The Forest Park Police Department was awarded a $21,600 grant to fully fund six tasers after the village council’s approval at the Nov. 10 meeting. The grant pays for six taser packages — each costing $3,600 — including a taser, holster, battery pack, live duty magazines and cartridges.
Police Chief Ken Gross told the Review that officers use tasers if a person is actively resisting handcuffs and police are unable to take them into custody with just their hands. Village policy states that officers should only use tasers “to effectively bring an incident under control, while protecting the safety of the officer, subject, and others.”
According to Gross, Forest Park police officers have deployed a taser 19 times from Jan. 1 to Nov. 13 this year. Last year, that number was 17, though Gross added that a deployment doesn’t necessarily mean the tase was successful.
“It’s not an everyday occurrence,” Gross said of his department’s taser use.
When Forest Park cops deploy a taser, after their subject is in custody, they fill out a use-of-force report. Both this year and last year, taser use has accounted for about half of the police department’s use-of-force events, Gross said. The department’s tasers log data, like the amount of time that a trigger is pulled and that the taser is deployed.
Gross said the Forest Park Police Department got new tasers last year, but the six that come with the new grant add to the current supply.
“We just want to have enough on hand for all the officers on the street to use,” Gross said. “If we have a larger event like St. Paddy’s, where we have more officers working, we want to be sure we have enough for our staff. And should they happen to go down, break or need a repair for some reason, we have backups.”
Gross said the police department will phase out older tasers, which “are a little bit outdated as far as technology” after officers are trained on the new tasers.
The grant for the six new tasers was from the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System, and there is no match required from the village. The police department applied for the grant in May 2024.
Gross said that anytime he sees a grant that the police department could apply for, or has outdated equipment that needs replacing, he sends those opportunities to the agency that helps the village with grant writing.
“If there’s a need that the department has, and I know I might not have the budget for it, I’ll ask that company to search for something that meets our needs,” Gross said.
At the Nov. 10 council meeting, Village Administrator Rachell Entler commended village staff for actively applying for grants.
“Our staff has been working really hard to supplement our finances with these grants for some much-needed equipment,” Entler said. “These are not necessarily wish list items. These are items that we need in order to do our jobs.”
