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Law enforcement receives tasers

Ashley Hunter
ECB Publishing, Inc.

The networking of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office has again paid off for residents of Jefferson County as well as the City of Monticello.
On Tuesday, August 21, the Florida Highway Patrol completed a task that had been in the works since April as they transferred 40 tasers to the JCSO.
According to FHP Major Chris Blackmon, each taser still has 2-3 years left, but were being surplussed by the agency due to the FHP transitioning to a different taser model.
The 40 tasers are X26 tasers, and FHP's Troop H will be using X2 models.
“Rather than get rid of them, we'd rather give them to someone who can use them,” said Major Blackmon.
Along with the tasers themselves, FHP provided holsters and live and training cartridges for each taser.
With all the accessories that accompany each taser, the price is estimated to be $800-$1,000 per taser, which is a $32,000-$40,000 price tag per the lot.
JCSO's Sheriff Mac McNeill kept 25 of the tasers for his agency, but passed on 15 of the taser and equipment sets to the Monticello Police Department, sharing the savings and including the city's law enforcement agency in obtaining better and newer equipment to assist in their policing efforts.
“FHP was very generous and made sure both agencies (MPD and JCSO) received holsters, new batteries, cartridges and the guns themselves,” said Sheriff McNeill
With new equipment coming into the law enforcement agencies, this will allow both the MPD and JCSO to stay on top of their protection of the citizens of Jefferson County without adding fiscal strain to the limited budget.
“This will do is allow us to equip our officers with the tasers that we won't have to purchase out of our budget money,” said Sheriff McNeill. “It'll give us a two to three year window to get our budget money right so we can order new tasers when the time comes.”
“It'll benefit the MPD because it will be at no cost to the taxpayers and it'll help us to upgrade and maintain our equipment for the safety of our citizens,” added Chief Mosley.
These tasers are in addition to the camera systems, vehicles, guns and vehicle equipment that the JCSO has obtained at no cost to the Jefferson County taxpayers through Sheriff McNeill's networking efforts with other law enforcement agencies throughout Florida.