New Haven Ct. Taser debate focuses on recordings

Check out this article by William Kaempffer, of the New Haven Register Staff regarding the Taser Debate. He writes about how Assistant Police Chief Roy Brown routinely turns on his department radio at night to hear what’s happening on the street. “More than once, you hear, ‘Hurry up and get an officer over here with a Taser,’” he told a group of aldermen Wednesday night.

William Kaempffer, goes on to write, That’s the framework of a new debate over equipping officers with the handheld stun gun: With only about a third of department officers currently issued them, is it smarter policy to maximize deployment by purchasing the basic police model ,or equip half as many officers with expensive upgraded one that includes audio and video recording that skeptics say increase police accountability.

About 150 officers now have them and the last 50 were purchased without cameras, a revelation that sparked concern from some aldermen, who expressed displeasure about not being consulted and wondered whether that would undermine public support for the tools.

In a letter to the chief, Alderman Alex Rhodeen, chairman of the public safety committee, wrote that purchasing Tasers without the video equipment was “unacceptable” given the lengthy deliberations and effort put in by a local task force that examined ways to minimize the use of deadly force by police. They recommended the purchase of Tasers in 2006, but the camera component was a major part of the discussion to help appease segments of the community concerned that police would abuse the weapon. More HERE

Tasered While Black Publisher says: The Taser debate in New Haven could be instructive for the nation. We will be following this debate in the upcoming weeks and months.