The Polk County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team is currently using the Extended Range Electronic Projectile (XREP) taser rounds that fit into special rifles and expel a projectile much farther than the normal taser gun is capable of doing.

It’s fired from a 12 gauge shotgun from up to a 100 feet away. It’s 14 grams, has wing like fins that spread open as it takes flight. It has painful probes and pins that stick into your body. It packs all the powerful punch and stopping power of a stun gun and is enclosed in a 12 gauge shotgun shell and when it hits you it locks up your muscles.

John Angleton is the taser coordinator for the sheriff’s office and says, “It’s the most excruciating pain imaginable. It locks everything up. For one you cannot move. You can breathe because you’re screaming at the top of your lungs.”

The TASER XREP keeps a suspect down for 20 seconds instead of 5 seconds which is how long the traditional taser keeps a suspect down. The traditional taser also has to be fired from a closer range within 21 feet.

While TASER XREP rounds cost a hundred dollars each SWAT team members say they’re worth the price because they save lives.

I’ve written about the XREP before here.