Taser safety issues

Tasers used as electroshock weapons became part of routine police work in the United States in the early 1990s. Prior to the 1990s such electrical technology in the hands of law enforcement, now ubiquitous, was extremely rare. Press reports did not focus on this aspect of police intervention, as was the case with Rodney King, where tasers were used. Since then, mass manufactured Tasers became symbols of police brutality, fueling growing controversy over the multiple dangers of their use as a control mechanism against uncooperative or resistant citizens rather than as an alternative in deadly-force situations.

UCLA press conference on taser incidents, 2006

Safety

TASER International has admitted in a training bulletin that repeated blasts of a taser can "impair breathing and respiration". Also, on Taser's website it is stated that, for a subject in a state known as "excited delirium" (a controversial term in itself), repeated or prolonged stuns with the Taser can contribute to "significant and potentially fatal health risks". In such a state, physical restraint by the police coupled with the exertion by the subject are considered likely to result in death or more injuries. Critics say that Electroshock devices are known to burn skin with its electric arc and can damage delicate electrical equipment such as pacemakers. Template:Electroshock It is assumed that tasers as well as all other high voltage stun devices can cause cardiac arrhythmia in susceptible subjects, possibly leading to heart attack or death in minutes by ventricular fibrillation (which leads to cardiac arrest and if not treated immediately to sudden death). People susceptible to this outcome are sometimes healthy and unaware of their susceptibility.

Critics argue that although the medical conditions or illegal drug-taking among some of the casualties may have been the proximate cause of death, the electric blast of the taser can significantly heighten such risk for subjects in an at-risk category. This suggests that tasers and other electroshock weapons would be dangerous to use on people with certain medical conditions and yet, since police officers will typically not know about a person's medical history or possible drug use, this entails a risk of death with virtually any suspect.

While they are not technically considered lethal, some authorities and non-governmental organizations question both the degree of safety presented by the weapon and the ethical implications of using a weapon that some, such as sections of Amnesty International, allege is inhumane. As a consequence, Amnesty International Canada and other civil liberties organizations have argued that a moratorium should be placed on taser use until research can determine a way for them to be safely used. Amnesty International has documented over 245 deaths that occurred after the use of tasers. Police sources question whether the taser was the actual cause of death in those cases, as many of the deaths occurred in people with serious medical conditions and/or severe drug intoxication, often to the point of excited delirium.

Critics of taser use, however, argue that "excited delirium" is not a valid medical term and is not listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Tasers are often used as an alternative to striking the suspect with a baton or shooting him with firearms, both of which have a much higher chance of serious injury and death than the taser, even using the highest estimates of possible taser-related deaths. The term "less-lethal" is being used more frequently when referring to weapons such as tasers because many experts feel that no device meant to subdue a person can be completely safe. The less-lethal category also includes devices such as pepper spray, tear gas, and batons. There has been one case report in the medical literature of a person suffering spinal fractures after being shocked by a taser. The U.N. has declared: "TASER electronic stun guns are a form of torture that can kill."

Studies

A study by the Potomac Institute concluded; "Based on the available evidence, and on accepted criteria for defining product risk vs. efficacy, we believe that when stun technology is appropriately applied, it is relatively safe and clearly effective. The only known field data that are available suggest that the odds are, at worst, one in one thousand that a stun device would contribute to (and this does not imply “cause”) death. This figure is likely not different than the odds of death when stun devices are not used, but when other multiple force measures are. A more defensible figure is one in one hundred thousand."

According to a study presented at the Heart Rhythm Society's 2007 Scientific Sessions, Tasers may present risks to subjects with implanted pacemakers. However, a study conducted by the Cleveland Clinic in 2007 on a single animal determined that, a standard five-second TASER X26 application "does not affect the short-term functional integrity of implantable pacemakers and defibrillators... The long-term effects were not assessed."

