The Waldoboro Board of Selectmen voted unanimously on Oct. 12 to approve the purchase of three Tasers for the Waldoboro Police Dept.
The total cost of the purchase will be $4391, which will be paid in part with a grant the department received. The rest of the cost will come out of the department’s eradication fund, which consists of money seized during arrests.
The approval follows several weeks of discussions regarding the department’s policy for Taser use, which was also approved unanimously at the same meeting.
The final policy includes a list of eight situations in which Tasers may not be used, including “a handcuffed or secured prisoner who is not resisting arrest…or can be subdued by lower-level means,” according to the policy.
Tasers are prohibited on children and pregnant women and when suspects are elevated, near water, near flammable materials or driving a motor vehicle, according to the policy.
The policy also specifically prohibits Taser use for punitive or coercive purposes. “This is Waldoboro, Maine, not a third-world country,” Labombarde said to the board.
“Just because someone is struggling and doesn’t respond to verbal commands, doesn’t mean you can use your Taser,” Labombarde told the board.
The department will purchase three, bright yellow Tasers and cameras that mount on them. The cameras automatically start recording when the Taser is armed, to help document situations in which Tasers are deployed.
Originally, Labombarde suggested taking the cost of the Tasers from the $1233 Bryne/JAG Grant and splitting the rest of the cost between the eradication fund and equipment reserve fund, but at the request of Selectman Craig Cooley, the total cost after the grant will come from the eradication fund.
“That will give you some incentive to build that fund back up,” Cooley said.
Until now, Waldoboro police were the only agency in Lincoln County without them, Labombarde said. In the future, Waldoboro police will seek to purchase Tasers for every officer, but for now the three Tasers will be shared.
Two of the Tasers would be for the on-duty patrol cars, and the third would be for the school resource officer, Labombarde told the board at a previous meeting.
Labombarde said that officers will be trained to rely on good police work, not their Tasers.
As part of their training in Taser use, every officer trained to use them will be subjected to a Taser, “unless there is an underlying medical condition” that makes it unsafe, Labombarde said.
Labombarde volunteered to be the first victim at a demonstration of their use, he said. “It’s not fun, but I’ve done it before,” he told the board.
The Taser policy will now go to the Maine Criminal Justice Academy for their approval, Post said.
