{"id":19732,"date":"2023-09-09T16:16:13","date_gmt":"2023-09-09T23:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/?p=19732"},"modified":"2023-09-09T16:16:13","modified_gmt":"2023-09-09T23:16:13","slug":"santa-clara-approves-tasers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/santa-clara-approves-tasers\/","title":{"rendered":"Santa Clara County Sheriff approves tasers for deputies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Santa<\/p>\n

By Ben Irwin. San Jose Spotlight<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Santa Clara County sheriff's deputies approve Tasers from controversial supplier after decades-long hiatus.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe an inmate has a pacemaker in place\u2026 that could cause the pacemaker to short out, which could lead to death or serious injury,\u201d Aquino told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jonsen said the sheriff\u2019s office plans to adopt the recommendation of an August report commissioned by the county\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe will make sure that that is part of the equation,\u201d Jonsen said.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jonsen told San Jos\u00e9 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

He also said he previously felt the value of Tasers was \u201cquestionable\u201d 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most importantly, Jonsen said, pulling out the Taser would automatically activate the officer's body camera.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt has built-in accountability,\u201d Jonsen explained to San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cI think it\u2019s a very important piece because we\u2019ll now be able to track its effectiveness through video. Even the reduction when it\u2019s not being used, it will still be captured on video.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s because the county\u2019s Taser supplier would be Axon, which already supplies body cameras to the sheriff\u2019s office, Jonsen said. Reuters reported that the $15 billion corporation whose goal is to \u201csave lives\u201d fostered a toxic culture in which employees are shocked and tattooed with Tasers or company branding to show their loyalty.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking at the device, not hiring for the culture,\u201d Jonsen said. \u201cWe\u2019ve built very strong accountability into our organization.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You may be interested in:<\/strong> Given the increase in COVID-19, they call to review the expiration of home tests<\/a><\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Por Ben Irwin. San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. Agentes del sheriff del condado de Santa Clara aprueba tasers de un proveedor controvertido despu\u00e9s de una pausa de d\u00e9cadas. El sheriff Robert Jonsen planea presentar opciones para armar a los agentes en la calle y en las c\u00e1rceles del condado con Tasers a la Junta de Supervisores del […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":19734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19732","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-community","8":"category-cover"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19732"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19737,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19732\/revisions\/19737"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}