Ames Police are incorporating a new “tool” to help fight local crime — tasers.

Ames Police Sgt. Howard Snider and Ames Police Chief Loras Jaeger gave a presentation to the Ames City Council on Tuesday night regarding purchasing 10 tasers for the police department’s emergency response team.

“This is a controversial issue. We’ve struggled the last three years whether or not to go to tasers. There has been more than 100 deaths resulting from tasers across the country. It’s a small percentage considering the usage, but it’s enough to raise concerns, so we’re taking a cautious approach,” Jaeger said. “But several incidents the past year have convinced us to move in this direction.”

Ames Police Cmdr. Randy Kessel said this fall would be the earliest the department would have the tasers.

“We budgeted $9,800 last year for this, and the soonest that can roll over is August. It also depends on availability especially because we are buying the new model, not the old one,” Kessel said.

The ISU Police Department has equipped their officers with tasers since the summer of 2002, said ISU Police Capt. Gene Deisinger. Jaeger was the ISU police captain when they implemented tasers.

“We did an exhaustive study of the available less lethal weapons and found tasers had the highest level of effectiveness in real-world application,” Deisinger said. “We want to minimize the likelihood of serious injury to any suspect, officer or bystander and the taser allows you to very specifically target an individual and a point on their body.”

Jaeger and Deisinger both said tasers are preferred to impact weapons, like batons, because they provide a measure of accountability via a computer program inside the unit that records every discharge and can’t be edited or changed.

This helps in cases when people sue because they believe they have been treated with excessive force.

ISU police officers have experienced very few instances requiring the use of tasers and have had no serious injuries resulting from the use of a taser, Deisinger said.

Jaeger said the tasers would only be used as a last option before a fire arm.

“We have put it on the use-of-force continuum right before deadly force,” he said. “Which means if we didn’t have the taser then the only option we would have is to shoot the suspect.”

Tasers send out approximately 5,000 volts of electricity for five seconds on each pull of the trigger, Snider said, which gives officers a limited time to act.

Snider said damage from a taser isn’t as permanent as it would be from usage of an impact weapon.

“Once the electricity goes away, it’s over. There aren’t any lasting effects. An impact weapon causes more damage, like welts and bruises,” he said. “I’ve been tasered and struck by impact weapons, and I would choose tasering over impact based on my own experience.”