Santa Cruz Police Request for New Tasers to be Heard at Future Council Meeting

by Alex Darocy (alex [at] alexdarocy.com)

Tue, Nov 12, 2019 3:48PM

A request from the Santa Cruz Police Department for the Santa Cruz City Council to approve a contract with Axon Enterprise, Inc. to re-outfit the entire police department with new Taser guns at a cost of $235,439, was pulled from the consent agenda of today's Council meeting. City Clerk Bonnie Bush told Council the item has been, "postponed to another meeting." Peter Gelblum of the Santa Cruz ACLU, who spoke by email, said, "Due to questions raised by Chris Krohn, SCPD has removed its request for new tasers until further discussions can be held."

The Council's consent agenda is reserved for non-controversial issues. Hearing the item on the consent agenda would have seriously limited the scope of the discussion surrounding the purchase, including the topic of the dangers of Taser guns. As the national tally of people who have been killed by law enforcement's use of Tasers grows, SCPD's use of force policy presently classifies the use of Tasers as a "non-deadly force application."

For a detailed article about SCPD's Taser request, and the police department's antiquated use of force policy, see:

Santa Cruz Police Department Seeks Council Approval for $235K Taser Purchase
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2019/11/11/18828014.php

For more information: http://alexdarocy.blogspot.com/

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