(Spirit Lake)– We told you last week the Spirit Lake Police Department will soon own tasers. Dickinson County Sheriff Greg Baloun’s men already have them. He says they shoot out two darts connected to 21-foot wires with eagle claw fish hooks that will either penetrate the skin or clothes, and delivers a 50-thousand volt shock, putting the person down so he or she can be apprehended.
Baloun tells KUOO news he first thought tasers would be effective in controlling belligerent prisoners. But he says it goes much farther than that. He says the tasers will also help in the long run by reducing the county’s workman’s compensation claims filed by officers and jailers getting hurt while dealing with people who are intoxicated or on drugs. Baloun says they haven’t had a summer yet in which an officer or member of the jail staff has gotten hurt while trying to corale unruly prisoners. And Baloun feels behavior at the jail has gotten better because prisoners know his department has taser technology.
The Dickinson County Sheriff’s Office has deployed the taser only once. Arnolds Park Police Chief Al Krueger says his department hasn’t had to use their tasers yet.
