Winston-Salem police officers will soon be using Tasers.
The City Council voted 5-2 last night to spend about $550,000 over the next five years to equip each officer in the police department with a Taser.
The weapons work by shooting barbs that carry an electric current, temporarily paralyzing the person who is shot.
Council members Evelyn Terry, who represents the Southeast Ward, and Joycelyn Johnson, who represents the East Ward, voted against the Taser purchase. Council member Nelson Malloy, who represents the North Ward, was not at the meeting.
The city will buy 550 Tasers from Lawmen's Safety Supply, Inc., which is based in Raleigh and is the only authorized distributor of Taser products in North Carolina.
The city plans to pay for the Tasers with money collected during drug arrests.
If the police department does not collect enough money, the city will pay for the Tasers using tax dollars.
Under the purchase agreement, the city will get all the Tasers at once, but pay for them over the next five years.
Police chief Scott Cunningham has said that Tasers would give Winston-Salem police officers an option other than guns when dealing with uncooperative suspects. Some Forsyth County sheriff's deputies already carry Tasers.
Council member and mayor pro tempore Vivian Burke, who represents the Northeast Ward, said she hadn't received any calls from residents on the issue.
"This is something we are going to be trying," Burke said. "But it is also something we are going to be monitoring very closely."
Terry said she voted against the Tasers because of her principles.
"I don't want there to be a perception that I am anti-law enforcement," Terry said. "I am simply not ready to just do a carte blanche on the notion of Tasers."
In other business, the Council last night:
□ Approved adding a median to Martin Luther King Jr. Drive at Winston-Salem State University. The 12-foot-wide, 800-foot-long median will be paid for using money from the N.C. Department of Transportation.
Assistant City Manager Greg Turner said that construction on the median would likely start after July 1. He said that the median should be finished by the start of the school year.
■ Laura Graff can be reached at 727-7279 or at lgraff@wsjournal.com.
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