In about six-weeks time The Manchester Township Police Department will be adding 20-tasers to their arsenal for non-lethal ways to defuse potentially deadly situations.

Manchester police cruiser
Manchester police cruiser (Dan Alexander, Townsquare Media NJ)
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Lt. James Komsa explains that he researched all the different makes and models from the list approved by the State Attorney General's Office.

"Those two models are the X2 and the X26," said Komsa.

He adds that they chose the X2 because it's able to fire two cartridges out of the taser as oppose to one with the X26.

"With a model X2, if an officer misses or there's some kind of situation where he needs to deploy a second shot with that taser, he's able to do that," said Komsa.

He adds that it's a non-lethal way to defuse a potentially deadly situation.

"At least that officer will have that alternative available, rather than to have a situation occur and look back and wonder 'if only we would have purchased the tasers'," said Komsa.

Training officers how to properly deploy tasers and providing instruction on when it would be necessary to use them is all apart of the departments plan explains Komsa.

"The Attorney General has set strict guidelines for the use of tasers by law enforcement," said Komsa.

He adds that any taser deployed in New Jersey must be video and audio recorded as well.

"With our particular model, the X2, we also purchased the 'taser cam' which is built right into the X2," explained Komsa.

When an officer unlocks the safety on the tasers, the audio-video recording would then begin.

The power one of these tasers can give the human body is a lot of electricity.

"Voltage wise...they're 50,000 volts (of electricity)," said Komsa.

He adds that there are no long term health effects anyone will suffer from upon deployment of these tasers.

Manchester Township will join another shore town in Lakewood Township in getting tasers for their police departments.

The Lakewood Scoop reported last week that Lakewood Police Officers will be getting taser guns of their own soon.

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Contact Reporter Vin Ebenau at 848-221-8100 or at vin.ebenau@townsquaremedia.com

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