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  • Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis Shocking experience: Vigo County sheriff’s Sgt. Scott Brown demonstrates the up-close use of the department’s tasers. The red light is a sighting laser, used when shooting the device. The taser can also be placed directly on the person needing to be controlled. At right is a target used in practice.

    MET0918112taser brown.jpg

  • Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis Launcher: The Taser brand gun carries its battery in the handle and can fire two sets of probes from its replaceable cartridge.

    MET0918112taser gun.jpg

  • Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis Precautions: Deputy John Davis of the Vigo County Sheriff’s department goes over safe handling procedures in the use of Tasers.

    MET0918112taser davis.jpg

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September 19, 2012

Ride the lightning

Volunteers step up to be Tased during sheriff’s department training session

Lisa Trigg The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE — A five-second jolt from a Taser lasts for an eternity for the person on the receiving end of the non-deadly control device.

Just ask anyone who voluntarily got Tased during a training session at the Vigo County Sheriff’s Department on Tuesday.

“It doesn’t hurt that bad,” said administrative assistant Lea Ann Funk after she experienced a two-second jolt. But … “I don’t see how anybody can move.”

The half-inch long darts fired from the device carry fine wires that connect to the target and deliver electrical pulses to overwhelm the normal nerve traffic in the body, causing involuntary muscle contractions and impairment of motor skills.

The sheriff’s department recently ordered 37 Tasers for use by deputies who encounter violent or potentially violent individuals who need to be controlled without causing serious injury. Sheriff Greg Ewing said the electronic control devices — or ECDs — will be distributed to road patrol deputies, drug enforcement officers and six reserve officers selected for training because of the number of hours they spend on patrol, sometimes encountering uncooperative suspects.

“We hope to add more,” Ewing said, noting that the funds for the ECDs came from the prosecutor’s seized assets funds, and from a county council appropriation. Two of the devices will remain inside the jail, for use by jail staff in case of inmate fights or other issues, he said.

The effect on the volunteers who “rode the lightning” on Tuesday was that they stiffened like boards would have fallen forward on their faces, except for the assistance of two officers who grasped the volunteers by the arms and gently lowered them to the floor.

“So if an officer ordered you to stop and put your hands on your head, or be Tased, which would you do?” asked First Sgt. Scott Brown to a freshly Tased volunteer as she exhaled in relief and waited for the darts to be carefully removed from her lower back and upper leg.

“I’d stop and put my hands on my head,” the volunteer replied.

Surprisingly, the paralysis from the Tase disappeared as soon as the jolt was turned off. But the pain of the experience was not soon forgotten by those Tased.

Funk said she volunteered for the jolt because her husband had previously gone through training and experienced it.

“If he can do it, I can do it,” she said.

But not all the officers in the training were keen to step forward for the experience. The training requires eight hours in the classroom, along with a written test, and a skills test in firing the device at a life-size cardboard suspect

Brown, who is a certified trainer for the Tasers, said the new Taser X2 is better than previous models because it has two cartridges loaded and ready to be fired. Previous models carried only one cartridge and took time to reload. The X2 can be fired at a second suspect if needed, Brown said.

And, it can also be used to stun a person as a pain compliance technique by an officer who places the Taser against an individual’s body and activates it.

There have been numerous occasions in the past, including recent incidents, when a Taser could have ended a dangerous or violent incident quickly and with less damage, the sheriff said.

One such incident involved a suspect who fought with and injured officers and damaged a police car when he jumped on top of it. Another incident involved a distraught college student who was threatening to harm himself and officers.

Ewing said Tasers would have come in handy in both incidents, and he brought those incidents to the attention of the county council when he requested the funding. Many police agencies have been using Tasers as standard equipment for years.

“These are long overdue, and we’re ecstatic to have them,” Brown said.

Reporter Lisa Trigg can be reached at 812-231-4254 or lisa.trigg@tribstar.com. Follow her on Twitter @TribStarLisa.

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