Taser

Howard County Police Chief William J. McMahon will ask the County Council next month to equip a small number of his officers with Tasers, hand-held stun guns that shoot probes into a person's skin and incapacitates for five seconds. Before McMahon can launch a pilot program, the council must repeal a law banning the use of stun guns, a move that newly elected County Executive Ken Ulman said he supports. Legislation is expected to be submitted tomorrow and voted on in March. The issue is likely to be one of the council's first major policy decisions since its election in November.

Baltimore County police officers patrol the streets with a pistol, an expandable baton and a canister of pepper spray. Now, some are carrying another crime-fighting tool: a stun gun. For the past several months, some patrol officers have been carrying a Taser as part of a pilot program. The department has sent one to each of its 10 precincts. Maj. Mark Warren of the Baltimore County police said the department will be looking to see whether the device helps officers safely subdue unruly suspects.

Anne Arundel County police acknowledged yesterday that none of the department's three mental health units was on the scene Sunday when officers surrounded and fatally shot a mentally ill man wielding scissors after 30 minutes of negotiations failed to persuade him to drop his weapon. Also yesterday, two County Council members called on the Police Department to expedite plans to equip patrol officers with nonlethal weapons such as stun guns or beanbag shotguns, as the department's chief promised to review its policies in such cases.

The Anne Arundel County Council's decision last week to allow law enforcement agencies to carry electronic weapons - the most commonly known is the Taser - clears the only legal hurdle that had prevented the county's police and sheriff's departments from issuing the weapons to their staff. Neither department, however, has any immediate plans to arm the officers or deputies with the much-debated weapons, which cost at least $800 each. "We're looking at it," said County Sheriff George F. Johnson IV. "We're seeing how other agencies are using them."

Nation: Media Knight Ridder union seeks buyout advice A union representing advertising, circulation and editorial workers at Knight Ridder Inc. newspapers said yesterday that it has hired financial advisers to solicit investors for a "worker-friendly" buyout of nine unionized papers in the chain. "Standing still is not an option," said Linda Foley, president of the Newspaper Guild-Communication Workers of America. "We are going to go after those properties and we are going to attempt to persuade others in labor, management and the investment community to join us."

WASHINGTON - Police are abusing Taser electroshock weapons, routinely inflicting injury, pain and even death in hundreds of cases where using such dangerous force is not necessary, Amnesty International charged yesterday. While these stun guns have been called nonlethal alternative to bullets, a study by the human rights group found that police use the weapons "excessively" and their use is not confined to times where firearms otherwise might be needed. The report said Tasers are used on unarmed suspects in 80 percent of the cases, for verbal noncompliance in 36 percent, and for cases involving "deadly assault" only 3 percent of the time.

PHILADELPHIA - Violent and unruly suspects risk being shot by a new gun being distributed to Philadelphia police. It does not fire bullets - it packs 50,000 volts of electricity. Philadelphia police sergeants soon will carry Tasers in their patrol cars. The gun, which looks like a 9 mm Glock, fires two darts, or probes, that stop a suspect with an electrical current. "It is not a stun gun. It is not an electrocution," Officer Heladio Gonzalez, an instructor with the Police College's Lethal and Protective Weapons unit, said during a recent demonstration.