Waterloo,IA
COURIER
Walarloo
M,t Alit

0 44,048

ThUrsday
JAN

17, 2002

Campus police to carry stun .guns
• Regents OK proposal
allowing lasers, 9-0,

·was hardly ct stunner.

After Uie university presidents of Northern Iowa, Iowa
and Iowa State put their sup.
port behind the proposal to arm
By TERRY HUDSON
security officers with the M-26
Taser stWl gtms, the board was
Courier Staff Writer
expected to concur, and it did so
IOWA CITY
with a 9-0 vote.
The state Board of Regents' • That was a relief to Dave
decision Wednesday to allow zarifis, UNl"s director of public
campus police to carry Tasers safety, who exchanged congrat-

TASERS
Officers will be trained
. before they use lasers
Continued from page A1
over time. It's more of an open
environment and we need these
tools to make certain we're doing
all we can for public safety."
In addition to the student suppori, UNt President Robert Koob
said he received notice of support from two other major staff
groups.
"My opposition in the past has
been to lethal weapons," Koob
said. "I looked at the literature
and found no pattern of ill side
effects. My view of it is that it's
lilI:e a long-range nightstid•. In
the end, [couldn·t fInd a rationale to deny this:'
University of Iowa President
Mary Sue Coleman agreed.
'1 asked, two-and·a·half years
ago, our head of public safety to
investigate alternatives to lethal

flrearms," Coleman said. "I'm
extremely pleased with the rec·
ommendation he brought to me."
The M·26 TaBer, which
bles a handgun, shoots a cubeshaped cartridge with two small
probes that deliver an electrical
shock, disabling ti,e targeted per·
son from a few seconds to a few
minutes
"We work in a dangerous profession," Zarifis said. "This will
anow for better officer safety, as
weU as the safety of others."
When the stun guns will be
added to the UN! safety officers'
arsenal of pepper spray and collapsible batons is not clear.
"It absolutely will not start
until we're ready," Zarifls said.
"The liming will be based on
when we get the equipment, the
training. the policies and the
readiness. It's not going to be
pushed."
There are 18 officers on the
UNI safety force. Each Taser
costs arOtmd $400. zarifis has
maintained thai if peOple expect
protection from the safety force,
the officers need the Tasers.

.resem·

ulations with his University m stun guns on a 29-5 vote. Later
that month, a straw poll of 13
parts after the board meeting in members of the UNI ['acully
[owa"s Memorial Union.
Senate .howed eight oPl'Osed
Zarifis had campaigned. the Tasers. with one in favor
across campus for the Tasers, and fOUf abstentions.
giving informational presenta·
"We realize we won't have full
tions to university groups over support from everybody,"
the past few months. In Zarifis said. "But I.miversity
November, the Northern Iowa ahnospheres have changed
Student Government approved
See lASERS, page A8
a resolution in support of the

Iowa and Iowa State counter-

An M-26 laser