A Chicago study suggests that use of the Taser can interfere with heart function. A team of scientists and doctors at the Cook County hospital trauma center stunned 6 pigs with two 40-second Taser discharges across the chest. Every animal was left with heart rhythm problems and two of the subjects died of cardiac arrest. One of the subjects died three minutes after being shot indicating, according to researcher Bob Walker, that "after the Taser shock ends, there can still be effects that can be evoked and you can still see cardiac effects."

The US National Institute of Justice has begun a two-year study into taser-related deaths in custody.

Advantages and disadvantages

Supporters say that electroshock guns are a safer alternative to devices such as firearms. TASER International uses the term "non-lethal" as defined by the United States Department of Defense - which does not mean the weapon cannot cause death, but that it is not intended to be fatal. Non-lethal weapons are defined as "weapons that are explicitly designed and primarily employed so as to incapacitate personnel or material, while minimizing fatalities, permanent injury to personnel, and undesired damage to property and the environment."

Supporters say that electroshock weapons and tasers are more effective than other means including pepper-spray (an eye/breathing irritant), batons or other conventional ways of inflicting pain, even hand guns, at bringing a subject down to the ground with a minimum physical exertion.

Critics, however, charge that police officers who are risk-averse resort to tasers in situations where previously they would have used more conventional, less "extreme" techniques, such as trying to reason with a cornered suspect.

Deaths and injuries

Between June 2001 and June 2007, there were at least 245 cases of deaths of subjects soon after having been shocked using Tasers. Of these cases:

• In 7 cases, medical examiners said Tasers were a cause or a contributing factor or could not be ruled out as a cause of death.
• In 16 cases coroners and other officials stated that a taser was a secondary or contributory factor of death.
• In dozens of cases, coroners cited excited delirium as cause of death. Excited delirium has been questioned as a medical diagnosis.
• Several deaths occurred as a result of injuries sustained in struggles. In a few of these cases head injury due to falling after being shocked contributed to later death. Some police departments, like that of Clearwater, Florida, have tried to eradicate such incidents by prohibiting taser use when the suspect is in danger of falling.

In 2005, a medical examiner ruled for the first time that a Taser was the primary factor in a death.

Several incidents have received large publicity:

• July 2005, UK. Police tasered a man in hypoglycemic shock, believing that he was a potential security threat.
• October 2006, USA. A 17 year old boy died after being repeatedly tasered by police.
• November 2006, USA. UCLA Taser incident
• September 2007, USA. University of Florida Taser incident
• October 2007, Canada. Robert Dziekański Taser incident
• November 2007, Canada. Howard Hyde incident.
• December 2007, Canada. Quilem Registre Taser incident
• April 24, 2008, USA. Kevin Piskura died after being stunned by a X-26 taser for 10 seconds while interfering with a friend's arrest by Police in Oxford, Ohio. He was hospitalized after the confrontation and died five days later. Video and audio of the event was recorded by the X-26.

Legal issues and court cases

According to TASER International, tasers are intended “to incapacitate dangerous, combative, or high-risk subjects who pose a risk to law enforcement officers, innocent citizens, or themselves”.

Tasers are illegal or subject to legal restrictions on their availability and use in many jurisdictions.

Police officers in at least five US states have filed lawsuits against TASER International claiming they suffered serious injuries after being shocked with the device during training classes.

The UN Committee Against Torture (CAT), an agency charged with overseeing the application of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, arrived at the conclusion on Friday, November 23, 2007, that the use of the electric pulse Taser gun constitutes a "form of torture" and "can even provoke death."

Summit County, Ohio Medical Examiner Lisa J. Kohler cited Taser use as a cause of death in three cases, Mark D. McCullaugh, Dennis S. Hyde, and Richard Holcomb. TASER International sued, and on May 2, 2008, visiting judge Ted Schneiderman ordered the Medical Examiner to remove all references to "Taser" in the reports and change the cause of death in McCullaugh's case from "Homicide" to "Undetermined." Deputy Sheriff Stephen Krendick remains on trial for McCullaugh's murder.

Fire risk

Tasers come with express instructions not to use them where flammable liquids or fumes may be present, such as filling stations or by police raiding methamphetamine labs, as tasers, like other electric devices, have been found to ignite flammable materials.

