Taser contract for state prisons runs out of power
A 10-year, $2.1 million leasing contract to supply guards, probation and parole officers with state-of-the-art Tasers with body cameras went down in flames before the state Executive Council Wednesday.
Correction officers are not allowed to carry firearms behind prison walls and officials say they deploy Tasers to quell any unrest and keep the peace.
Tasers fire barbed darts attached to wires that conduct electricity. The darts are propelled by compressed nitrogen. The shock delivered by a Taser is designed to temporarily incapacitate a target by inducing neuromuscular incapacitation.
Executive Councilor David Wheeler, R-Milford, led the opposition to selecting Axon Enterprise of Scottsdale, Arizona, to supply 195 Taser 10 technology, an upgrade from the Taser 7 that the Corrections Department has been using.
The Executive Council turned down the contract on a 4-1 vote.
Wheeler said by his estimate the lone acceptable bid equals $10,000 per unit.
'This is just too expensive,' Wheeler said. 'Our State Police buy their Tasers, they don't lease them, they use them a whole lot longer than five years. We shouldn't be in two-, five-year phases to get new Tasers. We should buy these Tasers and make sure they last for seven to 10 years.'
Corrections Commissioner Helen Hanks said by agreeing to a 10-year lease the state is getting a discount worth $1 million and it allows the state to upgrade to a newer model in five years at no additional cost if one becomes available.
'The goal was to do the competitive plan and end up with not antiquated equipment,' Hanks said.
Wheeler said Axon programs its Tasers to be matched up with body cameras to become a 'too expensive package deal.'
Councilor: Told current Tasers work fine
Executive Councilor John Stephen, R-Manchester, said probation and parole officers have told him the Tasers they have now work fine and aren't in need of replacement.
'I'm told this Taser 10 is absolutely not necessary,' Stephen said.
Hanks said Concord Police Chief Bradley Osgood worked with the department and agreed that the upgrade made sense.
"There is conflicting information," Hanks said.
Prior to the vote, Hanks said if the Executive Council rejects the lease she would go back to pursuing a Taser purchasing contract like the one that came before the council and also failed to win enough support.
About 115 of the new Tasers would have gone to probation and parole officers, investigators, and officers who transport prisoners. The remainder would have allowed the department to put two Tasers in every housing unit in both Concord prisons and in the Berlin prison.
They'd replace the approximately 120 existing Tasers that Hanks had argued were out of date and in short enough supply they were not always readily available.
Executive Councilor Karen Liot Hill, D-Lebanon, the only supporter of the lease deal, said the camera footage hookup provides important backup information.
'Would rejecting this contract and going out to bid result in a lower price?' Liot Hill asked Hanks.
The commissioner said the result of another bid 'would be an unknown.'
klandrigan@unionleader.com
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