Wisconsin Corrections Officers Now Permitted to Carry Pepper Spray

You might think that virtually all state correctional officers have ready access to pepper spray to help control unruly inmates who congregate with other inmates during mealtimes. And you would be wrong. At least in Wisconsin, where it seems supplying vulnerable corrections officers with hot pepper spray canisters is a new thought to state officials. Wisconsin corrections officers are not allowed to carry guns. But now following a new ruling, pepper spray will be permitted for use. 

According to the December 21, 2013 edition of the online Milwaukee-Wisconsin Sentinel, the ruling comes on the heels of a report that listed 351 assault or attempted assault incidences from mid-2012 to mid-2013. Corrections officers will be supplied with 3 ounce canisters of pepper spray and supervisors who have interactions with inmates will be outfitted with TASERS, according to Corrections Secretary Ed Wall.  

A pilot program was conducted at the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility and the Green Bay Correctional Institution. The program was successful so now pepper spray is being rolled out in all minimum, medium and maximum security facilities.

Wisconsin is one of just a few states that limit access of pepper spray to citizens who desire this form of non-lethal self-defense. The formulation, size, packaging and labeling must meet certain specifications. TASERS and stun guns are also subject to many restrictions under Wisconsin law.

TASER In The Media

We've written about TASER® guns before. We're surprised they cause so much media fueled controversy. More US and Canadian police departments are using them to good effect. It's another tool for police officers who are called upon to defuse out-of-control situations. Yes, some officers in the heat of a stressful situation will use the TASER inappropriately. A certain percentage of officers miss-use their firearms too but that causes needless loss of life.

A recent article in the Winston-Salem Journal on-line brought this home. In part it says,

"As the Winston-Salem City Council decides whether police officers should have Taser stun guns, it should consider the experience that the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office has had with them. Deputies have been using the electroshock weapons for about two years now, often when they're outnumbered in fights, whether in the jail or the schools, said Sheriff Bill Schatzman. The weapons protect the officers and the public, he said. It's better than using a baton or pepper spray, he said, because "it's surgical in deployment."

The article sites a recent case at the Mount Tabor High School when Deputy Tracy Steen used an electric shock weapon. He was trying to break up a fight in the cafeteria between two students where one refused to calm down, according to the sheriff's office. Tables were overturned, one landing on an innocent bystander.

After the incident was over, sentiment was overwhelming on the side of the police officer. That's weapons jargon for saying that the stun guns, if used properly, don't hit innocent bystanders. That apparently was the case just over a week ago at Mount Tabor High School when Deputy Tracy Steen used a stun gun. He was trying to break up a fight in the cafeteria between two students when one of them refused to calm down, according to the sheriff's office.

Many of the e-mails in response to Journal stories about the fight have supported the deputy. One e-mailer said that when she heard about the incident at her daughter's school, "my first reaction was concern about the use of Tasers in schools. But then my daughter came home from school and told me what she saw.... Tables were overturned, one landed on top of an innocent bystander.... This incident could have escalated into a tragedy...."

We don't condone the indiscriminate use of the TASER®. It's a tool. It can be used or miss-used. Users must be educated to the proper use of the device.

A couple additional comments: Notice how the media confuses stun guns and TASER® products! Even in the article quoted above, there is a mention of the device as stun gun. There is no such thing as a taser stun gun. TASER International disapproves of that appellation. A stun gun is a hand held device with two attached electrodes. The device must be held to the individual while the user presses the button. A TASER device projects two probes with two thin electrical wires attached that fly through the air to land on the perpetrator. The electrical charge is sent through the wires.

Also, TASER is not spelled TAZER. TAZER get almost as many hits on Google As TASER!

Police Take Aim For More Stun Guns

That was the headline in a recent Edmonton Sun newspaper article. It reports a Canadian police agency's view that conducted energy weapons are not harmful and cannot be traced to any death. Here is the article in part:


Police groups want to arm more officers with stun guns while opposition MPs renew calls to restrict use of the controversial weapons.

The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police and the Canadian Police Association appeared in Ottawa yesterday to convince the public stun guns are essential tools that save lives.

"We are here to address the inaccurate and incomplete information that is circulating in the public related to the use of conducted energy weapons by police," said Thomas Kaye, vice-president of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police.

"There is no evidence, either scientific or medical, that a conducted energy weapon has been the direct cause of death anywhere, at any time, on any person."


