Something something sticker shock

It cost Chicopee PD a quarter million dollars to shoot people with Tasers 224 times between 2017 and 2022

Jul 02, 2025

This came up while I am working on something else. I combined use of force data obtained by Samuel Sinyangwe, who runs policedata.org, that was available on Muckrock, with the city of Chicopee’s Open Checkbook data on payments made by the Police Department to Axon for “weaponry” between 2017 and 2022. Couldn’t find any more recent use of force reports, and I’ve already got too many records requests out to the Chicopee PD right now lol

I made an info-graphic about it but sub-stack won’t let me embed it so check it out here: https://jongerhardson.github.io/taser.html

A dual-axis line and area chart titled "Taser Uses vs. Cost Per Use (FY2017-FY2022)" for the Chicopee Police Department, showing an inverse relationship between the two metrics in recent years. The x-axis displays fiscal years from 2017 to 2022. The left y-axis shows the "Number of Taser Uses," while the right y-axis shows the "Cost Per Use ($)" on a logarithmic scale. The chart illustrates that as the number of Taser uses declined after peaking in 2020, the cost per use increased dramatically. Data Breakdown: Taser Uses (blue line): Started at approximately 31 in FY2017, rose to a peak of 48 in FY2020, and then fell to 22 by FY2022. Cost Per Use (red line): Started around $600 in FY2017, remained relatively stable below $900 through FY2020, then rose sharply to approximately $1,800 in FY2021 and $2,400 in FY2022.

Discussion about this post

Ready for more?