CHICAGO (AP) — Mayor Rahm Emanuel says every Chicago police patrol car will be equipped with a Taser following a series of high-profile shootings by officers.
Emanuel says the city will double the number of Tasers available, to 1,400.
Interim Police Superintendent John Escalante says 21 percent of Chicago officers are certified on using a Taser, but more training will be offered.
The mayor and Police Department have been heavily criticized since the city last month released video footage of a white officer shooting a black teenager 16 times in 2014.
Emanuel noted that on audio recordings of communications between dispatchers and officers on the scene that night, several officers are heard “frantically” asking for a Taser before officer Jason Van Dyke shot 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.
Police have said no officers or vehicles on the scene were equipped with one.
Emanuel also says Chicago officers must be better trained in knowing the difference between when they can use a gun and when they should use a gun.