Stun Guns for New Jersey Police

According to state officials, New Jersey officers will begin carrying stun guns within three to four months after new guidelines were released permitting law enforcement to employ them while on duty.

After resisting a nationwide trend the state Attorney General’s Office has issued the guidelines. These new guidelines make New Jersey the last state in the country to allow its officers the right to use the self defense tools.

The recently announced rules expand on a previous policy which was issued last year, but was extremely restrictive that no police department in the state of New Jersey bought or employed the devices.

Officials believes that New Jersey is the most cautions in the country when it comes to stun guns and have taken into account lessons learned from other states before they released the new policy on the devices.

In previous instances, the number of supervisors permitted to employ stun guns in each department was restricted by the population in that particular town, with a maximum of four stunning devices in each department.

Now, however, the new rules will allow department chiefs to determine how many officers can carry the self defense tools. An officer no longer needs to worry about receiving authorization from an on-scene supervisor to fire a stun gun.

But the policy does still hold on to some of its tough restrictions. Namely, that each officer who carries a stunning device on duty will be required to undertake training every six months, in addition to the devices being equipped with video recording equipment to record every time the weapon is in use.

This new policy means that New Jersey officers will now be equipped with a device that can protect them while on duty. It will also mean that they will have a greater success rate when it comes to apprehending violent suspects that may have been difficult to control in other cases with the use of other weapons.

While the state may have been the last to take on board the benefits of the tools, the simple fact that the guidelines have been revised is a clear indication of how much these devices have become relied upon when it comes to protecting the lives of officers and the public.