Buffalo Police Seeks Permission to Begin Using Tasers

Last week the Buffalo Police Department submitted a request to the Common Council, asking to purchase tasers for more than 500 Officers.

In total, the request for tasers by the Buffalo Police Department comes up to almost $1 Million. This includes purchasing the devices, the training, supplies, and everything.

This request by the Police Department to spend such a large amount of taxpayers money comes at a time when the City has stated on multiple occasions that this is a bad year financially for local government.

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However it is important that law enforcement authorities come up with new, less lethal ways in dealing with the public. The continuing trend of unarmed people being shot and killed by officers calls into question the current officer training, the use of force polices of departments, along with their rules of engagement.

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Reporting done by NPR last year documents how Tasers are generally are mixed bag when it comes to their effectiveness.

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The Buffalo Common Council, was scheduled to debate this request at the Council meeting that was scheduled for Tuesday, October 27th, but the measure was referred to the Councils' Finance Committee. We're going to have to wait until then to find out what happens.

The next meeting of the Buffalo Common Councils' Finance Committee is scheduled for Wednesday, November 4th. You can find out more about meeting here on the Common Council website.