by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Hundreds of people that deal with criminals day in and day out do so totally unarmed. That will change if City Council passes legislation approving the purchase of tasers for Duval County’s correctional officers and several officers of the court.
According to Cheryl Runyon, chief of budget for the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, about 600 tasers costing $930 each will be purchased with funds from the Special Law Enforcement Trust Fund.
“That’s forfeiture money,” said Runyon, explaining that forfeiture money is cash seized in drug raids and arrests.
There are currently about 690 correctional officers employed by the City and Runyon said only the transportation officers carry guns. The others, she said, may be armed with mace or something similar, but are unarmed otherwise. None of the judicial officers — bailiffs – are armed.
Runyon said the overcrowding of the jail system has made arming all the correctional officers in some capacity a necessity. It should also make them feel safer while on the job.
“With the increased population, I hope so,” she said, adding each correctional officer will be required to go through training on the proper technique of using a taser.
The bill, which is sponsored by the mayor’s office, appropriates $707,404 from the Fund. Of that, $562,400 is for the tasers; the rest goes to various other projects — $88,000 for diversity training, $25,000 for Crimestoppers, $25,000 for the Justice Coalition, $5,000 for the Boy Scouts of America and $2,004 for Families of Slain Children, Inc.
“This will pretty much wipe out the Fund for now,” said Runyon.
Several national companies supply tasers and Runyon said once the bill is passed by Council, bids will go out seeking a supplier. The bill was introduced to Council last Tuesday and assigned to two Council standing committees. Runyon said it will take about two months for the bill to cycle through and expects the tasers to be in the hands of correctional and judicial officers by some time in September.
Tasers are hand-held weapons that emit an electric shock that disrupts the muscles and nerve function without physical contact. They are capable of rendering someone unable to move from a range of about 30 feet.
Taser is an acronym for Thomas A. Swift Electric Rifle and designed by Arizona inventor Jack Cover in 1969. It was named after science fiction teenage inventor Tom Swift.