Changing nature of policing diminishes use of hand-to-hand force.

LEWISTON – Sgt. David Chick remembers the grumbling when officers were asked to trade in their saps for pepper spray.

A leather encased spring with a lead weight on the end, the sap – also know as a blackjack – was used to knock an unwilling suspect into compliance. It was considered a great equalizer for officers on the beat who may have been outsized by an unruly suspect or criminal, Chick said.

But the device, in both its design and application, was more brutal than the Taser of today. After shelving their saps, pepper spray soon became known as “back-up in a can,” Chick said.

So last year, when officers in Lewiston were asked to trade in their police batons, used as direct contact tools, for Tasers, which can be deployed at some distance, there was grumbling.

But as the device becomes more familiar with both the public and police, its benefits are also becoming quickly apparent, Chick said.

Lewiston’s Tasers are armed not only with the stunning capacity, but also digital and video recording capabilities.

“This can be an officer’s greatest ally, but we are not deploying it in a life or death situation,” Chick said. “This is a tactical device meant for calculated use.”

And despite some recent controversy over the device, officers around the region agree its one of the safest alternatives to a physical confrontation with a potentially dangerous suspect. Accounts of how lives have been saved and injuries prevented far outnumber accounts of misuse or abuse by officers, while the latter may receive more public attention.

The development and use of the Taser, named for inventor Thomas A. Swift and his electric rifle, marks an evolution in policing philosophy, say Lewiston’s Chief Bill Welch and Lt. William Snedeker, commander of the Maine State Police’s special services units.

“The whole idea is we do not want to get into physical confrontations,” Welch said. Adding new technology that helps avoid that is only natural.

Welch likens it to the advent of a computer crimes task force.

“Ten years ago we would have never said we needed that kind of thing, but as crime evolved and computers have been used to commit just about every crime imaginable, that became a reality.”

The Taser is the result of the reality that police work is growing more dangerous and criminals more confrontational, Welch said.

“So we have to change, too,” Welch said.

Snedeker said Welch is like other chiefs in Maine: looking for safer alternatives for officers and suspects.

“The whole philosophy of police work in the last 10 to 15 years has tried to get away from a lot of hands on, grappling, come-along holds and use of force by hands on,” Snedeker said. “A lot of chiefs and I don’t criticize them for this – a lot of CEOs – look at new technology as a better way to not have to use hand-to-hand force.”