Tasers are shocking the nation. This weapon, originally designed to be a less lethal option than firearms, may soon need to be reclassified.

One UCLA student was tasered for refusing to show campus ID. Another across the nation for resisting his forced exit from a political speech. The most recent and perhaps the most shocking of all, earlier this month a pregnant woman was tasered.

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Captain Tim Voges is with the Champaign County Sheriff’s department. He says the reality of the taser situation is a little distorted.

“The issue from the media side of it is the fact that it seems like they’re choosing to take all the bad instances instead of the good ones,” Voges said. “Kind of like over in Iraq, you have a lot of bad things happen, but you have a lot of good things happen. And over there with the soldiers, and the public doesn’t hear that side of it.”

The Champaign County Sheriff’s department is the only department in this area equipped with tasers. Voges says that because neighboring departments like Champaign’s and Urbana’s don’t have them, officers from his department are often there to help.

“The agencies that don’t carry them, we get called quite a bit to assist them in a situation that again could end up being a fight with a suspect,” Voges said. “The tasers are brought in just so you’re not having to put hands on him and taking the chance on getting an officer injured.”

Tasers are commonly used in situations where an individual refuses to comply with police orders. However, some say that eyewitness video suggests that tasers are being used excessively and for inappropriate reasons.

Voges says that each taser that is deployed in his department is under a high level of scrutiny.

“The tasers equipped with a computer in it and some are even equipped with cameras, so it indicates the time of tasering, the duration of the tasering cycle to indicate if you have abused somebody,” Voges said. “And again the law enforcement side of the sheriff’s office has not experienced any problems with that.”

For now, the Champaign-Urbana area has yet to produce a controversial shock.