Detroit Police Will Use Stun Guns

DETROIT, MI — After years of debate, the Detroit Police Department is moving forward with plans to use stun guns. The Detroit Board of Police Commissioners approved a proposal by police Chief James Craig to use the guns on Thursday. Craig said stun guns may help the department save lives because they offer police officers an alternative to using firearms.

Detroit officials have been discussing the use of stun guns, or Tasers, for more than a decade, according to media reports. The city has also taken public input via hearings. Craig noted that many other police departments have used stun guns for years, while critics said the use of the weapon does sometimes result in deaths.

“We’re still in the test phase for body cams, so we wanted to get through that before making a decision on Tasers,” Craig told the Detroit News last September. “But I’m fully supportive of their use.”

There is no word from the Detroit Police Department on exactly when or how the stun guns will be deployed. The use of Tasers by police has been controversial since law enforcement agencies began using them in the late 1990s, the newspaper reported. The weapon fires two wire-guided probes that puncture a person’s clothing and skin, shooting him with 50,000 volts of electricity, temporarily incapacitating him, according to the Detroit News.

Craig said that when he was police chief in Portland, Maine, from 2009-11 people initially didn’t want cops to use Tasers, but added they were successfully deployed. He also used Tasers during his 28 year stint with the Los Angeles Police Department.

“Tasers work. It’s another tool an officer can use to stop a threat without having to use deadly force,” Craig told the Detroit News.

The Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality has opposed the use of stun guns. “The Miami area police in less than eight years used Tasers over 3,000 times, and 11 men have died, including five in the past 16 months,” Kenneth Reed, a spokesperson for the organization, told the newspaper. “When you talk about shooting 50k volts into someone’s body without knowing if they have a medical condition, that’s a dangerous and potentially deadly situation. They could die from heart failure, or fall and hit their head.”

Photo by Graeme Robertson / Staff / Getty Images News / Getty Images