An evaluative study carried out by the British Home Office investigated the potential for tasers to ignite CS gas. Seven trials were conducted, in which CS gas canisters containing methyl isobutyl ketone (a solvent used in all CS sprays utilized by the United Kingdom police) were sprayed over mannequins wearing street clothing. The tasers were then fired at the mannequins. In two of the seven trials, "the flames produced were severe and engulfed the top half of the mannequin, including the head". This poses a particular problem for law enforcement, as some police departments approve the use of CS before the use of a taser.

Use in schools and on children

Police officers that patrol schools, including grade schools, in several U.S. states (including Kansas, Minnesota, Kentucky, and Florida), currently carry tasers. In 2004, the parents of a 6-year old boy in Miami sued the police department for tasering their child. The police said the boy was threatening to injure his own leg with a shard of glass, and claimed that using the taser was the only option to stop the boy from injuring himself. TASER International asserts that the taser is safe for use on anyone weighing 60 pounds (27 kg) or more. Nevertheless, the boy's mother told CNN that the three officers involved might have found it easier to reason with her child. Two weeks later, a 12-year-old girl skipping school was tasered in Miami-Dade.

Supporters of taser use in schools argue that merely switching on the device, and threatening to use it, can be effective in frightening violent or uncooperative students into desisting from inappropriate behaviour, if verbal reprimands have not succeeded. Critics counter that tasers may interact with preexisting medical complications such as medications, and may even contribute to someone's death as a result. Thus, critics say, they should either be prohibited altogether in schools, or classified as possibly lethal weapons and as a consequence, should be regulated very tightly. Critics also argue that using a taser on a minor, and especially a young child, is effectively cruel and abusive punishment, and therefore it should be banned on the same grounds that other, older forms of physical punishment such as canings have been banned from use in many schools.

Tools of political suppression

Tasers and other electroshock weapons have been used at political protests such as those by the anti-globalization movement in France, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, and several other countries. Members of the movement, as well as world press are concerned that the technology, and other "less-lethal" weapons, are likely to become tools for suppressing legitimate protest associated with imposition of "neo-liberal economic policies". Thomas Gebauer, of the German non-governmental organisation Medico International, describes "non-lethal weapons" as a symbol of "the growing repressive character of European and North American governments" willing to suppress protests against the spreading social injustice. According to Gebauer, "the aim of these weapons is to guarantee social borders, to install perennial control of movements, to restrict democracy."

Torture

The United Nations Committee against Torture reported that the use of Tasers can be a form of torture, due to the acute pain they cause, and warns against the possibility of death in certain cases. Amnesty International has reported several alleged cases of excessive electroshock gun use, that possibly amount to torture, including the death of an individual after being struck 12 times with a Taser in Orange County, Florida. They have also raised extensive concerns about the use of other electro-shock devices by American police and in American prisons, as they can be (and according to Amnesty International, sometimes are) used to inflict cruel pain on individuals. For example, Eric Hammock of Texas died in April 2005 after receiving more than 20 taser shocks by Fort Worth police officers. Maurice Cunningham of South Carolina was subjected to continuous shock for 2 minutes 49 seconds, which a medical examiner said caused cardiac arrhythmia and his subsequent death. He was 29 years old and had no alcohol or drugs in his system.

Tasers may also not leave the telltale markings that a conventional beating might. The American Civil Liberties Union has also raised concerns about their use.

See also

• UCLA Taser incident
• University of Florida Taser incident
• Robert Dziekański Taser incident
• The Braidwood inquiry

External links

• Amnesty International 2004 report USA: Excessive and lethal force? Amnesty International's concerns about deaths and ill-treatment involving police use of tasers
• Amnesty International 2006 report USA: Amnesty International's continuing concerns about taser use
• Amnesty International 2006 report Canada: Inappropriate and excessive use of tasers
• Amnesty International Statement to the U.S. Justice Department inquiry into deaths in custody 27 Sept 2007
• UF Taser Incident
• Utah Speeding Ticket Taser Incident