| Deputy Garrett Conover reacts to his dose of electrical current. |
The Emery County Sheriff’s Office recently participated in taser training. Danny Curtis, Pro Force taser trainer, came to the jail facility to do the instruction. Curtis presented a training video and slide show which educated the officers on just what the taser will and will not do. The sheriff’s office recently obtained taser guns for the jailers and dispatch to be used within the jail facility itself. According to Capt. Kyle Ekker, if funds can be obtained, tasers will be purchased for the patrol vehicles as well. In St. George they had tasers for the patrol sergeants and have liked them so well they are getting them for all the patrol vehicles.
In situations where a suspect is not cooperating the taser gun becomes useful. During this past summer a suspect traveled at a high rate of speed through the construction zone and then led officers on a high speed chase. When he was accosted he was uncooperative and tried to run away and subsequently was able to get back to his vehicle and sped away again. The taser gun could have been used to subdue this suspect, who put county residents at risk with his out of control behavior and reckless driving.
Curtis said, “The taser gun is a less lethal tool which interrupts the nerve messages from the brain to the muscles. It keeps a person from being able to escape or to be combative. The gun works from five seconds up to 50 seconds. Other taser guns can continuously hold a subject down for 1,500 seconds.
“The subject is shot and probes lodge in the body and render the subject incapacitated for as long as the gun is activated.”