Rapid City police had been carrying stun guns less than a month in January 2007 when a man on a rampage stabbed six people at Teddy's Sports Grill in downtown Rapid City, a situation Police Chief Steve Allender said was controlled by an officer stunning the suspect with a Taser.

"That could've been much worse," Allender said. "He stabbed six people."

Christopher Joyner, 34, was found guilty by a jury of the stabbing and sentenced to 36 years in prison.

The victims in the case all survived.

A little more than a year after the stabbing, Allender said stun guns have been an effective tool at the police department.

"The Taser has saved us a lot of heartache, and I believe the Taser has saved some lives," Allender said.

Rapid City police officers began carrying Tasers in late December 2006. Tasers have become more common in the past few years in law-enforcement departments nationwide.

"It definitely works," Allender said. "A lot of times people won't be threatened by a police officer but they'll all but beg when they see the Taser come out."

The Taser is capable of subduing a suspect with a few seconds of a high-voltage, low-amp surge.

The surge causes neuromuscular incapacitation, meaning the "tased" person loses use of his affected muscles for a few seconds.

The Taser automatically gives a surge of five seconds. Officers can prolong that amount of time until a suspect is under control.

"The Taser causes very temporary discomfort," Allender said.

The lightweight Taser fits in a small holster on an officer's belt. It can be easily accessed, and an officer does not forego the ability to access lethal force.

Officers say the Taser is an improvement because some other methods of nonlethal force take two hands to use and may prohibit the officer from accessing a firearm if necessary.

Each Taser costs about $1,000. Allender said the department has enough Tasers for every on-duty officer to carry one.

"It was one of our goals to reduce officer injury," Allender said, and the Tasers are intended to help with that goal.

When officers have Tasers as a tool, there is less likelihood they will be required to use physical force to subdue a suspect.

There were 38 officers injured while making arrests in 2006. In 2007, there were 31 officers injured, and more arrests were made.

Allender said common injuries are elbow, knee and back injuries from violent encounters with suspects.

"The Taser is intended to be a tool that officers can use as an alternative to hands-on arrest tactics," he said.

In many cases, an officer simply displaying a Taser to a suspect is enough to get the suspect under control, Allender said.

Out of the 104 cases of Rapid City police using Tasers in 2007, the Taser was deployed only 25 times. Every other time, simply displaying the stun gun was effective.

Allender said he has received few complaints about tasing from the community and people who have been tased during an arrest.

"There are as many people that praise it," he said.

Rapid City Mayor Alan Hanks said he has heard no complaints from citizens about police using stun guns.

"In the six months I've been mayor, I've received no complaints in my office of any citizen with a concern over the use of Tasers," Hanks said.

He said the Taser is another tool to make the community safer.

"It gives (police) another tool, a nonlethal tool, to basically restrain somebody or take somebody into custody in a violent situation," Hanks said.

Sara Rabern, spokeswoman for the South Dakota Attorney General's Office, said the state has record of only one complaint being filed against a law enforcement agency for stun-gun use.

Rabern said the details of where and when the complaint was filed were not made public, but the complaint was investigated and was deemed unfounded.

There are no statewide criteria for stun gun training or use, Rabern said.

She said each law enforcement department is responsible for establishing its own policy on tasing and conducting its own training.

Officer Christian Sigel said the Taser is an extra tool to make his job safer.

"It's another option, but it doesn't eliminate our other tools," Sigel said. "It's definitely another tool for use with combative suspects."

Sigel has been tased in training, so he knows firsthand what a suspect goes through when tased.

"It's not a fun experience at all, but I wanted to have an idea of what I'd be putting people through if I tased someone," Sigel said.

He said the sensation of being tased is difficult to explain.

"It basically freezes you right where you're at," he said. "There's not really a pain involved."

Sigel said he has not deployed the weapon, but has displayed it and gotten results.

"Displaying it works," Sigel said.

Training continues

Chief Allender said the department's policy for using stun guns has been revised a few times over the past year when issues arose.

"We changed our policy to not tase someone when they're running," Allender said.

That policy was revised after a suspect was injured after being tased and falling to the ground.

Allender said the Taser itself does not cause injury, but a fall caused by the affect of the stun gun might.

Allender said every time a Taser is deployed, a use of force review takes place.

A supervisor will plug the used Taser into a computer to obtain data including what time the Taser was deployed and for how long.

"Officers are supposed to use it until they have control," Allender said.

While police have other methods of nonlethal force, Allender said the Taser is the most effective and convenient.

Beanbag guns and pepper spray are two nonlethal force tools that Allender said leave much to be desired.

Allender said officers occasionally use pepper spray, but it is not as reliable as a Taser.

"It wouldn't be outrageous to hope the Taser would replace pepper spray," he said.

He said pepper spray is more painful to the suspect than the Taser and may affect people around the suspect.

He said it is inaccurate, and the effects are unpredictable. Pepper spray can trigger asthma attacks in some people, but some people have absolutely no reaction to it, making it an unreliable tool for control.

"No one has a tolerance level for tasing," Allender said. "It can't be beaten."

He said a beanbag gun is inconvenient and takes at least two officers to use.

Allender said that is because if one officer is using the beanbag gun, he or she no longer has the ability to use lethal force because the beanbag gun takes two hands to use and must be kept in the police vehicle, not on the belt where the Taser is kept.

The line between when to use nonlethal force or turn to lethal force depends on the situation. Allender said officers have in-depth training on how to make those decisions.

"It has to do with the suspect's ability to inflict a deadly injury," Allender said. "Most of the people we tase do not have a weapon. They're just someone who wants to fight."

Allender said if a suspect has a weapon, an officer should not use a Taser but should display and, in extreme situations, use the firearm all officers carry.

Allender said overall, he counts the first year of the police department's Taser use a success.

"I think the preliminary data looks good," Allender said.

"We'll probably need at least a year or two before we can tell if it's a victory in making our job safer."

Contact Katie Brown at 394-8318 or katie.brown@rapidcityjournal.com