When a drunk man refused to leave the Comfort Inn & Suites in January, Columbia County Deputy R. Flemming did his best to reason with the suspect.
But the trespasser took a fighting stance with fists raised to his chest, telling the deputy, “You touch me and you die.” So, Deputy Flemming reached for his newest weapon to handle situations like this: the Axon Taser 7.
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A year ago, the taser would not have been an option. But last fall, Columbia County joined Richmond and Aiken counties in adding tasers to their tool belt.
Why?
“It gives deputies another option to potentially de-escalate a situation without having to go all the way up to deadly force,” said Lt. Russell Canterbury, who oversees training at the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office.
A vendor turned them onto the devices, and Sheriff Clay Whittle liked what he heard. In September, the agency started receiving the product from Axon, formerly known as Taser International. By November, the sheriff’s office had certified their instructors and started training deputies.
They now have 243 tasers in use and have used them six times, including one with a drive stun. Tasers are available for deputies on the street and at the jail.
Before Tasers, Columbia County deputies could use their mere presence as a deterrent as well as soft-hand techniques, hard-hand techniques, expandable batons and OC spray. In addition, some officers and teams have access to bean bag rounds and chemical munitions, Lt. Canterbury said.
Training now includes the use of tasers, and every deputy had to be exposed to it. And that’s important for many reasons, such as knowing the normal and abnormal reactions to being shocked in case medical assistance is needed. Lt. Canterbury said experiencing a taser also helps officers who have to testify.
“It’s not pleasant,” the lieutenant said. “I don’t ever want to do it again. But it makes the officers respect it more. And they don’t want to go out there and tase everyone. There are certain circumstances where they are allowed (to use it). The suspect has to be non-compliant, and the suspect has to have shown some kind of propensity to do harm to the officer, to another person or to themselves.”
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The agency has already seen successful taser use, which is the point of the weapons. It has laser dots that will hit the suspect. It also has an option to make a buzzing sound with sparks, which can be intimidating.
“They design it to gain compliance without even having to press the trigger,” Lt. Canterbury said.
The weapons are also designed to look very different than guns. The Axon Taser 7 is bright yellow.
That’s important, especially in light of the suburban Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot a black man during a recent traffic stop. Authorities say veteran officer Kim Potter accidentally drew her firearm instead of a stun gun.
In Columbia County, deputy training is used so that they have to draw their firearm thousands and thousands of times. It has to become almost secondary so they can focus on threats around them and draw quick when needed, Lt. Canterbury said.
In addition to the color, the Taser 7 has a different weight and feel than a firearm. Plus, the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office has implemented a cross-draw technique, where an officer has to execute a different body movement to try to limit the possibility of something like the Minneapolis situation from happening.
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Are suspects warned before they are hit with a taser? Lt. Canterbury said it depends on the situation, since an active assault can become deadly if seconds pass without immediate action.
“It’s all about being reasonable,” he said.
Aiken County has had tasers for over a decade, while Richmond County added them in 2013 when Sheriff Richard Roundtree took office. Sheriff Roundtree later said that assaults in the jail had decreased 90% with the addition of tasers, so he wanted to mirror that impact on the streets
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“Ultimately, it is going to save taxpayers money and make the community safer by not having to take care of medical expenses of suspects who may be injured in physical altercations with deputies, as well as deputies being out of work due to injuries sustained from suspects,” Sheriff Roundtree said in 2013.
Recent statistics show that Richmond County used tasers 60 times last year, a drop from 71 the year before.
Greg Rickabaugh is the Jail Report Contributor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at greg.rickabaugh@theaugustapress.com.
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