Lincoln Police Chief Brian Sullivan, center, is hit with a TASER fired by training officer Sgt. Wayne Bouthillette. Catching him are Sgt. Ken Smith, left, and Patrolman Russ Enos, right. At far left is Patrolman Steven Tellier, also a training officer.

The Providence Journal / Connie Grosch

CENTRAL FALLS — It’s the last day of TASER training for the Lincoln police and the chief is waiting to take a hit from the stun gun at a gym in the training center at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility.

Lincoln Police Chief Brian Sullivan stands on a blue gym mat in a T-shirt and khakis flanked by police officers serving as spotters.

“TASER. TASER TASER!” Sgt. Wayne Bouthillette shouts out before he fires.

Two probes from the yellow TASER lodge themselves like fishhooks into Sullivan’s back. For five seconds, you can hear the crackle of 50,000 volts as it hits him. Sullivan’s mouth gapes open in pain and his body buckles toward the mat, but Sgt. Kenneth Smith and Patrolman Russ Enos hold on to him and let him down slowly, face down. It takes the chief about 90 seconds before he can move.

Lincoln is the latest police department in the state to purchase the $900 TASERS, mostly with federal stimulus money. Central Falls and Cumberland are not far behind. Sullivan said he hopes the 17 TASERS will help keep officers — and suspects — from getting injured because a situation may be diffused by shocking the person.

“We don’t have the type of crime that the bigger cities do with all the shootings, but we do have people who become violent. If we have to deal with a subject who is violent, we have to get involved hands-on, which increases the potential for an injury to both the officer and the suspect,” Sullivan said.

There are 40 law-enforcement departments in Rhode Island, including police departments, tribal police, the state police tactical team and the U.S. Marshals using TASERS or testing them, according to the Arizona-based company. Michael J. Healey, spokesman for the attorney general’s office, estimates that about half of the 38 police departments in the state use TASERS, including Providence, North Kingstown, East Providence, Newport, Coventry, North Providence and Woonsocket.

Lincoln Capt. Raymond Bousquet said each TASER contains a recording device that marks the date and time it was deployed. Each time officers use the weapons, they must fill out a use-of-force report that is reviewed by supervisors to check wether policy and proper procedure was being followed.

Richard Crino, vice president of acute services at NRI Community Services Inc., which works with police departments on how to recognize mental illness and how to respond, said the agency supports the use of TASERS as a less-lethal weapon that can be used to de-escalate a volatile situation.

“A person who has a knife and is going to use it on himself or police would be subdued instantly with a TASER, whereas the outcome would be quite different if the officer is forced to shoot them to stop them from using the knife,” Crino said.

But Steven Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said that while the TASER is touted as a weapon of last resort, he fears police could use it as a weapon of first resort. Brown said there are also concerns that persist about the safety record of the TASER. He referred to an incident in Woonsocket in which a 41-year-old man collapsed and later died after the Woonsocket police shot him with a TASER twice during a struggle in 2006. The state cleared the police of wrongdoing.

“The TASERs were introduced as a wonderful alternative to police use of deadly force. That has dramatically changed. Too many departments view the use of TASERS as routine,” Brown said.

Coventry Police Chief Ronald DaSilva said the number of injuries to his officers when dealing with suspects is down, but it was unclear whether that could be attributed completely to TASER use. He has 60 officers and eight TASERS. “The TASER incapacitates the person. It gives us enough time to go in there,” he said.

TASERS could have come in handy when Cumberland officers confronted 19-year-old Jonathan Pora in August after he barricaded himself in his bedroom and later escaped and jumped into the Blackstone River, said Cumberland Police Chief John Desmarais. Pora got into a physical confrontation with his officers and one of them ended up with a broken nose. When they pulled him out of the river, another officer was injured.

Desmarais said his department plans to purchase the TASERS and is looking for funding.

Chief Joseph Moran of the Central Falls Police Department said having 10 officers injured last year while taking people into custody was the last straw for his department.

In the next three weeks, each of his 42 officers will get a TASER. “If people square off on you and get into a fighting stance, the officers will be trained to use a TASER. This is going to save our guys from injuries and, hopefully … we won’t have to use deadly force,” Moran said. How a TASER works

The TASER fires two metal barbs that are attached to wires, which can cover a distance of up to 25 feet. Once the barbs are embedded in an individual or on the individual’s clothing, the weapon delivers an electrical charge of 50,000 volts through the wires to the barbs. The charge causes the muscles of the individual to involuntarily contract, which immediately incapacitates the individual for the duration of the shock, usually about 5 seconds.

tpina@projo.com