The River Forest Police Department will phase in the use of Tasers over a three-year period, making this sometimes controversial method of subduing violent offenders available to its officers.

Department officials informed village trustees Monday night of the progress that a police committee has made since March 2013 when five officers began studying every aspect of the issue – from policies and procedures of other departments to the medical and ethical considerations. The committee also examined information from a wide variety of organizations – from the NAACP to the American Civil Liberties Union to Amnesty International in assessing the use of Tasers.

The issue is an operational matter that did not have to be brought to trustees for approval. But the department wanted to apprise the board about it because it has been controversial. “We wanted to make sure that the board had no concerns,” Deputy Chief Jim O’Shea said. 

There were none. 

One officer has now been trained to teach others how to use the non-lethal method, and O’Shea is expecting that at least two to three more police officers will become instructors.  It is uncertain how many Tasers will be purchased or whether every officer on the force will have one at his or her disposal.

Over three years the entire force of 28 officers will learn how to not only use the weapon but be cognizant of the issues surrounding its use. 

“There will be training, policy, procedures, accountability, transparency and oversight attached to a program like this before this is implemented on the street,” O’Shea said. 

There is no date set on when officers will begin using Tasers, which will not become the sole or replacement method taken in lieu of using other less dramatic options that the department already deploys, such as pepper spray, the expandable baton, the less-lethal bean bag shotgun, and the Pepperball launcher.

One reason that the department is interested in using Tasers is to reduce officer and suspect injuries and lower workers’ compensation claims. Also, over the past several years at least three officers were injured and placed on injured-on-duty time off status due to having to physically fight with violent arrestees. 

An opinion from the department’s Safety Committee pointed out that these injuries may have been avoided if a Taser had been available for the officer to use, according to the department memo to the board of trustees.

O’Shea pointed out one incident in which two officers both sustained scrapes and bruises in subduing a man who was apprehended in Melrose Park after a domestic-related incident. 

On more than a dozen occasions in the past 18 to 24 months, the River Forest Police Department had 

to call for Taser assistance from the Elmwood Park police and Forest Park police with regard to arrestees on the street or for violent prisoners in the department’s lock-up facility. 

The only area department that does not deploy Tasers is Oak Park, O’Shea said.

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