Shocked to Hear It

Most of us have never felt the pain, but it’s an experience that we really don’t need to live through to understand it’s no fun. Getting Tased, whether by a friendly police officer or an elder sibling, is causing enough fear that Longmont Police are seeing the use of force on suspects drop. Specifically, the LPD has announced a second consecutive year in which the number of instances a suspect was Tased has declined. In 2005, the department had to use the electric shock treatment 43 times—last year, only 28. Overall, use of force reports have dipped to 189 from 264 in that same time period. It turns out that local criminals don’t want to get shocked into cuffs. It leads to pain (see an Aurora Police lawsuit over a man who stole a salad) and sometimes death (see Lafayette police, circa 2006) to YouTube infamy (search “Don’t-Tase-Me-Bro”). Either way, Longmont cops need only mention the device and suspects typically comply. Criminals in Longmont are getting pretty smart.