Sheriff’s Office Adds 49 Tasers
Posted/updated on: July 23, 2013 at 4:39 pm
TYLER Saying hes fulfilling a campaign promise to equip Smith County Sheriffs Office deputies and personnel with the tools they need to do their jobs, Sheriff Larry Smith announced Monday that 49 Tasers are now on the streets. According to KETK, Smith added that all personnel for whom the device is applicable have completed taser training. Smith says Tasers are conducted electrical weapons (CEWs) and are used worldwide by law enforcement to temporarily incapacitate dangerous, combative or high-risk subjects who pose a risk to law enforcement officers or themselves. According to Smith, Tasers are generally recognized as a safer alternative to other uses of force.
In the spring, I had three members of my office in the hospital in the middle of the night being treated because they had to physically subdue a suspect who was on drugs and was violent, said Smith. Had they had tasers, they would most likely not have been injured, and the taxpayers wouldnt be footing their medical bills. When people are on drugs, sometimes the only way to subdue them is to use a taser.
The Tasers were paid for by private citizens, business donations, and re-appropriated grant funding. The grant funds were originally earmarked for in-car printers for county patrol vehicles. Obviously, the safety of our patrol officers and the citizens of this county is a higher priority than the ability to print documents in a patrol vehicle, said Sheriff Smith. Smith said members of his staff were Tasered during training so that they could understand what the devices do to a person and how they work.
