Boca Raton, Fl
News

AUG 29, 2001

WISI Palm Bnah

Boca Council OKs stun guns for police
City will be first in COtlllty to use electric devices to immobilize attackers
BY DAu: M. KING
HTAFF WRITER

If Capt. .James Kirk were commander of the Boca Raton Police
Department, he might be moved
to remark, "Set your TASERs on
Btun,"

But that would be redundant,
since TASE&" are, in fact, stun
guns.
And it appears Boca Raton's
law enforcement officers will be
the first in Palm Beach County to
carry the weapons that deliver
an electric shock to stun violenl
offenders.
The Boca Raton Citv Council

voted Tuesday
night to purchase 85 of the
stun guns from
DGG Taser Inc.
at a total cost
of $60,790.
Police Chief
Andr'ew Scott
said
the
TASERS will be Scott
carried by all
uniformed officers on the loree,
and wi!! also be placed in cruisers.
He said TASERs can immobilize
people from 20 to 30 reel away'

and will be used in place of a
baton, asp or pepper spray to
halt violent offenders.
With a TASER, he said, "we can
subdue a violent subject with
minimal harm."
The city is purchasing the M26
advanced model of the TASER.
"The M26 presents a safer
alternative to older versions' of
the TA.SER by providing sufficient
knockdown power to end a confrontation before it escalates to
lethal force," said Rick Smith,
presidenl
or
TASER
International.
Smith said older 'lASERs,

which delivered a blow of 5 watts
to 7 watts, often did not totally
immobilize an attacker. He
recalled
an
incident
in
Hempstead, N.Y., in 1998 in
which a baseball bat-wielding
assailant continued to swing at
ollicers despite being hit twice
with a shock from the low-power
TASER. As a result. Smith said,
one officer was hospitalizcd, and
the othcr had to retire \vith a disability.
According to Smith,
the
advanced TASER "leaves no
injuries even under extrerrw conditions."

He also said that Dr. Paul
Hendry, co-director of the
Pacemaker
Clinic
at
the
University of Ottawa, Canada,
"concluded that the advanced
TASER should pose no increase
in risk even to patients with a
pacemaker or implantable defibrillator."
Chief Scott. said local police
would take an eight-hour course
in proper use of TASERs bel'ore
being assigned to carry one.
He said the weapons "should
arrive in a couple of months."