WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) - Wilmington police officers are turning to stun guns with increasing frequency, using them nearly every other day last year.
The Wilmington News Journal reports on a department report that shows city officers logged 164 uses of stun guns in 2012. That's twice as many deployments as in 2011. Stun gun use also outpaced the use of other uses of force such as tackling, hand-to-hand combat and other types of "intermediate weapons," such as pepper spray and batons. Police arrested 5,413 people last year.
A man who led officers on a car chase died last week after officers tried to disable him using a stun gun, but Wilmington police and other agencies say the weapons, which disable people with probes carrying an electrical current, help protect officers and suspects from injuries.
