Montpelier Taser Committee: No on Tasers!

Uncategorized

At the conclusion of a months-long process the Taser study committee established by the Montpelier City Council has issued its final report and has recommended that the City Council not authorize the capital city police to acquire Tasers for its officers.

The report finds that there is a lack of evidence that Tasers are needed, disputes the claim that Tasers save lives and reduce costs, and finds that crisis intervention training would be more effective to deal with the volatile situations for which Tasers are often suggested as a panacea. The committee report refers to the evidence for Taser use “hypothetical scenarios”.

There is a minority report by Nick Marro, who argues that Tasers can be a useful tool to avoid injuries to police officers. 

The report is thorough and well-researched, and should give the Council a major impetus to reject the Taser proposal. Meanwhile, there is still time for your voice to be heard. The Council will receive the report at its regular meeting on Wednesday, November 9. If they haven't already heard from you, that would be a good time to appear and express your opposition to this dangerous instrumentality.

7 thoughts on “Montpelier Taser Committee: No on Tasers!”

  1. Read the full Montpelier Taser Committee report (members: Jeff Dworkin, Chair; Zack Hughes, Co-chair; Polly Ellerbe and, Marilyn Mode), including the minority report (by committee member Nick Marro) as well as a wealth of related documentation as submitted to the Montpelier City Council, here.

  2. ACLU-VT blogged a blog post on the subject of the Montpelier Taser Committee report as well, here.

    Vermont Public Radio (VPR) VT Edition will be featuring a discussion on the use of Tasers during its live noon hour broadcast today (Wednesday, November 2, 2011), which will later be available by archived audio as well, here.

    For additional information concerning these matters, check out the slideshow of mine on the subject, here.

  3. By the way, in case you are interested, if you would desire to do a public records request in order to obtain the e-mails between committee members as well as any e-mails either received by or sent by committee members in communications with others relating to the business of the committee, co-chair Zachary (Zack) Hughes is the person assigned to handle such request.white kitchen cabinets

  4. The Times-Argus has a good point about taser problems and use in general that the committee report wisely makes

    Another point that the committee tried to drive home in its analysis was that the vast majority of people whom police would likely subdue with a stun gun are the same people that the manufacturer Taser International recommends the weapon not be used on. The reason: The jolt of high voltage could be fatal.

    http://www.timesargus.com/arti…

Comments are closed.