Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2008 8:14 pm Post subject:
One-third of people shot by Taser need medical attention: probe
Tue Jun 17, 10:15 PM
About one in three people shot with a Taser by the RCMP receive injuries that require medical attention, according to a joint investigation by CBC News/Radio-Canada and the Canadian Press.
The media outlets, which analyzed the Taser-use forms RCMP officers are required to fill out if they draw a stun gun, examined reports from 2002 to 2007. According to the data, 28 per cent, or 910 of the 3,226 people who were shot, had to go to a medical facility.
But a detailed examination of the forms revealed that many more people are injured, yet never see a doctor.
In three years worth of reports obtained under Access to Information legislation, people suffered injuries including burns, puncture wounds from the probes, and head wounds from falling. In many cases, however, the person was not taken for medical treatment.
More recent forms had the sections on injuries blacked out. The investigation suggests some of those incidents resulted in injuries that are not included in the 28 per cent figure.
For example, in one incident report, a person shot with a Taser suffered "burn marks from touch stun mode" but was not examined at a medical facility.
In another example, a person suffered "multiple skin burns where Taser came into contact with subject while fighting with police" but he was not taken to be examined.
RCMP Public Complaints Commissioner Paul Kennedy noted this failure in an interim report last fall on stun gun use by the force.
Dr. Paul Dorian, a cardiologist and a professor of medicine at the University of Toronto, said police officers need to assume they may hurt someone when they use a Taser and treat all injuries seriously.
He conducted a study on pigs on the effects on the heart of Taser shocks and found multiple hits with a stun gun can cause heart stress.
"If there is injury and illness, as a physician, I would have to say those people, even if they are accused criminals, should be taken care of," he said.
Police association wants all officers to have Tasers
The Canadian Police Association stands by stun gun use. President Tony Cannavino said the association would like to see every police officer in Canada armed with a Taser and that there is enough evidence to show that Tasers save lives.
"They have to get the proper training, and also not only the proper training, there should be consistency across Canada about the training and the fact that they should also be requalified every two years."
The CBC investigation into Taser use has also found that RCMP officers are likely to fire their electronic stun guns multiple times during an altercation, despite a policy that warns it may pose health risks.
Kennedy is scheduled to release a highly anticipated final report on the use of stun guns by Mounties on Wednesday. He was to release it last week, but that was delayed until this Wednesday at the request of Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day.
The delay reportedly resulted from a last-minute call late Wednesday from the minister's office requesting a meeting with Kennedy.
The footage - entitled 'Taser fun!' - was posted on video-sharing website YouTube last month and involves two young squaddies who speak with Liverpulian accents.
Liverpulian (or Liverpudlian) . says it all! _________________ JO911B.
"for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in high places " Eph.6 v 12
Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2008 9:24 pm Post subject: French Taser seller in jail accused of spying
French police arrested the head of a company that distributes stun guns in France for Scottsdale-based Taser International Inc. on Tuesday, according to foreign news reports.
Authorities detained Antoine Di Zazzo and nine other people, including police officers and private detectives, on suspicion that they spied on Olivier Besancenot, a former presidential candidate in France who publicly questioned the safety of Taser's devices, reports stated....
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 10:45 pm Post subject:
Making this the weapon of first resort isn’t the answer to growing violence
November 25, 2008
The Home Office announcement of an increase in the use of Tasers took me by surprise. I don’t believe that the case exists for putting such a significant number of weapons in the hands of nonspecialist police officers.
Making 10,000 Tasers available to 30,000 officers represents an increase in the armoury that far outweighs the increase in violence that they are intended to curb.
The case for this rise seems to be strongly predicated on the deterrent factor that a Taser will have on a violent suspect.
The small percentage of Tasers used (16 per cent) compared with the number carried last year seems to support that point.........
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 9:40 pm Post subject: Why a Taser shocks me
brilliant rant from a young Halifax journo
Why a Taser shocks me
Published Date: 28 November 2008
APPARENTLY when the dart hits, it feels like an intense cramp gripping every inch of your body.
They say you feel the 50,000 volts in your eyeballs, your fingernails and roots of your hair.
In the short term it disables you. Nobody knows the long-term effects.
So it's obvious: when a Taser's pointed in your direction, you don't argue. And you hope the pointer isn't trigger happy.
Hmm...
I still remember the young man who arrested my friend years ago.
Not his face, as such, or his rank, or what his partner called him as they cuffed this skinny teenage boy.
It was his anger that seared itself in my mind, his inconsolable rage, his disproportionate fury etching his face and stretching his voice.
My friend didn't help. He wouldn't stand up when he was told.
But the clue was in the eventual charge. Drunk and incapable.
He couldn't follow his own mind's instructions, let alone those of a barking policeman.
It soured the thin blue line in my eyes.
As did the story of a teenage girl I once interviewed who had a police dog set on her after being mistaken for someone else.
And there are other examples if you care to go looking for them.
In every case I wonder what might have happened had the attending officers been armed with Tasers as many of them will now be, under an £8 million Home Office scheme.
Not that this is an anti-police rant.
Largely, they're good guys doing dangerous jobs, putting their lives on our line. Protectors of order, keepers of law.
But police officers are also often young and – in situations where a taser may be used particularly – high on adrenalin.
They are regularly in situations where keeping the cool head needed to use proportionately a weapon of such power is not always possible.
Giving police Tasers is a dangerous precedent. They don't need them.
They have colleagues with years of specialist training who can deal with extreme situations. Although. of course, even such firearms officers have been known to get it wrong.
Tasers are open to massive abuse. Their potential to escalate dangerous situations far outweigh any deterrent benefits.
They would be a last resort soon promoted to a first.
Those who keep the law must not only stay within it themselves, they must be shining examples of it.