Our view:

We don't have the oversight that a police bureau would have in assessing stun gun and TASER usage and their effects. We can make the following points:

1. The media often confuses stun guns and TASERs as though they are one. Stun guns must be administered directly to a person's skin or clothing to be effective. TASERs emit two darts on tethered electrified wires that attaches on to a person's clothing or skin from a distance of 15-25 feet, depending on the model. Both emit a similar low amperage high voltage charge. It is the low amperage that makes these non-lethal and allows the general public to buy TASERs for self-defense.

2. In the highly charged atmosphere of a police-perpetrator encounter, adrenaline flows are high. This results in occasional over-zealous use of weaponry, both in firearms and so called non-lethal weapons such as stun guns, TASER and pepper spray. To think otherwise is not realistic.

3. In this same charged atmosphere, the perpetrator is sometimes agitated and out-of-control, high on stimulant drugs or sometimes simply delusional and acting wildly and inappropriately. This makes that person more susceptible to medical emergencies of the heart and nervous system when these conducted energy weapons are applied.

4. Any impartial reading of the data suggests one conclusion: TASERs have gained overwhelming acceptance in the western world's police agencies. It is the preferred alternative to lethal force in subduing an out-of-control suspect in many situations. Like anything, it not not 100% safe in all conditions. It must be used with restraint and with good judgment.

Carlisle, PA - Taser a Success

Here's one that almost got by us. And this is in our own back yard! The Carlisle PA Sentinal July 22 article quotes the Carlisle Police Department who said that after several years of use, the Taser gun can be termed a success.

Staff writer Heather Stauffer quotes Lt. Mike Dzezinski who said, "By the end of 2007, Carlisle recorded more than 140 Taser deployments, ranging from times when officers obtained compliance merely by displaying the laser sight and warning people to incidents in which they actually fired the probes." He continues,

“We’ve had deployments on everything from fleeing felons to public drunk arrestees who wanted to fight,” Dzezinski said. “The biggest benefit of the Taser is it gives us a gap between us and the bad guy.”

This comes on the heels of a Pennsylvania State Police announcement that it considered troopers first six months of Taser use a success. Before equipping 3,000 troopers with Tasers at the beginning of this year, state police Commissioner Jeffrey Miller said, state police conducted a two-year study. The results they are seeing reinforce the belief that “the Taser provides an excellent option to the use of deadly force,” Miller said.

That Tasers deliver 50,000 volts has been widely reported, Dzezinski said, but many people don’t realize the amperage of the weapon is what really matters.

“The amperage is very, very low in the Taser,” Dzezinski said, placing it at 0.0036 amps, “actually lower than the socket of a Christmas tree bulb.”

The majority of Carlisle officers have taken voluntary Taser exposures to understand what people experience when they fire the probes, Dzezinski said.

Tasers Rate High In Safety

A study sited in a recent newspaper examines the use of Taser stun guns in Calgary, Canada.

Sherri Zickefoose of the Calgary Herald writes that the new study finds batons are batons are causing the greatest rate of injury when used by police during arrests.

The two-year Calgary study, the first use-of-force examination of its kind in Canada, also found pepper spray was the safest tool employed by police to subdue suspects who were resisting arrest.

The Canadian Police Research Centre report examines 562 cases in which Calgary police used Tasers, pepper spray, batons, unarmed techniques and choke holds -- against people resisting arrest.

The 14-page study found Tasers "scored high" in safety for both suspects and officers in Calgary. Though they were used in nearly half of all cases involving suspects resisting arrest, one per cent ended up hospitalized and 87 per cent sustained either minor injuries or no injuries, according to the report.

Batons, on the other hand, used in roughly five per cent of arrests that required force, caused the greatest rate of higher-level injury. More than 39 per cent of subjects were injured. More than three per cent were hospitalized and nearly 26 per cent required outpatient treatment.

"The commonly held belief" that Tasers carry "a significant risk of injury or death . . . is not supported by the data," according to the report, researched by Dr. Christine Hall and Calgary use-of-force expert Staff Sgt. Chris Butler. The stun guns are "less injurious than either the baton or empty-hand physical control."

U.S. agencies are also participating in the larger study, Butler said, because American and Canadian police encounters are surprisingly similar. More Canadian fatality inquiries are highlighting the need for consistent use of force tracking, he said.