The Harrison Police Department is working to arm each of its 64 officers with Tasers, according to the police chief.
Police Chief Anthony Marraccini said the device can help reduce the use of physical force and firearms by adding a non-lethal tool that can be used from both long and short ranges.
During the July 21 town board meeting, Harrison officials approved an order for 16 Tasers, costing a total of $25,554, or nearly $1,600 each. The order includes 100 shock cartridges rated for 25 feet and 50 Taser targets.
“It’s basically an added layer of force which most departments don’t have,” Marraccini said.
In the same meeting, the board approved a $500,000 bond resolution for the 2016 police capital budget, which had already been OK’d by the board. The Taser order amounts to about 5 percent of that budget.
Taser is a brand of electroshock weapons or stun guns used by police to subdue a suspect. The device fires two nodes that hook into the skin and are attached to a battery via wires, potentially delivering up to 50,000 volts of electricity.
A 2009 Police Executive Research Forum study said that officer injuries drop by 76 percent when a Taser is used.
“This is a device that protects not only the officer but also the suspect,” Marraccini said, explaining that when dealing with an aggressive suspect, police can use Tasers to subdue them without having to draw their baton or pistol.
The chief said that currently, enough Tasers are distributed among the officers so each squad is equipped with at least one device, prioritizing possession to officers specialized in using them.
The city of New Rochelle Police Department, which serves a population of roughly 80,000––more than double the population of Harrison––also tries to ensure that each of its 157 officers are protected by Tasers. Lt. Edward Hayes said the department has at least one device per squad car at all times.
In the neighboring city of Rye, which has a population of about 16,000 and employs 33 officers, not all police are equipped with Tasers. Police Commissioner Michael Corcoran said this would be an unreasonable cost for the department.
According to a survey of FBI statistics compiled by Protection1 Security Systems, which measured violent crimes and property crimes, Harrison was ranked No. 44 among the 50 safest communities in the country. Rye ranked 19 in the same study.
