Boston police had 70 Tasers. The department is spending millions on 1,500 more.

Boston Globe

16-04-2025

'The successful use and de-escalation by those units, particularly when responding to mental health related calls, highlighted the need to provide access to these tools to our front line officers,' Cox said. 'We want to equip our personnel with additional options to handle the many complex situations they face on a daily basis without causing serious harm whenever possible.'
Advertisement
The Boston Police Department did not respond to specific questions about the budget implications of the contract. Boston City Council President Ruthzee Louijeune and Councilor Henry Santana, chair of the city's public safety committee, were asked about the cost and use of the equipment, but their offices said they were not available for comment due to ongoing budget hearings.
Advertisement
Of the 1,500, the department has already acquired 260 new Tasers, with the eventual goal of equipping all its officers.
The rollout places Boston in step with most municipal police departments, which have already made Tasers part of their standard kit, said Bruce Champagne, a Utah-based retired police officer and use of force instructor who works as an expert witness on police procedure in federal court cases.
'They've only grown more accepted as time goes on,' Champagne said. 'Boston is maybe a little behind the national trend.'
One factor driving Taser adoption is their perceived utility for officers confronting people in emotional crisis — a scenario that all too often ends in tragedy. In Massachusetts, more than half the people shot by police since 2016 were mentally ill, a
Officers have grown to value Tasers as a useful tool for resolving those kind of unpredictable encounters, said Michael Bradley, executive director of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association.
'They can be particularly effective in reducing injuries to both officers and subjects, especially in cases where physical confrontation might otherwise escalate,' he said.
Axon has long touted studies that have found Tasers
But civil liberties groups and advocates for the mentally ill have questioned those claims, particularly for people who are already in poor health. In 2019,
Advertisement
'We know that when mental health is managed through policing, sometimes it can be very dangerous and lead to escalation,' said Ivy Moody, a staff attorney at the Quincy-based Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee. 'A Taser isn't a gun, but it can be a lethal weapon when it comes to folks who have comorbidities.'
Carlton Williams, a Boston-based attorney and police reform advocate, said he is skeptical that equipping officers with Tasers will make police encounters safer for mentally ill people. He called the suggestion that Tasers are safer 'a great theory in the abstract.' The more officers that have Tasers, he argued, the more that will use them.
'In practice, in almost every jurisdiction people have looked into, people use it as an increase in force,' Williams said. 'Are people going to step down force they would have used, or are they going to step it up?'
In 2021, Boston police issued
The agency's
Advertisement
Overall, Taser use by police in Massachusetts, including warnings and actual stuns, declined each year from 2018 through 2021, according to
The Boston Police Department is purchasing the Taser 10, Axon's latest version of the stun gun. The new model, released in 2023, features an increased range of 45 feet, a 10-probe magazine, and digital tracking of deployments, according to the company.
Tasers have become ubiquitous in police arsenals since 1999, when Axon, then named Taser International, introduced its first advanced model — capable of shocking a target's muscles into immobility.
'Most major police departments in the country have adopted Tasers,' said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.
At the turn of the millennium, 500 law enforcement agencies used Tasers, The
Boston police have used Tasers in two incidents this year, Detective Sergeant John Boyle wrote in an email.
On the evening of March 28, officers responded to a report of a man acting erratically on a corner across the street from the Forest Hills bus terminal. He did not appear to be armed, but he shoved officers who approached and said they'd have to 'shoot him' to get him to move, according to a police report.
Advertisement
Four officers stood around him, one carrying an application to hospitalize the man against his will. An ambulance was waiting, but the man wouldn't get in. After 15 minutes of de-escalation attempts, one officer unholstered his Taser, gave two warnings and fired, according to the police.
The incident is being investigated by the police Firearm Discharge Investigation Team, in accordance with department policy.
Another incident took place on April 8, when officers attempted to break up a fight between two dogs in Hyde Park. Minnie, a pit bull, had her jaws around the neck of Lolita, a French pocket bully; an officer tased Minnie 'to save Lolita's life,' according to the police report. Both dogs were taken to an animal hospital.
Dan Glaun can be reached at