By Ben Irwin. San Jose Spotlight.
Santa Clara County sheriff's deputies approve Tasers from controversial supplier after decades-long hiatus.
Sheriff Robert Jonsen plans to present options for arming deputies on the street and in county jails with Tasers to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. Jail guards have been stripped of Tasers for decades following the 1989 death of Jeffery Leonti, who died after being restrained and Tasered while in custody, the Mercury News reported.
Maelin Aquino, a community organizer with the Asian Law Alliance, and other advocates for justice and public safety accountability oppose arming officers with Tasers. She said the use of Tasers does not take into account pre-existing health conditions or comorbidities.
“Maybe an inmate has a pacemaker in place… that could cause the pacemaker to short out, which could lead to death or serious injury,” Aquino told San José Spotlight.
Jonsen said the sheriff’s office plans to adopt the recommendation of an August report commissioned by the county’s Bureau of Corrections and Law Enforcement that looked at jail guards using tear gas to remove inmates from their cells. The report suggested banning the use of chemical agents on people with documented medical conditions involving respiratory problems. Jonsen said he would like to implement a similar policy for the use of Tasers against inmates.
“We will make sure that that is part of the equation,” Jonsen said.
The presentation, originally scheduled for the board of supervisors' Sept. 12 meeting, has been tentatively postponed until Oct. 17, Jonsen said, to finalize policies for the use of Tasers on people in custody, including in county jails.
Jonsen told San José Spotlight he did not have a cost estimate to share, but will provide county supervisors with several options, including equipping sheriff's deputies both in the field and in jails with Tasers.
He also said he previously felt the value of Tasers was “questionable” because of their limited effectiveness. But he said the new model he plans to deploy is more accurate and can be used up to 45 feet away, compared with older models limited to a range of 15 to 25 feet.
Most importantly, Jonsen said, pulling out the Taser would automatically activate the officer's body camera.
“It has built-in accountability,” Jonsen explained to San José Spotlight. “I think it’s a very important piece because we’ll now be able to track its effectiveness through video. Even the reduction when it’s not being used, it will still be captured on video.”
That’s because the county’s Taser supplier would be Axon, which already supplies body cameras to the sheriff’s office, Jonsen said. Reuters reported that the $15 billion corporation whose goal is to “save lives” fostered a toxic culture in which employees are shocked and tattooed with Tasers or company branding to show their loyalty.
“We’re looking at the device, not hiring for the culture,” Jonsen said. “We’ve built very strong accountability into our organization.”
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