The shooting death of Mountain View resident Shane Tasi has left some wondering whether the use of deadly force was necessary by Anchorage police, given that the 26-year-old father was only carrying a three-to-four-foot-long stick.
Among questions is why a Taser -- an electroshock weapon that packs 50,000 volts of painful electric current to disrupt voluntary control of muscles -- wasn't deployed first. Responding Anchorage Police Department officer Boaz Gionson didn't carry a Taser during the confrontation a week ago.
But Gionson isn't the only Anchorage police officer without one. Only 35 percent of APD's 380 sworn officers carry a Taser. Among 200 patrol officers, 116 are equipped with them. That's by design. Anchorage Police Chief Mark Mew said the department is taking a conservative approach to equipping officers with Tasers.
"There seems to be a notion that we have too few (Tasers), that's it's all a matter of money," Mew said. "The fact is, we have not arrived at a decision that every officer needs a Taser."
That's not to say Tasers won't become a standard tool in the department eventually, Mew allowed. For now, the department is easing into deployment while learning more about how the courts and the public react to what's known as a "less-than-lethal" weapon.
Several Alaska law enforcement organizations have already made those judgments and are equipping every patrol officer with a Taser.
• The Alaska Department of Public Safety equips all uniformed personnel with the X26-model Taser. That includes 296 Alaska State Troopers, 93 Wildlife Troopers, 96 Village Public Safety Officers and about 60 Court Services Officers. All together, that's about 545 Tasers, said trooper spokeswoman Beth Ipsen.
• Police forces in Fairbanks and Juneau, although much smaller with 30-40 patrol officers each, outfit all patrol officers with a Taser.
Juneau outfitted all 30 of its patrol officers in "one fell swoop" in late 2008 or early 2009, said Lt. Dave Campbell.
Fairbanks moved slower, bringing Tasers on in the early 2000s, purchasing six early-model M26 Tasers that were checked in and out by officers. By 2004, however, the department was fully equipped with the lighter and easier-to-carry X26 Tasers.
Ipsen didn't know how long it took the Department of Public Safety to outfit its officers. But by 2004, every officer had one, funded with state money appropriated to the agencies.
She pointed out that equipping state officers isn't necessarily the same as equipping officers in a municipality. "We're a different kind of entity," she said. "That doesn't mean another (entity) isn't going to do it another way."
Last year, the Alaska Legislature appropriated $47,300 for Anchorage Police Department to purchase three-dozen hand-held X26 Tasers and six Mossberg Taser shoulder-fired shotguns.
The Taser-shotguns are no longer available for purchase in the United States, but the department will still use the appropriation to purchase at least 36 of the X26 Tasers. APD spokesman Lt. Dave Parker said those Tasers will be ordered soon.
SWAT officers get first crack
Taser International, Inc. has sold 607,000 Tasers to 16,880 law enforcement and military agencies in 107 countries since company started in 1998.
Of those agencies, 43 percent have "full deployments," or a Taser for every on-duty patrol staffer, according to Steve Tuttle, vice president of communications for Taser International.
Tuttle said most organizations purchased Tasers in small batches over several years, limited by budget restraints.
Since introducing Tasers in late 2003, APD has followed that model, slowly adding more and more Tasers.
The Tasers first went to SWAT officers, followed by sergeants and patrol supervisors before filtering down to patrol officers. When introduced, Tasers were still relatively new, both to the department and the public.
Shaun Henry, lead Taser instructor for APD, said standard procedure is to send all new less-than-lethal equipment to the SWAT team first, where it can be tested to determine whether it's applicable for patrol use. Supervisors try next because they're generally more available than patrol officers and able to respond quickly. As the department saw success in bringing suspects under control, they began to issue Tasers to patrol officers.
Henry said that in the last 18 months, Tasers have been deployed by Anchorage officers almost 90 times. That doesn't necessarily mean fired; simply taking the weapon out of its holster and turning it on is considered deployment. Sometimes that alone is enough to make a suspect back down, he said. Tasers have been shot between 50-60 times in the same time period.
Their effectiveness in subduing a suspect is more than 80 percent, Henry said.
Henry, an officer within the SWAT and special assignment divisions, is a Taser proponent, but he acknowledged they still must be used selectively and correctly. Alaska poses some of its own Taser hurdles. In winter, for instance, suspects sometimes wear heavy clothing that can impede the ability of a Taser to work effectively.
There have been times in the field where Henry was taken down by a suspect and unable to reach his Taser. "I wish someone was there with a Taser," he said.
Last Saturday, according to police, Gionson was the first officer to respond in Mountain View and had no back up when Tasi "aggressively" approached him brandishing a stick.
In recent years, two prominent Taser cases have reached the Alaska Supreme Court. In July 2003, a Kotzebue police officer witnessed an 11-year-old girl driving an ATV dangerously and running stop signs. The officer tried to stop the girl, who fled. Eventually the girl stopped and, despite being held by several teenagers, was Tased by the officer. Her mother, Sandra Russell, filed a complaint against the officer and went on to sue the city of Kotzebue, claiming improper and negligent supervision or training.
In December 2006, Village Police Safety Officers in Hooper Bay responded to a welfare check at a Hooper Bay home. Officers found children in the home and Thomas "Boya" Olson sleeping. Officers found he was endangering the children and drinking, which is illegal in dry community.
When the officers arrested Olson, he resisted. While handcuffed, Olson fell to the floor and began kicking officers. That's when they Tasered him 15-18 times, according to court documents.
In both cases the court found the use of force was excessive. Tom Stenson, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska, wrote an amicus brief in the Hooper Bay case. In it, he said Taser International issued a warning that repeated Tasering can cause heart stoppage.
"This is the only case I've found where the person survived after that much Tasering," Stenson said.
Tasers won't solve bad decision-making
Stenson said just handing out Tasers is not a cure-all for better law enforcement policies, which should be updated frequently.
"I think some people over promise with a Taser, but it's not going to fix bad decision-making by law enforcement," Stenson said. "A Taser's only as good as the person who uses it. Just handing them out can be as big of a problem as not handing them out in the first place."
Contact Suzanna Caldwell at suzanna(at)alaskadispatch.com