HOUSTON COUNTY: Houston County Sheriff Deputies and Correctional Deputies are undergoing extensive training on new Tasers.
After 21 years Houston County Sheriff Donald Valenza has been able to get new tasers for the deputies and correctional deputies. Currently Lt. Trent Blair and others in training division are training each and every officer in the use of tasers.
Often times law enforcement officers are placed in bad situations with offenders when they are non compliance in orders given by the law enforcement officers. In the jail, at times, inmates attempt to over power a corrections deputy. Often ambushing the corrections deputy.
The old tasers the officers had one shot. The new on they have ten chances of striking the offender. And all is captured on body cams which allows command staff to critique the use of the taser.
The tasers allow the officers to not use deadly physical force. The taser will normally temporarily stop the offender in their tracks allowing the officers to get handcuffs on them and in custody. Since Alabama has stopped a lot of mental health treatment law enforcement are now forced to handle a lot of mental health patients.
