<p>When the prospect of buying Tasers first became a possibility for university police in early 2004, officials listed several reasons why they did not plan to purchase the items.
<br/>The devices are limited, UCPD officials said at the time, because they cannot be used on all subjects, such as people wearing baggy clothing.
<br/>Further, they pose the potential problem that officers will mistake their guns for Tasers, using guns in close-range and causing serious injury, officials said.
<br/>But by October of that year, UCPD had decided to purchase 16 Tasers, which operate by firing two electronic darts that lodge into a person?s skin or clothing and can temporarily
<br/>override the nervous system, taking over muscular control, according to Taser International, which markets Tasers.
<br/>An October 2004 Daily Bruin article quotes UCPD officers expressing a quick turnaround from the sentiments they expressed only a few months earlier.
<br/>Instead of focusing on the cost ? $22,000 total for 16 Tasers and the equipment to go with them ? and the limitations of the devices, they emphasized the potential benefits of using Tasers.
<br/>At this point, UCPD focused on Tasers? potential ability to reduce violence and injury between officers and suspects, provide a nonlethal method of gaining compliance, and minimize the chance of a lawsuit ? advantages which UCPD continues to emphasize in its discussion of Tasers.
<br/>Tasers are meant to be used in close range ? 21 feet or less ? according to Taser International, and act as an alternative to other close-range weapons, such as pepper spray, batons or firearms.
<br/>And both UCPD officials and representatives of Taser International say Tasers present a much safer alternative to these other forms of close-range weapons.
<br/>?The Taser is actually considered a very low-level force ... certainly much less than a baton or something like that,? UCPD Assistant Chief of Police Jeff Young said in an interview shortly following the Nov. 15 incident in which a student was stunned with a Taser five times when he did not cooperatively leave Powell Library when asked to do so.
<br/>And unlike these other close-range weapons, Detective Shaun Devlin at UC Irvine, a campus which utilizes Tasers, said they can be beneficial to people who want to inflict pain on themselves as well as those who try to inflict pain on others.
<br/>?(The Taser) is outstanding to use to keep the person from hurting themselves,? he said.
<br/><hr><i>With reports from Joanne Hou, Bruin contributor.</i></p><br><br><a href='http://www.dailybruin.com/news/articles.asp?id=39142&#039; target='_blank'>http://www.dailybruin.com/news/articles.asp?id=39142&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br>