Cops call Taser a lifesaver

The man stood 6-foot-3 and weighed 225 pounds. He was combative, mentally disturbed and seemingly uninterested in listening to anything King County sheriff's Deputy James Beaumont had to say.

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So another deputy whipped out a Taser, an electric stun device that sends 50,000 volts along two copper wires and a pair of darts.

"The darts hit that guy and he dropped like a load of bricks," said Beaumont, a 17-year veteran who began carrying a Taser himself four months ago. "We walked over, put his hands behind him and put the cuffs on. Nobody got hurt. He didn't even get hurt."

Stories like this one have made Tasers popular with cops. For every person complaining that Tasers are abused, many more cops swear Tasers have saved lives and reduced injuries for both officers and the people they arrest.

For the first time in 15 years, Seattle last year did not have any fatal shootings involving officers.

Determining statistically whether Tasers really reduce physical altercations between police and those being arrested is not easy.

Assaults on officers in Seattle have declined slightly since Tasers were introduced, from 372 in 2001 to 349 last year.

But among King County deputies, assaults actually climbed, from 49 in 2001 to 67 last year.

Still, many cops remain convinced the Taser is worth having, and not only because of what the Taser does. To some cops, it's a simple matter of having an option.

"I didn't really know that much about Tasers, but the concept of it intrigued me," Seattle police Officer Sam Cook said.

The six-year veteran was among the first to train for Taser use. Now, in addition to his firearm, a bulky M-26 Taser hangs from a holster on his right thigh.

At first, he said, some citizens were alarmed to see him carrying what appeared to be two guns.

"They'd think I was some sort of cowboy," Cook said.

For Cook, though, the Taser is one option to deadly force, even rarely used. "I'll be honest with you. I have had this thing four years, and I've had one field application," he said.

Beaumont says that alternative to deadly force is a lifesaver. He bases that opinion on another arrest he made earlier this year, after his run-in with the mentally disturbed man.

On Jan. 21, Beaumont and Deputy Robert Inn responded to a domestic-violence call at a small home in North Bend. A woman reported her boyfriend was distraught, armed with a knife and threatening to hurt himself.

After some negotiating, the 37- year-old boyfriend agreed to allow both deputies inside the house.

Everyone in the home was armed: Beaumont held his Glock .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun, the boyfriend wielded a sharp steak knife, and Inn had drawn his M-26 Taser.

As they approached, the boyfriend, blood smeared on his face from a cut on his wrist, suddenly leaped from the couch where he'd been sitting and lunged at them.

The man was well within the 21- foot safety zone that an officer learns in training is the minimum distance needed to draw a weapon and shoot an armed assailant.

Beaumont, his weapon already out, decided to fire.

"I was pulling the trigger back when I saw a red dot on his chest," he said. "Then I saw the Taser darts hit him. I looked over at Bob and said, 'Oh my God, he has a Taser,' and I didn't even know it."

The man dropped to the ground and, after some struggling, was handcuffed and arrested.

Beaumont was so impressed with the Taser, he sent an e-mail to his superiors. To this day, he feels strongly that every deputy should have one.

"There's no justification for not having that tool available to us when it can mean the difference between shooting someone or taking someone into custody and into jail," he said. "I think it ought to be another piece of equipment officers get when they are issued their handgun."

Not every officer is eager to strap on a Taser. Seattle officer Adrian Diaz said he would rather trust his martial-arts skills than the new device.

"I'm very cautious when it comes to a new tool," he said.

He remains unconvinced even though he went through Taser training and was knocked down when he was shot with one.

"We have cases where it just doesn't stop everybody," Diaz said.

Even officers who swear by Tasers know they are far from perfect. The darts allow just a single shot, sometimes they miss, sometimes people fight through the painful shock, and on occasion, nothing happens at all.

"My faith in my Taser has been shaken," one deputy wrote in a December 2003 report after two Taser shots failed to drop a mentally ill woman threatening to cut herself with a paring knife.

And then there are the high-profile incidents -- the deaths of people shot with Tasers and complaints of abuse filed by others.

Despite all that, many officers from the 1,200-member Seattle Police Department to the 45-member Lynnwood Police Department want the devices.

"The officers can't get them on their gun belts soon enough," Lynnwood Sgt. Wes Deppa said.

"There's always someone out there that's big, strong and mean, that represents a serious threat to that officer."

P-I reporter Hector Castro can be reached at 206-903-5396 or hectorcastro@seattlepi.com

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