CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Petite Tasers in vivid colors are on their way to the consumer market, where the manufacturer hopes a sleek version of the cumbersome weapons used mainly by law officers will become a pocketbook staple.
“Not only did we shrink it down in size, but the form now looks more like a PDA,” said Taser International spokesman Steve Tuttle. “It’s a new generation product.”
The $299 Taser C2, which goes on sale Monday, is the company’s fourth consumer model but the first designed to attract those turned off by traditional stun guns, Mr. Tuttle said. Available in a selection of colors, including “black pearl,” “titanium silver,” “electric blue” or “metallic pink,” the weapon is small enough to fit in a purse and is designed to resemble a sleek phone or PDA, he said.
Local residents Tracey Myrell and Geneva Morrow said they would like to arm themselves with the device when traveling to and from work in downtown Chattanooga.
“I probably would buy one, for security reasons,” Ms. Myrell said.
But local police officers are concerned about the safety of civilian use of the devices, said Chattanooga Police Department Assistant Chief Mike Williams. In addition to the potential to hurt an officer, the devices could present a danger to the owner if a threatened officer is forced to pull out his or her gun, he said.
“Because the officer can be incapacitated and basically be rendered helpless (by a Taser), it could escalate the threat level up to a deadly force level,” Chief Williams said.
Kristin Zinser, a case worker with the Sexual Assault Crisis & Resource Center, said she is concerned victims could be rendered defenseless if an attacker were to take it.
Chattanooga resident Kelly Peterson said she worries the device would be “too powerful for the general public. I think a lot of people could abuse it,” she said.
While the company’s law enforcement version shoots electrically charged wires up to 35 feet, the Taser C2 has a range of only 15 feet, Mr. Tuttle said. Taser International employs a series of security checks before the devices are activated, Mr. Tuttle said, charging each customer an additional $9.95 for registration verification and a criminal background check.
“It ships to you completely inert,” he said. “Let’s say the postman steals it, or somebody takes it. It’s OK. It won’t work.”
After receiving the device, he said, customers must answer several questions over the company’s toll-free activation line or on its Web site before they’re issued a password unique to the serial number on the Taser, Mr. Tuttle said.
The Taser C2 will be sold on the company’s Web site and at select sporting and gun shops. According to Mr. Tuttle, only about five crimes have been committed with Taser brand stun guns in the past dozen years.
“We’re not saying that it’s an impossibility,” he said. “But we’ve gone beyond anything that’s out on the streets in terms of doing this identification system and verifying and tracking it.”
The use of Tasers has come under fire, with Amnesty International calling for an independent review of their use in January. But Mr. Tuttle said Tasers are the safest form of self-defense, despite reports last week that 20 percent of the Chattanooga Police Department’s stun guns have had battery problems.
Taser International has outfitted more than 11,000 law enforcement agencies across the country and has sold more than 136,000 units to civilians since launching its consumer product line in 1994, Mr. Tuttle said. But high cost and portability problems have prevented the consumer models from catching on widely, he said.
The prior consumer model, the X26C introduced in September 2004, retails for $1,000 and looks similar to the law enforcement X26 model, Mr. Tuttle said.
Ronnie Lipscomb of Dalton Pawn Brokers Inc. is the only licensed Taser distributor in the Chattanooga area, but he said he has never sold one and keeps only cartridges and batteries in stock. Those, he said, are purchased solely by security guards or private security firms.
“They’re so big, who wants to carry them?” he said of the X26C model. Mr. Lipscomb said he will gauge interest in the new Taser model among his customers before stocking it.
Copyright 2007 Chattanooga Publishing Company