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News :: Crime & Police |
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Champaign Police Withdraw Request for Tasers After Community Speaks Up |
Current rating: 0 |
by Kimberlie Kranich
Email: kakranich (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified!) |
24 Mar 2004
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One day after the public turned out en masse at Tuesday's Champaign City Council meeting to oppose the purchase of Taser electroshock guns for the police force, the police chief and city manager decided to withdraw their request and work on strengthening relationships between community and police. |
Chief of Police, RT Finney, was hired to lead the department only four months ago.
Tasers were first brought before City Council in January but tabled after aldermen La Due and Rosales expressed concerns that they did not have enough information to make an informed decision nor was the public given time to respond.
The Council vote deadlocked at 4-4 Tuesday night with the ninth member of city council absent. Council members Giraldo Rosales, Kathy Ennen, JW Pirtle and Michael LaDue voted against Tasers. Council members Ken Pirok, Vic McIntosh, Jim Green and Mayor Schweighart voted for them. Tom Bruno was absent from the meeting.
Here is the full text of an email sent by city manager Steve Carter explaining the decision. Please feel free to thank him and the police chief for their wise decision.
"After speaking with Chief Finney about the discussion last night, we are withdrawing our request to purchase the tasers at this time in order to focus our efforts on building a better relationship with the minority community. We were encouraged last night by the interest expressed by the ministerial alliance and others to work to build a better relationship and feel we need to respond to this interest right away.
"In addition, the Chief is still getting to know the community and feels that moving ahead with the tasers would make it more difficult for him to do that effectively. In the meantime we can continue to monitor the use of tasers in other departments and the medical research. We still think there might be merit in considering tasers in the future, but working to build trust is most important now.
".. If you have any suggestions or thoughts to share, please let me know. Thanks!"
Steve Carter
City Manager
steve.carter (at) ci.champaign.il.us |
This work is in the public domain. |
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Re: Champaign Police Withdraw Request for Tasers After Community Speaks Up |
by Jim
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 9
25 Mar 2004
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Great news! Now the police can just continue to shoot people with their pistols instead of having a non-lethal alternative. |
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Re: Champaign Police Withdraw Request for Tasers After Community Speaks Up |
by Theo Tsoukalas
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 4
25 Mar 2004
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Just because the police is authorized to carry weapons of guns destruction, that does not mean that the police (as a unit of local government) should not be involved in exploring more humane ways to handle the things they are supposed to handle. A combination of guns and of tasers would have given that unit of the Champaign municipal government an excuse not only to avoid considerations of other more humane means, but also, worst of all, an excuse to avoid consideration of the police's relation to the African-American community. The Champaign City Council acted responsibly and democratically to withdraw its support for tasers--to that we should say thank you!
To poster Jim (that's ok to tell us who you are, Jim) may I say that the police have already lots of training in non-lethal alternatives of combat. A few years ago a great program called Community Policing went into effect in many communities across the United States, which engaged both the police and the community to seek ways to improve relations as well as to prevent crime and violence in more humane ways. But just like many other programs that work, Community Policing required funds to be sustained and so, in the name of money, a great program (that did not require tasers, and did not require guns on the foot-patrollling officers either) was let to expire in many communities across the United States.
So, with the money saved from the decision not to purchase of tasers, the City of Champaign, would be wise to spend it on improving relations with the African-American Community, and I hope they do.
Thanks for the great work, Kimberly Kranich, and thanks for encouraging the Champaign City Council to make the right decision. Hats off to you and your group!!
Theo Tsoukalas |
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Re: Champaign Police Withdraw Request for Tasers After Community Speaks Up |
by Bob Cook
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 5
25 Mar 2004
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Thanks to the folks who attended and spoke at the meeting. And thanks to Steve Carter and Chief Finney for their considered decision.
It's going to take alot of hard work to build greater trust between the minority communities and the Champaign police, and this is an excellent first step. I really hope to see efforts to build trust continue. Together we can find ways to make our communities AND our police safe that don't resort to shock treatment. |
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Re: Champaign Police Withdraw Request for Tasers After Community Speaks Up |
by Ricky Baldwin
baldwinricky (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified) |
Current rating: -2
30 Mar 2004
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Wow! Congratulations to everyone who worked on this! Democracy in action!
I think the task before us now is to educate the public about issues of police weapons and, related to that, misconduct.
I notice a few comments on your article seem to show a lack of information on what weapons the police actually have -- assuming that without Tasers, they have only guns, for example. This is the very reason the police almost got Tasers here and have gotten them in other places: clubs, pepper spray, etc., are supposedly nonlethal (or "less than lethal" as the police say), but as soon as they are added to the police arsenal, they are forgotten in favor of the next new toy.
As you and others pointed out, any of these can kill -- as illustrated the most recent person killed by local police, in fact -- as surely as the pistols, rifles and armored vehicle already owned by local police (not to mention their cars, which in my own home town have been used with deadly efficiency).
We need to thank them for this decision, yes, but keep an eye open for their next attempt -- and meanwhile work diligently to establish police review boards in Champaign, Urbana and the University.
OK, that's my plug. The website is: <www.prairienet.org/cprb/>
Thanks again! |
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Re: Champaign Police Withdraw Request for Tasers After Community Speaks Up |
by Angie
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 17
12 Apr 2004
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let's use cattle prod's instead! |
