By RICK KRON
Leader staff writer
The use of Taser weapons by Jack-sonville police will prevent officer injuries and save the city insurance money, explained Police Chief Gary Sipes Thursday evening as he asked the city council permission to buy 20 of the weapons for the department.
“Our worker’s comp carrier has been trying to get us to use Tasers for the past five years,” Mayor Tommy Swaim said. Both he and the chief agreed that Tasers would prevent injuries by allowing officers to not get too close to combative suspects.
Tasers are electroshock weapons that use electro-muscular disruption technology to cause strong muscle contractions or disruption in a suspect.
A Taser, which looks like a futuristic pistol and is smaller than the radios police carry, fires two small dart-like electrodes connected to the main unit by a conducive wire and propelled by small nitrogen charges. The Tasers the department will use will have at least a 15-foot range.
Alderman Gary Fletcher voiced concern, “There has been a lot of controversy the past few years over the use of Tasers. Are we going to be comfortable using them?”
Sipes said he’s very comfortable with them. “They come with audio and video recorders and the weapon is more effective than pepper spray,” he said. “If youare hit with a Taser in about five seconds it’s over, but pepper spray is long lasting and many times if you try to wash it out, you re-infect yourself.”
The chief said the department has an officer who is a certified trainer. “He will get recertified and then teach the rest of the force,” Sipes said.
As part of the training, each officer will be tased. “This cuts done on improper use or someone using the weapon excessively because the officer will know what it feels like,” Sipes explained.
In the two months he has been chief, Sipes said there have been three incidents of use of force by police.
Fletcher wanted assurances, and received them from the chief, that the department wouldn’t “get Taser happy.”
Alderman Reedie Ray agreed with Sipes that the Taser was an effective weapon since he had been on the receiving end of one.
“It’s not what you think,” he said, chuckling. “I was at a convention where the weapon was being demonstrated and was volunteered to be the Guinea pig.”
The council approved the chief’s request to buy 20 of the weapons and related equipment from a Louisiana company for $29,400.
In other council business:
In his monthly report, Public Works Director Jim Oakley said the animal shelter took in 164 dogs and 98 cats during May. The shelter was able to return 38 dogs and two cats to their owners and adopted out 52 dogs and 41 cats, but 67 dogs and 66 cats had to be euthanized during the month.
Oakley also reported that there were five animal bites or attacks on humans including a military canine, a terrier, a Yorkie, a chow mix and a pit mix. None of the animals were declared vicious because of the attacks, but the pit mix and the Yorkie were euthanized.
Alderman Bob Stroud commended the excellent work of the animal control department, saying, “I believe this is the first pit bite of the year. Our ordinance (banning pit bulls) is working,” he said.
City Planner Chip McCulley, in his monthly report to the council, said his department issued 13 building permits and 11 business licenses in May. The engineering department also conducted more than 200 inspections and wrote 253 warning letters to residents or business owners because of excessive grass or trash on the property.
The council also approved a resolution allowing the mayor and city clerk to work out a lease agreement with Arkansas Midland Railroad to operate and maintain the city’s railroad lines and spurs in the city’s industrial park.
“There’ll be no financial transaction involved,” the mayor said, adding that the city had acquired the railroad lines in a long-term lease from Union Pacific, but that lease ended in October.
The mayor said the advantage of having Midland operate the lines is that an engine would be available every day of the week to move train cars. “Right now we have access to one just three days a week,” Swaim said.
Because of Fourth of July holiday commitments, the council voted to move its June 19 meeting to June 26 and to cancel its July 3 meeting.
