2 - The Michigan Daily - Monday, June 14, 2004 NEWS AAPD purchases Tasers, aims. for better equipped officers By Donn M. Fresard Daily Staff Reporter :v The Ann Arbor Police Depart- ment, after placing an order totaling nearly $100,000, will equip each of its uniformed officers with Taser guns before next fall. Sgt. Jim Baird, the officer in charge of the Taser program, said the devices are intended to help police officers subdue uncoopera- tive suspects who are too dangerous to be restrained without a weapon, but who do not warrant use of dead- ly force. Before the Taser, officers could use either Mace or a baton on such T suspects. Baird said the new device is both safer and more effective than either of the old weapons. Mace, he said, is dependent on pain tolerance - a suspect who is able to ignore the pain can continue fighting, unaf- fected save for temporary blindness SLEXtZlhOSZ/taily - and the baton, while more effec- Ann Arbor Police Department sergeant Jim Baird displays one of the Tasers tive than Mace, is likely to cause recently purchased by the AAPD. The total cost of the guns was nearly $100,000. injury. "With the Taser, it's the best of Court decision removes MCRI bari er "With the Taser, it's the best of both worlds. It's more incapacitating than the baton, and even a sidearm in some cases. It allows you to take control of someone without hurting them at all" a -Jim Baird Ann Arbor Police Seargent both worlds," Baird said. "It's more incapacitating than the baton and even a sidearm in some cases. It allows you to take control of some- one without hurting them at all." The device, which weighs seven ounces and resembles a plastic toy gun, administers a 50,000-volt shock by firing two probes onto a subject's skin or clothing. Unlike traditional stun devices, which use painful shocks to subdue a person, the newer Tasers tem- porarily disrupt the electrical sig- nals between the brain and the nerves, causing a subject to lose muscular control and collapse. "They tried to use a Taser on Rodney King, and it was terriblyM ineffective. It wasn't the device that's in use today," said Baird of the older model that police used in the 1991 car chase with suspect King, ultimately using a baton to stop him. The older model, which relied on pain compliance to stop suspects from resisting arrest, used seven to 11 watts of electricity - and, as* with Mace, a sufficiently deter- mined suspect can continue fighting See TASERS Page 9 MCRI Continued from Page 1 Connerly from the Board of Regents. The Court of Appeals heard argu- ments earlier this month on whether supporters of the petition drive must change how the proposal is written. The panel reviewed recent lower court rulings, including the Ingham County ruling that the form of the petitions should not have been approved by the Board of State Canvassers. Circuit Court Judge Paula Mander- field had said in that ruling that the petitions don't say the proposal would alter existing provisions in the state constitution related to equal protection The University of Michigan Department of Dermatology is currently offering a research study for facial acne. If you are age 12 or older and are in good general health, you may be eligible to participate in a research program for facial acne. Office visits and study agent are provided free of charge to eligible participants. You may also receive compensation for your participation. For more information, please call: (734) 764-DERM University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers under the law and anti-discrimination. MCRI needs to collect a minimum of 317,757 petition signatures by early July to gain a spot on the fall statewide ballot. The ballot proposal would ban public schools and agencies from granting preferential treatment based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or nation- al origin. The petition effort comes after the U.S. Supreme Court's 5-4 decided last June that the University of Michigan Law School could consider race to cre- ate a diverse population. The court struck down the universi- ty's undergraduate policy for ensuring a mix of students as too formulaic, and university officials revised the policy last fall to include a more comprehen- sive review of each application. -Compiled from Daily staff and wire reports TII, Se 20, Spm SWHT[AWS! Su', June 20, 3pm SWEETHEARlTS Adults- $10.00 Students/children $5.00 M-763-9537 & At The Door Res$identIil {olle0 Auditorium 701 East University (betwceen Willard and Will) Park~ing in the rorest Street Structure The Michigan Dal ('SSN 0745-967) is published Mondays during the spring and summer terms by students at the University of Michigan. Subscriptions for fall term, starting in September, via U.S. mail are $110. Winter term (January through April) is 115, yearlong (September through Apri) is $195. University affiliates are sub- iect to a reduced subscription rate. Yeartong on campus subscriptions are $40. Subscriptions must be prepaid. The Michigan Daily is a member of The Associated Press and The Associated Collegiate Press. ADDRESS: The Michigan Daily, 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1327. E-mail letters to the editor to letters@michigandaily.com. 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