Published: March 31, 2009 08:48 am      

Taser training

CRESAPTOWN — Law enforcement program students at the Allegany County Center for Career and Technical Education laughed Monday during a Taser training session. Although the subject matter wasn’t necessarily humorous, it accomplished instructor Shawn Grove’s goal.

It was evident the training had every student’s full attention.

Deborah Bittinger said she loves the school because it can provide students an “authentic experience.”

Bittinger, principal of the school south of Cumberland along U.S. Route 220, had only one question.

“And somebody wants to volunteer to get Tasered?” Bittinger said.

The answer was in the affirmative, although there was no one willing to go a second time during a hands-on training seminar conducted by Allegany County Sheriff’s Deputy Andy Mackert.

The seminar had two goals. In the short term, about a dozen police officers from multiple agencies received certification on the Taser, a tool used by officers to assist in getting difficult subjects to comply with orders. The second, long-term goal is to expose Grove’s law enforcement program students to a “real-world” experience.

The training session combined a computer PowerPoint presentation and video clips of the Taser being deployed with a live demonstration on three police officers inside the classroom.

“We’d love to do it every day,” Grove said of the school’s partnership with the professional community. “That’s what we strive to achieve.”

The Taser is a very useful and effective tool, Mackert told officers and students.

“But you don’t want to over-use the Taser,” he warned. “It’s a means to an end, but not every means.”

The Taser is a nonlethal, self-defense weapon that shoots probes into a person to deliver an electric shock. The Taser incapacitates the neuromuscular system so the person loses almost complete control of his motor skills.

Mackert showed videos of officers on scenes across the country. One suspect got out of his vehicle and ran toward a house.

“We don’t want him to get into that house,” Mackert said. “We don’t know what’s in there.”

Officers deployed a Taser. It made contact.

“Boom — dropped like a tree,” Mackert said of the suspect.

Another has police facing a suicidal woman standing on her front porch with a gun to her head. Taking a chance, officers fired a Taser, eliminating the woman’s ability to control her trigger finger.

Grove said his students benefit from training sessions like this on multiple levels. Graduates can earn up to five credit hours from Allegany College of Maryland. Students gain familiarity with approaching crime scenes, forensics, detaining a suspect and other skills. That can give them an edge if they attend a police academy.

The experiences “certainly can impress an interview board,” said Grove, a 25-year veteran of the Cumberland Police Department.

Contact Kevin Spradlin at kspradlin@times-news.com.