Dart Foundation - In the News - Police Receive Money for Tazers, Terminals

Police Receive Money for Tazers, Terminals

by Gina Kinslow/Glasgow Daily Times

CAVE CITY – Officers with the Cave City Police Department will soon be able to use Tazers to subdue unfuly people thanks to a Kentucky Homeland Security Grant.

The grant award was for $5,950 and will cover the cost to purchase seven Tazers – one for each police officer.

Chief Billy Minton has been looking into the issue of Tazers for the past two to three years.

"What Dart wants to do is help people in the community," she said.

He applied for a grant after speaking with the Kentucky League of Cities' law enforcement specialist. The use of Tazers, he said, is something KLC strongly recommends.

He also spoke to representatives of various law enforcement agencies statewide who use Tazers.

"A lot of these larger agencies I had talked to, it has significantly reduced officer injuries," he said. "It's been an asset to them. Of course, it would be an asset to anyone to not to have fight with a perpetrator."

The department's officers attended a Tazer training session on Dec. 9, 2008, in Horse Cave. Locally, officers with the Horse Cave Police Department and the Barren County Sheriff's Department carry Tazers.

Minton pointed out there have been incidents where the use of Tazers would have been beneficial.

"We haven't really had officers injured, but there's been numerous cases where it would have been very beneficial," he said.

The Kentucky Homeland Security grant is one of three the police department was recently awarded.

The department was also awarded a $2,000 grant from Dart Container Corporation in Horse Cave to purchase LED lightbars for all of the department's police cruisers.

Minton said the new LED lightbars are much more visible during the daytime than the lights the police department had on its cars.

Minton submitted a grant proposal to Dart's human resources manager Bev McManimie, who then submitted it to the Dart Foundation at the company's corporate headquarters.

She explained that the Dart Foundation awards for projects company officials deem are worthy.

"What Dart wants to do is help people in the community," she said.

The third grant was awarded by the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security and the Barren River Area Development District in the amount of $20,631.58 for the purchase of two mobile data terminal systems.

...the new LED lightbars are much more visible during the daytime....

The grant will allow the police department to complete its MDT project so that all police cruisers will be equipped with them.

Minton explained officers can use the MDTs to run checks on vehicle license plates, checks for wanted persons and to issue citations due to the devices having printers.

"We can also have the eCrash program installed where we can sit in the car and do accident reports," he said.

Minton anticipates having the MDTs installed by mid February.