Baltimore officials hope this improved police weapon could save lives

Baltimore is getting a big upgrade to its arsenal. But the goal of this new weapon is to save lives instead of end them.

Following a recommendation from the city’s Police Accountability Board, the Baltimore Police Department recently purchased thousands of new stun guns called the “Taser 10.”

Here’s the key difference: The Taser 10 works from nearly twice as far away — 45 feet — as the current Taser officers carry and gives them five times as many shots.

“It increases the likelihood of an officer not resorting to deadly force,” Jamal Turner, the accountability board chair, told The Banner. “In that sense, it does save lives.”

Ashley Heiberger, a retired police captain from Pennsylvania who is frequently retained as use-of-force expert, agreed.

When deciding to use force against someone and how much to use, officers must evaluate how much distance and time they have before a threat reaches them, he said.

“I think we are going to see more situations resolved without the use of deadly force now that officers have a tool that gives them more distance and, as a practical matter, more time,” Heiberger said of the transition to the Taser 10, which is made by law enforcement outfitter Axon Enterprises.

At the same time, Heiberger added, “I don’t want people to think the Taser 10 is going to be a panacea, and cops are never going to have to shoot anybody again.”

Turner said he and other accountability board members were frustrated by the number of incidents in Baltimore where officers’ Tasers failed them, forcing them to fire their handgun.

As an example, he highlighted last year’s fatal police shooting of Pytorcarcha Brooks, a 70-year-old woman in an apparent mental crisis who threatened family members and officers with a knife in West Baltimore.

Body-camera footage and a state prosecutors’ analysis of the case portrayed a chaotic scene.

After police forced their way into her home, Brooks started approaching them, knife in hand. One of the officers shot her with a Taser, causing her to fall back momentarily. She stood back up almost immediately and continued advancing toward officers.

The officer who deployed his Taser tripped and fell as he was retreating. Meanwhile, another officer shot her with his gun. She died at a nearby hospital.

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown declined to bring charges against two Baltimore Police officers in the Brooks shooting. His prosecutors’ report described a chaotic encounter.

The stun gun the officer was carrying, Axon’s Taser 7, fires two probes simultaneously. It is effective to 25 feet and the probes have to attach to the target a certain distance from each other. If one probe is too close to the other, there’s no debilitating electric shock.

Turner, who was briefed on the shooting, said that’s what happened in Brooks’ case.

The Taser 10 fires probes individually, allowing officers to hit their target far enough apart to shock and incapacitate. The device doesn’t need to be reloaded after each shot, like the Taser 7, and instead can fire up to 10 probes consecutively.

“If you have 10 chances, 10 shots, you increase the probability that there’s success,” Turner said. “I’m not advocating for them to go out here and electrocute all of these folks. But I’d take a Taser over a bullet any day.”

Axon did not respond to requests for comment.

Baltimore Police spokesperson Lindsey Eldridge said the agency was already considering the new Tasers before the recommendation from the accountability board.

The city purchased them as part of a $153 million contract with Axon, including new body cameras with artificial intelligence capabilities, that the Board of Estimates approved in May. It’s unclear what portion of the contract the Tasers accounted for.

Police officials believe the Taser 10 could prevent officers from resorting to lethal force in some situations, Eldridge said. But she cautioned that no tool would eliminate all scenarios where officers are forced to shoot someone.

Eldridge said there are several steps before the stun guns are rolled out across the agency. Instructors have to get certified on training officers to use the new Tasers, she said, and then thousands of officers will have to complete classroom and hands on training to learn the new devices.