UH Police Chief Malcolm Davis said to combat the rise in crime on campus the Department of Public Safety is considering allowing UHPD officers to use Tasers on suspects.
"Everyone is scared of electricity," Davis said. "And Tasers usually have a good 25 feet reach."
The 2007 Clery Report, released by the University on Oct. 1, shows an increase in the number of on-campus burglaries, robberies and sexual offenses.
Forty burglaries were reported on campus in 2007, while in 2006 there were only 27. The number of robberies on campus also rose to nine from five and the number of sexual offense incidents on campus increased to 10 from six.
The Taser is a small gun-like device that fires electric darts to incapacitate a person temporarily.
Davis said an advantage of using a Taser is that it can injure and incapacitate suspects.
If a police officer pulls a gun on someone, the suspect may assume he or she will not be shot. If an officer pulls out a Taser, however, the person will obey the officer’s instructions.
Davis, who is in favor of using Tasers, said he has seen this demonstrated by other departments of security.
Most people are not aware of a Taser’s potential impact on the body. Davis had to go through a drill involving being shocked by one, and it’s something that he doesn’t want to experience again.
"It’s something that hopefully nobody should ever have to experience," Davis said. "The department is still trying to carry out information on whether or not tasers should be used on campus."
The University of Texas at Austin and the UT Medical Center are two of the other Texas universities already using Tasers.
Tasers cost approximately $800, which doesn’t include the $600 camcorder that gathers evidence on why the suspect had to be shocked.
