Police officers get electric Taser guns

GLENDALE — When Glendale Police Officers Pat Richardson and Robert Masucci first joined the department about 27 years ago, 9-1-1 hadn’t yet reached California, radios weren’t portable and physical combat was the go-to method of subduing a suspect.

Since then, technology has bounded far beyond brute force, yielding batons, lighter guns and pepper spray. And in time for this summer, the department has joined a growing list of cities whose police are equipped with the latest advancement — the Taser gun.

All Glendale Police patrol officers have now been trained in using a weapon that can deliver up to 50,000 volts of electricity to its target for up to five seconds at a time, Glendale Police Officer John Balian said.

The result is a nonlethal incapacitation of the suspect as the volts of electricity essentially cause the body to lock up and drop to the ground.

Volts from the Taser X26 can be delivered at point-blank contact as the officer presses the barrel up against the suspect at a lower voltage on a stun setting, or it can be fired from up to 35 feet away at full effect, according to the Taser company.

A compressed-nitrogen cartridge deploys two small barbed probes attached to insulated conductive wires from the gun, which is equipped with a laser. Each barb can penetrate up to one inch of clothing and enter the skin. The five-second pulse of electricity that is delivered on impact can be restarted while it’s attached to the suspect every time the officer pulls the gun’s trigger, Balian said.

The mere threat of such an affliction has already had a powerful deterrent effect on potentially violent suspects in the field since patrol officers started carrying the weapons more than a month ago, Masucci said.

So far, officers have only had to stun a handful of suspects, he said.

“Almost always, when they see that laser light on them and we tell them what will happen if we fire, they calm down,” he said.

The result is less physical involvement between police officers and suspects, which benefits everyone, Richardson said.

“It’s pretty impressive,” he said.

But those benefits haven’t been enough to quell some of the controversy that has come with the Taser’s introduction to police forces across the nation.

In January, a UCLA student who was reportedly stunned with a Taser gun used by campus police filed a lawsuit alleging civil rights violations and police brutality. The lawsuit claims he was stunned with a Taser multiple times after he refused to show his identity card to a security guard.

Simi Valley authorities are still investigating the death of a Simi Valley man in May who was shot with a Taser gun during a confrontation with police.

The man stopped breathing shortly after the shock and police handcuffed him. His cause of death is still under investigation.

Also last month, the Los Angeles Police Commission approved a test program outfitting 55 Taser guns with small cameras after they were advised the footage could prove useful in case of litigation.

Even so, Glendale Police officers said the effects of an electrical shock are far less abusive than the impact of a baton or, ultimately, a gunshot.

“A baton hurts a lot more and there’s more damage that can be sustained to your body,” Balian said. “And it’s better than lethal.”

As in the use of pepper spray, anyone shocked with a Taser gun is automatically transported to a hospital for evaluation, Richardson said. Nurses also remove any remaining barbs, he added.

While the officers concede there may be some apprehension over the new weapons, it is mostly based out of a common fear of electricity, one that should subside as the city gets used to seeing the guns strapped around the thighs of the department’s patrol officers.

“People always fear change just because of its newness,” Masucci said. “It’s just nice to have something else to use.”