. About 3,000 officers have gone through a mandatory eight hour training program to learn how to properly use the Tasers. There have been cases in which suspects have died as a result of a Taser being used on them. In the eight hour training program officers are being trained to use short, five second burst, and to try to shoot at a suspects back or below the chest.
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1 comment:
Saw something interesting. There's been an increase of about four times as many TASER discharges but there have not been four times as many allegations of misconduct related to those TASER discharges. Seems like the training may be working.
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