Tasers Helping Lynchburg Police

Lynchburg News & Advance
Published: March 18, 2008

Injuries among city police officers and suspects decreased last year, as did the number of times police had to use physical force on a suspect.

The only significant change for Lynchburg Police officers: Tasers.

Forty of the less-than-lethal weapons were given to Lynchburg officers last summer, said Capt. Brandon Zuidema.

Since then, incidents where police have had to use force to make an arrest have dropped about 65 percent.

From June to December 2006, police had to use force 133 times. That dropped to 46 for the same six-month period in 2007.

Reported injuries dropped about 58 percent, from 62 to 26, over the same time period.

“We have had a dramatic decrease in use of force and a decrease in injuries in both police and suspects,” Zuidema said. “It makes things safer for everyone.”
While those results can’t be directly attributed to the devices, Maj. Parks Snead said that is the only significant change between 2006 and 2007.

The Lynchburg Police Department applied for a $60,000 grant to equip more of its officers with Tasers and to train the police in “tactical communications.” The communications training teaches officers how to diffuse a situation with words rather than physical force.

If received, the grant would require a $20,000 match from the city’s budget.

Currently, the police department has Tasers for only 24 percent of its officers. Snead said the department wants the devices in the hands of all its 165 sworn officers.

Before 2007, the police department had a different model of Taser, the M-26, Zuidema said. Those were about the size of an officer’s sidearm and their bulkiness made it impossible for officers to carry them on their gunbelt. The department only has seven of those models.

Zuidema said those are often kept in the trunk of the patrol cars and are not always accessible to the officer when needed.

“The likelihood of having it when they need it is not good,” Zuidema said. “We didn’t see results with the M-26, not because it didn’t work, but because it was not carried.”

Then last year, 40 of the X-26 models were added, Zuidema said. These models are more compact and will fit on an officer’s belt.

The goal, Zuidema said, is to make the X-26 Tasers standard issue for all sworn officers.

“We would prefer not to put our hands on anyone to have them comply,” Snead said.

The 40 Tasers already on the streets are distributed among the three patrol divisions and divided among the shifts so most of the time there is at least one officer with a Taser on duty during each shift in each division almost every day.

The Taser uses electrical impulses to contract the muscles and create a pain response, said Staley. The impulses mimic the motor signals sent out by the brain and override them, causing the muscles to contract.

It’s one of the best tools, Zuidema said. When an officer uses pepper spray, it gets all over the suspect and the officer. The Taser only impacts the person shot with it and the effects are over almost immediately.

And people are learning what the red dot — the Taser’s laser sight — means, and that itself has changed how suspects react to the police, Zuidema said.
“People are starting to recognize that and it’s a great deterrent,” Zuidema said.