OVIEDO, Fla. – The Oviedo Police Department has completed upgrading its five-year-old Tasers.
Officers went from a 2018 Taser 7 model to a 2023 Taser 10 model.
Oviedo City Communications Manager Lisa McDonald said the newer Tasers are safer for officers and suspects.
“The old Tasers use a two-prong approach to subduing a subject, with one prong being positive voltage and the other prong being negative voltage,” McDonald said. “Both of those prongs are equal to about 50,000 voltage.”
The new Tasers deliver much less voltage in a single shot, “approximately 800 to 1,000 volts,” about 1/50th less voltage than the older model.
“It also has a warning alert on top of the officer’s commands,” McDonald said.
Accuracy and range also increase. The new Tasers have a range of 45 feet “and can be used from a greater distance to subdue a subject.” The old ones fired only 25 feet.
The old Tasers required reloading after two firings, but the new Tasers contain 10-shot cartridges, giving officers more opportunities to hit the intended target in case they miss or if the prong was unable to pierce clothing or other outerwear.
The Oviedo Police Department said the new Tasers cost about the same as the older model.
Sgt. Wade Weaver, Oviedo Police Department’s training supervisor, said being able to fire more accurately from further away means improved safety for the officer and the suspect.
“It also will allow us to use the least, the lowest amount of force possible to gain compliance from a subject,” Weaver said.
How difficult was it to hit a moving target using the old two-pronged Taser?
“It happened quite a bit,” Weaver said. “I will say, though, that the average, because people are probably thinking 10 shots, ‘Are you going to put all ten into somebody?’ No, the average on the national side is we’re looking at about 3 - 5 darts per engagement.”
Weaver also said the new Tasers are purposely quieter when they fire so as not to confuse the Taser with a gun.
“The other (old) Taser is very loud, and it could be confused with a gunshot,” Weaver said. “And so that was part of the impetus for wanting to change. Because the quieter it is, the less we can confuse that for gunshots and things of that nature.”
