Shock and Flaw

Did New Haven police rush Tasers onto the streets before the kinks were ironed out? The answer might stun you.
July 26, 2007
By Betsy Yagla

It took nearly two years of bickering about whether or not the New Haven police should carry Tasers, and when and why they should use them, before 46 Taser-armed cops hit the streets on July 10. And just four days later, one was used.

Maybe things shouldn't have been so rushed.

The first use shows that City Hall and police brass still have some kinks to work out. Floyd Haywood, 22, was shocked with a Taser at 3 a.m. in front of 76 Day St. after he punched an officer. The aftermath of the first Taser use was nearly as chaotic as what lead up to it.

Haywood's been abusing the mother of his twins, according to police reports, and in June the two got into an argument that ended with Haywood punching her in the mouth. Police secured a warrant and found Haywood July 14 on Day Street. He started throwing punches at cops. No cop on scene had a Taser, so they called for backup. Officer Steve Silk arrived on scene and subdued Haywood with the stun gun.

At that point, fire personnel or American Medical Response technicians should have removed the Taser probes, according to the city's general order governing Taser use. It says, "qualified medical personnel, i.e. AMR/NHFD will remove any probes embedded in the skin."

But firefighters on scene wouldn't do it. They're not supposed to, says Pat Egan, the fire union president. Firefighters haven't been trained to remove probes. After a back-and-forth between police and firefighters, Haywood was sent to Yale-New Haven Hospital by ambulance.

Then another problem surfaced: No police supervisor on duty had been trained to download the Taser video automatically recorded by the machine. Police had to call in an off-duty training officer to download the video. The general order says the video must be downloaded by the end of the shift it was used on by either the chief, a certified instructor or a designated supervisor.

Overtime coming from the understaffed police department is already a problem: Between July 2006 and May 2007, more than $5 million was spent on police overtime. So why not train all supervisors on duty instead of paying overtime for someone to download and watch a Taser video at 3 a.m.? Assistant Police Chief Herman Badger says only a few people are approved to download to "maintain the integrity of the evidence." City taxpayers are footing the overtime bill for what seems like a lack of trust and organization in the police department. And that's shocking.