Police to get Taser training
Police chief and sheriff discuss use of weapon at community forum



By John Hinton

Published: May 29, 2009

The Winston-Salem police chief, Scott Cunningham, and the Forsyth County sheriff, Bill Schatzman, said yesterday that they have received jolts from Tasers and that their officers are or will be trained on how and when to use the electronic devices before they are armed with them.

Cunningham said he has received three five-second jolts from a Taser. Schatzman didn't say how many times he had received a jolt.

"It is a not a pleasant thing," Cunningham said. "But no use of force by officers is a pleasant thing."

Cunningham and Schatzman spoke about their departments' use of Tasers at a forum called "Beyond Soul and Salsa: A Dialogue Between Two Communities."

About 70 people attended the forum, which was at the Gateway YMCA on South Main Street in Winston-Salem. It was sponsored by the city's Human Relations Commission, the YWCA and the Winston-Salem Police Department.

Earlier this month, the Winston-Salem City Council approved spending about $550,000 over the next five years to equip each police officer with a Taser. The weapons work by shooting barbs that carry an electric current, temporarily paralyzing the person who is shot.

Cunningham said that Tasers are a "humane weapon" that usually prevent injuries to officers and people who receive the jolts. People can avoid getting a jolt from Tasers if they obey officers' commands and don't fight with them.

"Disobeying an officer is not a smart move," Cunningham said.

The city's 518 police officers will receive training to use Tasers starting in late July or early August, he said. It will take four or five months for the officers to complete the training. Each officer will receive a jolt from the devices.

Schatzman said he has reviewed every case in which a sheriff's deputy has a used a Taser on a person.

During the current school year, deputies have used Tasers on two high-school students involved in fights with other students.

Deputies have had Tasers for about two years, Schatzman said. Deputies who work in Forsyth County courtrooms, schools and the jail are armed with Tasers.

Cunningham and Schatzman also talked about their policies regarding the 287(g) program, which the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses to train local law-enforcement officers to check immigration status.

Cunningham said that the police department does not participate in the 287(g) program because it wants to build trust within the Hispanic community.

"Immigration is not an issue with us," Cunningham said.

Schatzman said that the sheriff's office participates in the federal criminal-alien program in which the immigration status of jail inmates is checked.

If inmates have violated immigration laws, the sheriff's office reports them to ICE.

Forsyth County has a pending application to start the 287(g) program.

Schatzman has said that his office will be hard-pressed to start it because the jail lacks staff and space for more inmates.

Eight law-enforcement agencies in North Carolina participate in the program.

â–* John Hinton can be reached at jhinton@wsjournal.com.

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