While investigating the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) use of Tasers, especially during mental health calls, Spectrum News NY1 was given a demonstration of the BolaWrap, a lasso-type device which Wrap Technologies is marketing to the NYPD as a “solution to mental health crises.” The device, however, is just another in a long series that lead to an escalating use of force during police stops, placing people and police officers at greater risk. According to Spectrum News NY!, the NYPD has no current plans to employ the BolaWrap. Justin Feldman, Principal Researcher at CPE, discussed other, more holistic approaches to responding to mental health calls:
“There’s also deescalation, verbal deescalation techniques,” said Justin Feldman, who has studied Taser use by departments across the country with the Center for Policing Equity, a national nonprofit focused on making policing more “racially equitable,” urges the NYPD to use deescalation tactics.
That’s training the NYPD already conducts, seen in videos obtained by NY1 through the Freedom of Information Law.
As the new administration considers how it will direct the next generation of officers at the NYPD, some say there is no clear panacea.
But they are hoping for a new approach to Tasers.
“If they are used at all, they should only be deployed to a small fraction of officers and should have very tight regulation and oversight,” Feldman said.
Read the article on Spectrum News NY1’s website.