Two local law enforcement agencies are looking to use a federal grant to purchase electric tasers for patrol officers.

And local residents could get the chance to speak their minds about such a move before it takes place.

The Auburn Police Department and Cayuga County Sheriff's Office have been awarded a total of $50,668 through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Both agencies are seeking to purchase tasers with the grant and will try and apply jointly to the Justice Assistance Program through which the money will be available.

The Auburn City Council will decide Thursday whether or not to schedule an April 16 public hearing on the proposed purchase. A department officer will also be present Thursday to answer any questions from the councilors about the tasers.

The APD will receive the bulk of the money, a total of $38,278, though Auburn Police Chief Gary Giannotta said Monday he is not sure yet how much equipment either department can purchase with the funds. But this is a program Giannotta said he has wanted at the APD for four years.

Instances of resisting arrest and officer injuries have decreased at departments that have received tasers, he said. And when an incident is over, tasers do not create the lingering pain cause by the pepper spray officers currently carry, Giannotta said.

“It's one more step we would have before we reach for deadly force,” he said.

Tasers use electrical current to incapacitate an individual by causing muscle contraction. Some civil liberties and human rights groups have raised concerns over what they consider to be safety issues involving the deployment of tasers by law enforcement.

Tasers are often called non-lethal weapons, though in a June 2008 release about the NYPD's use tof asers, the New York Civil Liberties Union stated that they have resulted in numerous instances of serious injury and death.

Giannotta said part of the federal grant will go toward funding the appropriate time and equipment to train personnel on how to use the tasers. Officers aren't just given the equipment and told to hit the streets, he said.

“This is not just going out and buying the hardware,” Giannotta said.

Staff writer Christopher Caskey can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or christopher.caskey@lee.net.