Baraga County Approves Upgraded Tasers, Record Keeping for Sheriff’s Department

The Baraga County Sheriff’s Department will be upgrading its Tasers.

At last night’s meeting, county commissioners approved the move, which will provide deputies with Tasers that can fire up to 10 shots before needing to be recharged. The current units can provide just one shot. Most of the increased cost is expected to be covered by grants and COVID relief funds.

The Sheriff’s Department will also be combining its records into one unified system. Sheriff Joe Brogan explained that record-keeping for various functions is currently maintained in three separate systems, requiring a lot of duplicate entry work…

The unified system will be run by Core Technology. Commissioners approved an upfront payment of $84,000 to cover software, installation and data conversion costs. Once completed, the ongoing cost of the system will be higher than the current system. Brogan says they’ll make up for that with increased efficiency. He also noted that other Baraga County law enforcement units are also considering making the change, which would allow data to be shared among them.

In other action, commissioners reappointed Kate Beer and Carole LaPointe to six-year terms on the Baraga County Memorial Hospital board. They also supported a resolution opposing Public Act 233, which was passed by the legislature and signed by the governor in November. The Act gives the Michigan Public Service Commission the authority to overturn local decisions about the location of wind and solar power generation facilities.