Axon.com
The Taser 7 model now adopted by the NHPD.
City cops will soon use a new model of taser that enables police officers to shock people with more accurate aim from more flexible distances.
That taser-technology shift comes thanks to an updated policy approved by the Board of Police Commissioners Tuesday night during its latest monthly online meeting. The taser policy was one of three approved by the commissioners during the meeting.
The other two pertained to use of force reporting and “critical incident response and Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team” procedures. The latter now-updated policy was kept secret from the public because it pertained to strategies that police will use to respond to events like mass shootings. (See below for more on the use of force reporting update.)
The taser policy update, meanwhile, came before the commissioners Tuesday because the department is in the process of switching taser models from the Taser X26P to the Taser 7, both produced by Axon.
Breen Photo
Capt. Dell: New tasers more accurate, easier to aim.
According to NHPD Capt. Rose Dell, the Taser 7 can be used with two cartridges — a 3.5 degree one and a 12 degree one for closer-distance shots — which will enable police to angle and aim the device more accurately at a range of distances from the people they are targeting.
The new NHPD policy defines a Taser 7 as a “conducted energy weapon (CEW) that is a “less lethal weapon designed to disrupt a subject’s motor nervous system by deploying battery-powered electrical energy sufficient to cause uncontrolled muscle contractions and override voluntary motor responses.”
When can a police officer use a taser on a suspect? Per the NHPD policy, “A CEW is authorized for use when other less lethal options have been ineffective, or when it reasonably appears that such options will be ineffective in subduing the subject. Conducted Energy Weapons shall only be used in a situation where the subject is actively resisting or attempting to avoid arrest by escape and additionally poses an imminent threat to the safety of him/herself, another person, or the officer.”
The policy also states that a taser may be used “to prevent persons from harming themselves, or for defense of the officer, and any third party against a vicious attacking animal.” But, the policy continues, a taser “should never be used indiscriminately or punitively, nor shall it be applied to any subject once he/she is secured and properly in custody.”
Meanwhile, according to Axon’s website advertising this new taser model, the Taser 7’s darts “fly straighter and faster with nearly twice the kinetic energy for better connection to the target, and the body of the dart breaks away to allow for attainment at tough angles.”
Dell told the Independent in a Wednesday phone interview that the department has already started implementing the new taser technology. Click here to read the now-approved taser policy in full, which describes in detail the set of procedures for using and maintaining the new taser model.
Also on Tuesday night, the commissioners voted unanimously to approve updates to the department’s use-of-force policy.
Specifically, for incidents that supervisors deem to be in need of “further review,” the policy outlines a more thorough set of details — from a physical description of the subject to “efforts to de-escalate” — that need to be reported to the state.
According to Dell, the policy was updated to comply with the state’s Police Accountability Act. (Read the full policy here; key additions to the policy can be found on pages 12 to 14.)
Finally, the commission unanimously voted to approve the secret SWAT and critical incident response policy. According to Dell, the policy was updated to comply with an accreditation requirement from the Connecticut Police Officer Standards and Training (POST) Council.
“All of these procedures were in place as far as practice goes,” Dell said of the contents of the policy. They simply had not been codified. Until Tuesday night’s vote, that is.
While commissioners did not ask public questions about the orders prior to voting, Commissioner Mike Lawlor noted that he and other commissioners had previously reviewed all three policies in dialogue with police brass.
This policy is far better than that of Branford's police department. Our chief has endorsed the continued use of tasers on people passively resisting, and posing no direct threat to anyone's safety. His reasoning is that such use prevents injury to his officers, and reduces workers' compensation claims. He is unbothered that use on passively resisting man killed him and a resulted in a wrongful death payment