NEW MILFORD - New Milford police officers have a new weapon in their arsenal.

In recent weeks, members of the New Milford Police Department have begun carrying tasers, which deliver a jolt of electricity to subdue unruly suspects.

Along with pepper spray and batons, pistol-shaped tasers are a way for an officer to control a potentially dangerous situation without using real firearms.

Police are convinced the tasers will save lives - the lives of officers and those suspects targeted by the weapon.

"It improves officer safety," said Officer William Parks , a New Milford police taser instructor. "It's a good technology. I'm glad we have it."

With a taser, which can fire its electric jolt from 15 to 35 feet, "can really limit us having to go hands-on," Parks observed. "It's better than a fight or using a stick or a gun."

The taser technology uses compressed nitrogen to shoot two tethered, dart-like probes from a cartridge into a person.

The connecting thin, insulated wires deliver a five-second burst of electrical current that incapacitates a person by inducing involuntary muscle contractions.

According to Arizona-based Taser International, tasers can help prevent suicides and have been used thousands of times nationwide to subdue unruly suspects, who are able to get up, walk, and talk moments after being shot with a taser.

In the region, police in Newtown, Danbury, Bethel and Brookfield have been using tasers. According to New Milford police, Danbury used a taser to subdue someone in the hospital emergency room treatment area, a place where they would not have wanted to use pepper spray or a gun.

There has been some concern whether tasers have actually killed suspects by causing heart attacks or other violent reactions. A 2005 study by the Air Force found that repeated shocks from a taser led to heart damage in pigs.

Although there have been 100 reported deaths nationwide linked to taser use, studies indicate that tasers have seldom, if ever, been found to be the primary cause of death. Many of those who have died, for example, have been drug abusers.

Still, most law enforcement authorities say the tasers are much safer than an officer drawing a gun.

In New Milford, police say that if a taser is used, the person hit with the jolt will be taken to the hospital by ambulance to be checked out and have the probe removed.

Sgt. Guy Samuelson said he has been voluntarily tasered during earlier training. "I went down," he said, adding that it's possible that someone might be injured when falling. "It does save lives. It keeps us from using our firearm."

He also said the taser is better than pepper spray, which "contaminates everyone" in the area where it is used.

Tom Bock, chief of New Milford Community Ambulance , agreed that tasers are not only a better way to protect police but also to subdue someone. "It's safer for everyone," he said.