Police in Massachusetts recorded 1,257 incidents involving stun guns and other electronic control weapons in 2023, a 13.1% jump from the previous year. That spike came even as the number of agency-owned devices and officers trained to use them dipped slightly, suggesting the tools are being used heavily in some corners of the state rather than broadly spread out.
The numbers come from the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security’s latest annual Electronic Control Weapons report, which compiles data from local agencies on warnings, deployments and who was on the receiving end. The report says 300 agencies, 286 municipal and 14 non-municipal, were authorized to use electronic control weapons in 2023, and 197 of them, or 65.7%, reported at least one incident that year. Incidents still rose by 13.1% to 1,257 even as the number of sworn officers, ECW-trained officers and agency-owned devices ticked down, according to the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security.
Local press has already started kicking the tires on the findings. Statehouse reporter Christian M. Wade dug into how training, department policy and device availability might be driving that uptick, especially in departments that post higher totals, as reported by the Eagle-Tribune.
What the Report Shows
The state breaks electronic control weapon encounters into three basic categories: warnings, displays and deployments. In 2023, officers issued at least one ECW warning in 91.2% of the 1,356 human contacts the report tracks. An ECW was actually deployed in about 36% of those contacts, and subjects submitted to deployments roughly two thirds of the time.
The data also shows how unevenly these tools are used. Just nine agencies accounted for about a third of all incidents statewide, while 103 agencies reported zero incidents for the year. That kind of spread underscores how concentrated ECW use remains across the Commonwealth, according to the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security.
Where Use Is Concentrated
Most departments touch these weapons only occasionally. More than three quarters of agencies authorized to use ECWs reported five or fewer incidents in 2023. A relatively small group of departments, though, racks up a disproportionate share of contacts.
That uneven pattern is not new. Earlier statewide reporting singled out cities such as New Bedford, Worcester and Lawrence for high totals in prior years, a trend that has prompted calls for tighter, community-specific oversight in those places, as reported by The Boston Globe.
Law, Training and Oversight
Massachusetts law and regulations require agencies to track every use of an electronic control weapon, log subject demographics and document when a device is fired. Those obligations stem from M.G.L. c. 140, § 131J and implementing rules such as 501 CMR 8.00, which set reporting, training and safety standards for any officer allowed to carry an ECW, according to Mass.gov.
What’s Next
The June 2026 report gives local officials, lawmakers and community groups a fresh and fairly granular dataset to track patterns and press for changes where ECW use is most concentrated. Whether that turns into tougher local rules, new oversight layers or revamped training is still an open question, but the appendices lay out the specifics that residents and advocates can point to.
For now, the numbers make one thing clear. Tasers and other electronic control weapons are a routine part of policing in Massachusetts, yet their use is anything but uniform from one community to the next.
