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CHRIS TISCHThe Police Department, which already has about 19 of the devices, plans to buy 50 more at a cost of about $40,000.
LARGO - Following in the footsteps of several other local police agencies, the Largo Police Department is planning to equip most of its patrol officers with tasers.
The department has had tasers for more than a decade, but in limited supply. About 19 officers - mostly supervisors and members of the agency's tactical team - carry the weapon. They have used them 15 times so far this year.
Tasers have become increasingly popular in law enforcement because they give officers another tool to contend with dangerous people. It's not as deadly as a gun, doesn't require as close contact as a baton and is not as aggravating to bystanders as pepper spray.
"It's a less lethal option," said Deputy Chief John Carroll. "It certainly minimizes the risk to the other person as well as to the officer involved."
Officers plan to demonstrate the weapon for city commissioners at a work session tonight.
To become qualified to carry a taser, Largo officers must attend training classes, then endure a shot from a taser. This way, officials say, they will know what it feels like.
Tonight, Officer Ryan Dulski will take a shot fired by Sgt. Kelly Goswick. It will serve as Dulski's qualifying shot.
"His is going to be public instead of private," Goswick said.
Tasers have been greeted with some skepticism by critics. Suspects have died after being tasered, though police officials say none of those deaths has been attributed specifically to the taser, but to other circumstances such as a drug-induced heart attack after a significant struggle.
Others say tasers offer the opportunity for abuse. Because they aren't as lethal as guns or leave bruises like batons, officers can repeatedly taser someone and leave little evidence of the abuse behind.
But Goswick, who is a taser instructor, said that's not the case. For one, officers have to fill out a use-of-force form every time they fire a taser. In that form, they must document precisely why they used the weapon. Those forms are reviewed by supervisors all the way up to the chief's office.
In addition, the tasers are equipped with a memory chip that records each time the weapon is used.
"If (a suspect) says he was tasered 17 times, we could go ahead and see how it was used and how many times," Goswick said.
The department plans to buy 50 tasers at a cost of about $40,000. The cost was worked into the budget this year.
Largo Mayor Bob Jackson said he supports the purchase. "I think it could save somebody's life someday," he said.
Police officials say a taser may have saved someone's life just last week.
Largo officers were summoned to check on a man who was using a candle lighter to try to set himself on fire. Officers tried to get him to put the lighter down, but he set his shirt on fire.
An officer tasered the man. The weapon fires two small darts that are connected to wires that deliver an electrical shock. The taser can be applied directly, or can shoot the darts up to 21 feet. The darts incapacitate the person hit.
In this case, the man fell down and was handcuffed. Police took him to the hospital for mental health treatment. The weapons leave only small puncture wounds or burns.
Police officials say the taser is particularly effective when mentally ill people arm themselves with weapons and threaten themselves, other people or officers.
The taser does not, however, prevent officers from drawing their gun and firing if they feel their life or another person's life is in danger.
The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office is outfitting all its deputies with tasers. Clearwater police ordered enough for all its patrol officers last year.