Senate Bill S1680

                                 BILL NUMBER:  S1680

 TITLE OF BILL :
An act to amend the executive law, in relation to establishing the
stun gun grant program


 PURPOSE :
To establish a stun gun grant program in the Division of Criminal
Justice Services.

 SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS :
The bill amends the Executive Law by adding a new § 844 thereto which
establishes a stun gun grant program within the Division of Criminal
Justice Services.  Under the bill police departments may apply for
funds to either (1) purchase  stun guns or (2) reimburse said police
departments for funds, other than state funds, previously expended in
purchasing stun guns.

The bill directs the Office of General Services to contract with a
manufacturer of stun guns to obtain the best price available.
Additionally, the Division of Criminal Justice Services may require
that applicants provide matching funds, but no more than the amount of
the grant awarded. Police Departments with annual operating budgets of
$150,000 or less shall not be required to come up with matching funds.

              

Section two of the bill defines "police departments" as a county,
city, village or town police department or sheriff's department.

 JUSTIFICATION :
The program envisioned in the bill would allow law enforcement
agencies around the state to obtain stun guns at a reasonable price
through partial state subsidy. Stun guns have become a significant
tool in the arsenal available to police when non-lethal use of force
is necessary to temporarily incapacitate a suspect. They are now used
by more than 2,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States and
Canada.

A stun gun fires two barb-tipped wires up to twenty feet and can
penetrate 2-3 inches of clothing. It produces a 26-watt charge that
temporarily stuns the nervous system but will not affect the heart or
a pacemaker. A stun gun delivers non-lethal stopping power with no
harmful side effects and is effective when other non-lethal options,
such as pepper spray, are impractical. To guard against abuse, a
computer chip in the stun gun records each use of the weapon. Stun
guns range in cost from $400 to $750 per unit.

There are several examples over the past few years where lethal force
was used when police were unable to disarm suspects. The availability
of a stun gun in those situations could have enabled the police to
temporarily incapacitate and apprehend the suspect without having to
resort to the use of deadly force. Just a few recent examples in New
York State of how stun guns were used effectively illustrates this
point -- Nassau County Police incapacitate a knife wielding Valley
Stream man who had just stabbed his grandmother; New York City Police
incapacitate a Staten Island man who had assaulted his girlfriend and
barricaded himself in her apartment; Clarkstown police disarm two
knife wielding suspects who were both suicidal.  Contrarily, Albany
police officers who did not have access to stun guns were stabbed and
bitten while subduing a woman with a knife.

Aside from the obvious benefit of reducing injuries to suspects and
police officers, a secondary benefit will be a concomitant reduction
in worker's compensation claims by officers and lawsuits by suspects
against municipalities. One recent study in Orange County, Florida,
where the sheriff's department began using stun guns in 2000, showed a
decline by 80% of workers compensation claims. In addition, there was
a 100% decline in the use of firearms in apprehending suspects.
Overall stun guns accounted for 68% of all use-of-force situations by
the Orange County Sheriff dramatically reducing canine bites, baton
strikes, beanbag rounds and firearms use. In a similar study done in
Phoenix, Arizona, injuries to suspects dropped by 72% after the
department began using stun guns.

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :
To be determined.

 PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :
2003-04: Senate Finance Cmte/Assembly Ways & Means Cmte.
2005-06: Senate Finance Cmte.
2007-08: Senate Finance Cmte.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after it
shall have become a law.