A fatal police shooting in Minnesota will bring changes to how Janesville police train their officers with Taser stun guns.
Police Chief Dave Moore reviewed the incident in Brooklyn Center where officer Kim Potter is charged with manslaughter for mistaking her Taser for her firearm when she shot and killed 20-year-old Daunte Wright last week.
Moore will have Sergeant Rob Perkins add verbal and visual cues for their officers’ training with the stun gun to try and reduce the risk of a potential mix-up, which he says is rare in law enforcement.
The training will include colored stickers on top of Tasers that officers have to identify verbally after drawing their weapon, to make sure they are clear about which gun they chose and build in that extra step of comprehension.
Moore said the concept comes from airline training for pilots to overcome spatial disorientation in the air and react to emergency situations when they need to trust their instruments instead of their immediate physical response, which can be wrong.
Sergeant Perkins plans to implement the training in the coming weeks and increase the frequency of the training after the pandemic limited their opportunities in the past year.
