New tasers demonstrated Thursday at the Salt Lake City Police Department will provide more opportunities for officers to use less-than-lethal force during confrontations, officials say.
The updated stun guns and other new devices were demonstrated at an Axon Roadshow event outside the Public Safety Building. Axon — previously known as TASER International — develops public safety equipment such as police body cameras and management systems that store digital evidence.
SLCPD already uses Axon’s body cameras and a previous version of the company’s Taser, but will soon transition to the modified Taser 10 device for officers, Lieutenant Gordon Worsencroft said.
(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) From left, AXON master intstructor Dick Murdock and Salt Lake City police Lt. Gordon Worsencroft look at the placement of Worsenfroft's Taser cartridges, June 22, 2023, during a demonstration at Salt Lake City's Public Safety Building.
The department’s current stun guns each hold two cartridges with two “probes” in each shot. When an officer fires their Taser, both probes fire at the same time, and both have to make contact with a subject in order to send an electrical current through their body.
But it can be hard to aim both probes at the same time, and under the current model, officers only have two chances to make less-than-lethal contact.
“When we have winters and everyone’s dressed in layers of clothing, we would have that issue — we’d deploy the Taser, it’d get stuck between the first layer of clothing, and never make skin contact,” Worsencroft said. “These new ones... [Axon] showed us examples of how they re-engineered that. And they had people come out in heavier clothing — winter type clothing — and made contact with the skin.”
(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) A spent Taser probe cartridge from the AXON Taser 10, on June 22, 2023. The model has been re-engineered to be more accurate, have more rounds and fire at a longer range.
The new Taser 10 will have 10 cartridges, and fire one probe per shot. That allows officers to be more precise when they shoot the stun gun, Axon master sergeant Dick Murdock said during a training demonstration, and gives officers more chances to subdue a subject before potentially transitioning to deadly force.
The older Taser’s range was also limited to around 25 feet; the Taser 10′s range is up to 45 feet, Worsencroft said.
Axon also showcased new, larger drones at the event that can help with crash reconstruction — speeding up traffic investigations by producing a 3D scan of the scene, so roads can reopen quicker. The company doesn’t produce any drones itself, but creates software for drones in partnership with drone manufacturer DJI, according to Axon roadshow coordinator Mitchell Hackett.
A smaller drone demonstrated Thursday that doesn’t require a pilot’s license to operate had thermal imaging capabilities, and can be used by fire departments to determine the hottest point of structure fires, Hackett said.
It’s unclear if SLCPD plans to acquire any of the new drone technology. Worsencroft said the department currently uses drones for patrol and SWAT operations, but they aren’t Axon models.
“They’re really on top of the game as far as innovation, what we can use that stuff for,” Worsencroft said.
