The Missouri Intergovernmental Risk Management Association (MIRMA) has helped another Callaway County police department lower its liability and keep its residents safe.
MIRMA representative Kelly Beets presented Holts Summit with a grant for $1,665 during an alderman work session Monday. The money will help buy an additional Taser for the Holts Summit Police Department.
"They're an effective control tool to reduce liability," said Chief Kyle McIntyre, noting that MIRMA offered the grants for that purpose. "It's the exact same (Taser) we have. We bought our first last year."
McIntyre said the department will buy the Taser X2 brand of taser, and the grant would cover about 75 percent of the device.
The Taser the department currently owns is in use by its cover officers. The new one will be given to the patrol officer on duty to carry.
McIntyre said in addition to being a less-than-lethal way to diffuse a situation, the Taser can also be equipped with an HD camera to record incidences in which they are used, cutting officer court time.
"We've only had a couple of activations (drawing the Taser) and no actual deployments; it hasn't been fired yet," McIntyre said. "Usually the threat of it reduces the problem right then, because people know what the Tasers are."
Holts Summit has utilized MIRMA for the past few years, and the Holts Summit Police Department has also received dashboard cameras and other devices through the annual grant program.