Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson says some city police officers will start carrying Tasers as soon as next month.
Thomson told the city council this week — about four months after the Bloomington Police Department announced a Taser pilot program — that the department recently started receiving the weapons from Axon, a weapons and technology manufacturer.
The year-long program, approved last year by the civilian Board of Public Safety, will allow officers on all shifts to carry Tasers after completing an eight-hour training course.
“We’re in the process of initiating the training for our officers,” Thomson said. “There aren’t any [Tasers] on the streets yet.”
The department will receive at least 40 Tasers, according to Thomson.
Axon will provide training to certified defensive tactics instructors with the police department, who will then train individual officers, according to department spokesman Ryan Pedigo.
“The training will most likely take several weeks to complete, as we will need to train all officers and each officer will be required to complete eight hours of hands-on training before being authorized to carry and/or use the energy weapon,” Pedigo wrote in an email.
A September release from the department says the study will allow the city to study Tasers’ effectiveness in reducing the number of injuries to both suspects and officers when officers encounter an individual who physically resists arrest.
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Thomson said the city will decide whether officers should continue to carry Tasers after the program expires.
The program’s estimated cost is $81,900, which includes the Tasers, training, holsters to carry the Tasers, and all the cartridges needed for training and duty use, according to Pedigo.
Besides guns, Bloomington police currently use pepper spray, expandable batons, sponge launchers and PepperBall launchers. All are considered less lethal options than a gun, according to Pedigo.
“However, it should be noted that not all officers are equipped with all of these less lethal options and the department has a limited number of the launchers,” Pedigo added.
The program is based on recommendations from a report by former president Barack Obama’s 2015 Task Force on 21st Century Policing. The report recommends using of Tasers to decrease the number of fatal police interventions.
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Thomson said the Tasers are meant to make police interactions safer for both officers and members of the public.
“That is why we would get a tool like this: to ensure that we can keep our officers and the public safe with the least amount of force possible,” she said. “Of course, we start with relationships. We move on to de-escalation when things are getting to be to a point that they're potentially not safe. When there's imminent risk, then we need something else.”
Thomson’s announcement to the council was criticized by Bloomington resident Marc Haggerty, who cited the 2003 death of James Borden. Borden died in the Monroe County Jail after jailers used a Taser on him.
“With a Taser, you have the option to control another person; it’s like being able to torture somebody,” Haggerty said. “Think about what you're doing when you're introducing the given these cops, more weapons that are potentially lethal.”
A representative of the local police union previously told WFIU/WTIU News the subject of Tasers is one local officials have long avoided since Borden’s death.
The union said while officer presence and verbal de-escalation are enough to avoid use-of-force, Tasers are a less-lethal tool they can use in situations that require force.
Pedigo added the Tasers will work in conjunction with officers’ body cameras, which the department issues to each of its 85 sworn officers. If an officer removes a Taser from their holster and their body camera is not already activated, it will automatically activate and begin recording, he said.
The Bloomington Police Department is the only law enforcement agency in Monroe County that doesn’t have its officers carry Tasers.
