County Approves $45K Taser Contract
Author: Eliza McLaughlin - Staff Reporter
County Approves $45K Taser Contract Eliza McLaughlin - Staff Reporter Broadwater County Commissioners approved a nearly $45,000 contract with Axon Enterprise Inc. to equip the Broadwater County Sheriff’s Office with tasers for the next five years during its Dec. 28 meeting.
Recently sworn-in Sheriff Nick Rauser told MT 43 News in an interview that these tasers are an important tool used to help keep the peace.
“It’s just another tool to help us do our jobs and to get compliance out of people,” Rauser said. “You always hope you never have to use it, but unfortunately we do.”
Undersheriff/Deputy Coroner Brandon Harris told the commission that there was a rush to sign the contract now before a 10% cost increase which would take effect in 2023 and that the office’s current tasers would be obsolete soon.
The new contract is approximately $4,000 a year higher than the county’s last, which Harris credited to inflation and more equipment being included in the sale.
The contract will cost the office $8,917.28 per year and provide it with 13 tasers and both training and live cartridges. The sale also includes a $789.75 hook-and-loop training suit, which will allow the officers to safely practice using the taser on someone as opposed to the “cardboard silhouette.”
“I think that’s really going to increase the training aspect with having the tasers,” Harris told the commission, adding that the office can now incorporate fire/don’t fire scenarios into the training session.
Harris clarified that the office wasn’t asking for any extra money to cover the contract, but planned to use reserves instead.
“Once again, I’m happy to come stand in front of you and not ask for money to operate,” he said during the meeting. The sheriff’s office was able to secure nearly $13,500 in savings on the contract by selling the office’s current tasers back to the company to be refurbished.
Harris added that the mill levy has been of service to the office’s budget and that its staff is now well-equipped.
While officers are required to shoot two training cartridges a year, another crucial part of their taser training includes being shot themselves.
“We all have to go through that so we know how it feels, so the abuse of the taser is very low,” Harris said.
The Broadwater County Sheriff’s Office has operated without a taser contract for several years. Because of this, Harris said, there are no warranties on the equipment and as things break, the office had to replace them out of pocket.
Without access to a functioning taser, officers are left with either hand-to-hand combat or deadly force — neither of which is ideal, Rauser told MT 43 News: “No cop is out looking to use deadly force.”
