HPD buys Tasers
for permanent
deployment

The Police Department
is pleased after testing
the electric stun guns

The Honolulu Police Department has ordered 230 high-voltage stun guns to equip its officers with nonlethal weapons permanently.

Taser stun gun

A few HPD officers tried out the weapons during a pilot project to test their effectiveness last year, and Police Chief Boisse Correa said they were good enough to use them on a permanent basis.

"We liked what we saw. Right now, it's an aid that's needed," Correa said. "We've shot people with (nonlethal) bean bags and it didn't stop them. But no one is immune to Tasers."

The department has ordered Taser X26 models from Taser International to replace 100 or so older units that were used during the pilot project.

The Taser fires two hooklike probes attached with monofilament lines. The gun delivers a 50,000-volt charge through the lines for about 5 to 10 seconds, shutting down the central nervous system. During the pilot project, Chinatown area officers discharged their Tasers at least 40 times.

During the trial period, Correa said HPD allowed officers to use Tasers in "passive-aggressive" situations, including subduing a person who's resisting arrest.

Any officer using the new weapons will receive training because of new department rules guiding their use. Now, officers will be able to use their Tasers only to prevent suspects from harming themselves, police or members of the public.

"Let's say the person is challenging officers to a fight, or lunging with a knife and attacking people, that would be a situation to use the Taser," Correa said. "It will no longer be used to effect arrest if the person is just being uncooperative."

Officers will not be allowed to use the "drive stun" function of the Taser, which allows an officer to shock a suspect without firing its probes by holding the weapon against clothing or skin.

"That sort of pain compliance will be outlawed unless the officer is fighting for his or her survival," Correa said. Officers also will be restricted as to whom they can stun. Correa said officers will not be allowed to use Tasers on "juveniles, pregnant women, the elderly, and the mentally challenged."

The Taser project was at first questioned by officials from the American Civil Liberties Union, who were concerned about 44 deaths linked to Taser use nationally. Last September, ACLU officials wrote a letter to Correa, recommending that HPD:

"We applaud HPD's efforts to limit the use of Taser guns," Perrin said. "We respect the need for police to use Tasers in a safe manner."

Taser International announced in a press release yesterday that HPD's purchase was part of $1 million in new and follow-up orders nationwide, including those from the Calgary Police Service in Alberta, Canada, and the Houston Police Department.

Earlier this year, the Maui Police Department expanded its Taser use by purchasing 35 more guns, adding to the 24 guns it used during a trial period last year. MPD officials said they were planning on asking the county to buy 165 more Taser guns so they could assign them to patrol and special duty officers.

Correa said he wanted to arm every officer with a Taser, but budget restraints will limit their distribution to 230 of the department's 2,000 officers.

"We haven't decided if we're going to give them to sergeants or senior officers or maybe even make it a volunteer basis," he said.