Monroe Police Chief Debra Duncan says it would be another tool for her department, a tool most every Police force her size across the country has except hers. “When people see that the officers have tasers a lot of times they’ll back off they don’t want to get into a confrontation with a taser.”
The residents in Monroe we talked to mostly agree with the idea, but, they don’t want to be on the other end of one. “As long as they’re not pointing at me, I don’t care. It would probably hurt like hell,” said Tim Kainer.
Chief Duncan would like to outfit 70 of the 90 officers on the force with tasers, mostly those on patrol. At $500 a gun, that comes to $35,000 dollars that Duncan says taxpayers would not be on the hook for, “it would be paid for with asset forfeiture funds, these tasers are actually being paid for by our drug dealers and criminals.”
Monroe City leaders will discuss the issue October 5th.
Brien Blakely
Fox Charlotte
Story & Video courtesy of Fox Charlotte
I would like to advise against this. For years now I have been observing officers and how they choose to handle situations ie: 4th of July festivals, car shows, resturants etc. While many provide quality service there is one in particular that causes concern and has been employeed by the department for years. He is very discrimminatory toward minority populations and abuses his so called authority. It only takes one bad apple to spoil the whole bunch. Because of this one officer, I believe that arming him or other officers who follow his example with a taser would cause those so called “i had no choice” events that would essentially lead to more victims being treated in an already crowded hospital with the inability to pay for services thus increasing the state’s debt.
Let’s hope they don’t get their guns mixed up ….