KLAS-TV Channel 8 News Las VegasLas Vegas Police Add Cameras to Taser Stun Guns
Metro police say Taser guns have become a valuable crime-fighting tool and now they are adding cameras to their Taser X26 guns. The cameras will document what an officer sees before using the gun.
A Taser X26 gun sends out electricity to stun a suspect. Metro Officer Marcus Martin says the guns have become a powerful non-lethal tool.
"As I give commands to the subject, I'm going to explain to him, 'Sir, drop the knife. Do it now,'" said Officer Marcus Martin, who is a Metro coordinator. He demonstrated how an officer with a Taser X26 gun would approach someone with a weapon.
"I want to have a slow steady squeeze backwards," he said. The dots on a board show how the electricity travels through the person who is shot. Until now, any review relies on the officer's and the suspect's versions of the events, but that will change.
Starting next month, when a Metro officer uses one of the guns, a video camera will record everything that happens.
"It's just further evidence along those lines. To show what our officers face," Martin said. The camera attaches to the handle of the gun. Martin shows Eyewitness News video from other police departments as proof that the camera will make a difference in perception.
"How wonderful for the other side to be shown now at video point," Martin said.
"We didn't come on to this job thinking hey I'm going to shoot someone. That is the last thing that I want to do as an officer, as a human being," said Metro Officer Andy Williams who says he welcomes the extra set of eyes when confronting a dangerous person.
Metro says their officer injury rate has been reduced by 54-percent since the department started using the Taser guns. Police attribute that lowering statistic to suspects being more compliant because they fear being shocked by the gun.
North Las Vegas officers have been using the cameras for the past three months
