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Q&A
Council Member Salaam inquires about NYPD's non-lethal equipment usage and effectiveness
1:18:18
·
4 min
Council Member Yusef Salaam leads a Q&A session on the NYPD's use of non-lethal equipment, particularly focusing on tasers. Various NYPD officials, including the Commissioner and Chief of Training, provide information on the types of equipment, their lifecycle, and plans for improvement.
- The NYPD currently uses OC spray (mace) and tasers as non-lethal equipment
- Tasers are leased with a 5-year lifecycle, costing about $11 million per year
- The department is transitioning from the X26 model to the Taser 7, with potential plans to explore newer models for increased effectiveness
Yusef Salaam
1:18:18
I'm gonna move to stun guns.
1:18:21
So I wanna talk about the NYPD's use of nonlethal equipment.
1:18:26
What nonlethal equipment does an officer have at their disposal when engaging with an individual currently?
Jessica Tisch
1:18:35
For that I am going to ask our chief of training to come up to respond to the question.
Brian Sarfo
1:18:55
Do you swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth before the council members of this committee?
Jessica Tisch
1:18:59
I do.
Brian Sarfo
1:19:00
You may begin.
Martine N. Materasso
1:19:01
Hi, sir.
1:19:02
Martine Manorasso, chief of training.
1:19:03
So we both equipped with the OC spray, otherwise known as mace, as well as the taser.
1:19:10
We don't call it the stun gun.
1:19:12
There's two models right now.
1:19:14
We have the taser seven that we're transitioning to coming off from the x 26.
Yusef Salaam
1:19:23
X 26.
1:19:28
Do we know what the the life cycles for this equipment is, and is there funding to replace the equipment?
1:19:33
I know that you said that they're moving from the x 26 to the TASER seven.
Kristine Ryan
1:19:38
Yes.
1:19:38
So the life cycle is five years for the TASERs.
1:19:43
And we actually lease the TASERs, and we pay about $11,000,000 a year for that.
Jessica Tisch
1:19:52
And so that means when it comes past five years, you get it just a new one
Kristine Ryan
1:19:58
at same Exactly.
1:19:59
We're able to replace it.
Yusef Salaam
1:20:00
Is there is the in terms of the life cycle, and this is just me maybe part of my ignorance.
1:20:07
If, say for instance a taser is was manufactured say this year and I know we're moving to the x 20 to the to the from the x 26 to the taser seven.
1:20:22
If in that five year cycle that particular TASER was not used, would that TASER be like kind of trashed
David Cook
1:20:34
for lack of
UNKNOWN
1:20:34
a better I
Martine N. Materasso
1:20:35
don't I I could get back to you on that, but I don't believe that we have them in a way that we're not using them, that they would expand you know, expunge on their life cycle.
Jessica Tisch
1:20:43
But I'll just I'll just try to make this clear.
1:20:46
When you lease equipment rather than buy it at city agencies often that is done to flatten the cost and also to ensure that you don't run into problems with equipment being past end of life.
1:21:07
So presumably as part of that contract once a taser goes beyond year five then the company is required to provide a new taser to the department.
1:21:21
So you don't have end of life equipment, is that correct?
Maryam Khaldi
1:21:24
Yes.
1:21:24
Okay.
Yusef Salaam
1:21:29
What diminish the effectiveness of nonlethal equipment?
Jessica Tisch
1:21:36
What could increase the effectiveness
Michael Lipetri
1:21:39
of
Yusef Salaam
1:21:39
nonlethal equipment?
Jessica Tisch
1:21:42
So one thing that we're taking a good hard look at in this department right now under the leadership of the First Deputy Commissioner and the Chief of Training is the effectiveness of our tasers.
1:21:57
I have seen too many videos, body camera clips that end in use of lethal force where the officers first attempted non lethal force.
1:22:12
And so we are pouring through our data looking how we track it and preparing to have some conversations with Axon, the company that provides the TASERs to us to look at perhaps we should go to beyond the X7 to the newest model if we're seeing or if we're having concerns about having to use lethal force when we first tried non lethal.