Some deputies already permitted to use the device
More than 5,000 police agencies all across the country purchased Taser stun guns for their officers last year. The Louisiana State Police was one of those agencies, and now the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office has followed suit with the limited use of the stun guns by some of its deputies.
Sgt. Dwayne LaGrange, spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office, says the department is looking at a study to determine whether or not they will train more deputies on the force to use the Tasers.
“We have limited use of Tasers at this particular time,” LaGrange said. “However, the department is conducting a test evaluation within our patrol division.”
LaGrange says the purpose of the test evaluation is to determine whether or not they will train patrol division deputies to be equipped with the Tasers.
Louisiana State Troopers have already received their training to use the stun guns.
Sgt. Markus Smith, spokesman for the LST, says that although Tasers help keep the troopers safe, not everyone on the force has them.
“The Tasers are issued after an eight-hour certification course to only certain state troopers that have to do patrols,” Smith said. “We do keep records and have a reporting system in place to determine who is deploying a Taser, under what circumstances and when it occurred.”
Smith says the use of the Taser allows the troopers to neutralize a threat from someone without applying lethal force.
“A method of last resort is to use lethal force on someone who’s resistant to arrest,” he said. “The purpose of using the Tasers is to help reduce the amount of force used.”
Smith says this method of confrontation protects everyone involved.
“Pepper spray is a method that generally doesn’t work as well as a Taser,” he said. “In fact, some people are resistant to the spray and it has no affect on them at all.”
Smith says that when they are forced to use pepper spray, they have to get closer to the person and it puts the trooper at a greater risk of getting hurt during an incident.
“We only Taser aggressive individuals,” he said. “We’re trained to go center mass, the main upper portion of the chest area, but the muscles contract and the entire body tightens up.”
Smith says being shot with a Taser stun gun feels like catching a locking cramp or charlie horse all over the entire body.
“In training class, we Taser each other,” he said. “When we do this to each other, we develop a level of respect and understanding of the equipment we’ll be using on someone else.”
Smith says the troopers have to have an idea of what a person hit with a Taser is experiencing.
“There’s no compliance or rules on the number of times we can Taser someone.”
Smith says they can Taser someone as many times as is necessary for the person to stop resisting arrest.
“Once is usually enough – it’s not a pleasant feeling,” he said. “There may have been some incidents where we’ve had to do it twice, but not more than that.”
Smith says that usually after one hit with a Taser, the person complies with what they’re asked to do.
Amnesty International, a human rights organization, is concerned about both deaths following the use of Tasers and reports of excessive use of force involving Tasers.
More than 353 deaths were associated with the use of Tasers since 2004, according to Amnesty International statistics. The human rights organization is currently looking at stronger regulations to curb the use of the devices by law enforcement officials.
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