WASHINGTON — Use of force with stun guns is declining in Fairfax County, Virginia, according to an update Wednesday on the police department’s Electronic Control Weapons program given to the county supervisors’ Public Safety Committee.
In 2018, officers pulled the trigger on stun guns 74 times to subdue suspects with an electric shock; the previous year, there were 82 deployments of the weapon. In 2016, there were 64, and 108 in 2015, the year the program began.
Every case has been investigated, reviewed by the internal affairs bureau and discussed by senior staff, including the use of force review committee, Fairfax County police said.
“I can assure you that every single use is within our general orders, within the training (protocols); we constantly adjust our training,” Fairfax County police Chief Ed Roessler told the committee.
During the four years of the program, three people have been injured.
“All of those cases were people who fell and got a laceration. All of them were treated and released and got no serious injury,” Roessler said.
Officer training for use of electronic control weapons stresses that they are an option of last resort.
“When possible, officers are encouraged and trained to attempt to use de-escalation strategies first, such as verbal communication,” Eric Campbell, master police officer with the county’s Criminal Justice Academy, told the committee.
In 2016, Roessler mandated yearly de-escalation training. “So, we are isolating, containing, evacuating, negotiating and using time to allow someone’s episode to de-escalate so we can safely go in and get intervention to that person, whether it’s diversion to mental health or an arrest,” he said.
Officers are advised not to use the weapons on someone who is pregnant, very young or elderly, especially small or obese, or has a known medical condition.
In 2015, the Ad Hoc Police Practices Review Commission recommended every patrol officer be assigned an electronic control weapon, but that’s among roughly 12 percent of the recommendations that have yet to be implemented.
The commission was created after Springfield resident John Greer was shot and killed in 2013 by a Fairfax County police officer.
So far, the department owns 476 of the weapons. Most are assigned to the department’s eight district stations. Some are in specialty units, such as with K-9 patrols and SWAT, and 300 are assigned to the patrol division where officers who are trained to use them have the option of checking one out for use during his or her shift.
Roessler said the department is currently going through the procurement process to buy enough of the weapons so every officer can be a assigned one.