Walking around with an offensive weapon is against the law.
A Taser is an offensive weapon.
Since when was policemen being above the law a good idea?
Joined: 13 Sep 2006 Posts: 2568 Location: One breath from Glory
Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 8:26 pm Post subject: More Tasers for UK Cops
Quote:
Still more Tasers for plods - but still not in London
By Lewis Page •
20th March 2009 10:42 GMT
The Home Office yesterday announced funding for a further 6,000 Taser electroshock stunguns to be used by police forces across England and Wales. Nonetheless it appears that in London the weapons will not be widely issued, a situation condemned by rank-and-file officers' spokesmen.
The funding for 6,000 additional Tasers is on top of an initial budget for 10,000 made available last year. All of the new flying-cattleprod guns are intended for issue to specially-qualified police not serving in firearms units.
Until 2007, Tasers were only carried by firearms officers and could only be used in operations where coppers were also authorised to use real guns. Such a clearance is generally only given where police commanders believe armed and dangerous opposition is on the cards.
As a Taser is of little use against gun-toting villains (it is single shot, and very short ranged) this meant that the electroshock weapons weren't really much use. Thus, in 2007, the Home Office gave permission for them to be used in non-deadly-force situations, and started a pilot programme in which non-firearms cops were issued them. The idea was that there are many violent confrontations in which guns aren't appropriate, which nonetheless finish up with cops and/or their antagonists getting badly hurt. Rather than clubbing or wrestling people into submission, police would zap them and cuff them.
The pilot scheme was deemed a success, despite vociferous concern from groups such as Amnesty International. They have voiced concerns that Tasers might be dangerous, might lead police to use force unnecessarily, or might be used as a means of torture. Tasers are now being issued to non-firearms cops in various UK forces.
The Amnesty viewpoint, however, appears to be shared by London's Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA), which has so far declined to bid for any of the new Taser funding. Met officers did take part in the non-firearms-officer pilot, which saw Tasers issued to specially trained cops in London's Territorial Support Group (a multi-role unit best known for riot policing). However the MPA stated at the time that this was strictly so as to permit the force to be part of the national debate - not a prelude to any wider use.
Lower-ranking officers' spokesmen have seized the occasion of yesterday's second Taser-funding tranche to criticise the MPA's stance.
"It is extremely disappointing that the Metropolitan Police Authority has not taken advantage of this funding," said Paul McKeever of the Police Federation, representing the bottom four ranks of plods. "Not only does Taser provide a less lethal alternative to firearms but it provides confidence and reassurance to officers when confronted with volatile situations."
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has also endorsed the use of Tasers, saying that they avoid a lot more injuries and violence than they cause - though the IPCC did say that better training should be given on the use of "drive stun" contact zapper mode (as opposed to the more common method where the Taser barbs are shot from the weapon on trailing wires).
For its part, the MPA sent the Reg a statement this morning:
While the Home Office scientific branch published some analysis of use during the pilot, we await the results of a fuller evaluation of the pilot due to be published in May 2009.
The MPA has not been advised by the Met that there is any urgent operational demand for extra Tasers. While acknowledging the useful flexibility the addition of Tasers to the police armoury affords, members of the Authority are also very conscious of their responsibility to reinforce the confidence of the public in the police. This could be affected by an uncalled for increase in the deployment of Tasers, which are still widely perceived as oppressive.
The MPA has famously been willing to clash with the IPCC in the past: the Authority resolutely backed former top cop Ian Blair through a storm of criticism, even after the complaints investigators explicitly condemned his conduct in the wake of the fatal Jean Charles de Menezes shooting.
Commissioner Blair was finally ousted by London's new mayor, bicycling Tory mediatart Boris Johnson - who is now chairman of the MPA. It would appear, however, that the change of city government hasn't so far altered the position on Tasers for the Met. ®
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/20/more_tasers_not_in_london/ _________________ JO911B.
"for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in high places " Eph.6 v 12
An energy weapon protection device to be worn by a live potential target includes a generally flexible main panel having three main elements, a generally flexible, generally planar electrically non-conductive outer insulator panel, an electrically conductive inner conductive panel and an electrically non-conductive insulating backing panel. The inner conductive panel is mounted on the insulating back panel in generally parallel alignment and the outer insulator panel is mounted on the inner conductive panel in generally parallel alignment thereby forming the main panel, and the main panel is operative to receive an electrical pulse from an energy weapon through the outer insulator panel into the inner conductive panel which completes the electric circuit for the energy weapon and the insulating backing panel generally preventing electric current from passing therethrough from the inner conductive panel such that the live potential target is protected from the electrical pulse generated by the energy weapon.
Inventors: Schultz; Gregory Russell (Marana, AZ)
Appl. No.: 11/259,161
Filed: October 26, 2005
_________________ "We will lead every revolution against us!" - attrib: Theodor Herzl
"Timely Demise to All Oppressors - at their Convenience!" - 'Interesting Times', Terry Pratchett
Joined: 13 Sep 2006 Posts: 2568 Location: One breath from Glory
Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 11:59 pm Post subject: Gestapo Watch -- 10,000 Taser Wielding Cops
Wanted 30,000 Sadists
Quote:
A police force is set to extend its use of Tasers by training extra officers, including traffic cops, to use the electric stun guns.Avon and Somerset police are training 140 non-firearm officers to use Tasers to deal with potentially violent situations.
There are currently 130 firearms officers and 30 other support officers who carry the 50,000-volt stun gun in the force.
The move comes after a year-long pilot study which involved support officers carrying the weapons for the first time.
The first of the new wave of officers will be in Somerset, where 60 will be trained.
A further 50 officers from the Road Policing Unit and 30 from the Support Group will have training phased in over the next year.
This will bring the total number of Taser-trained officers to 300 across Avon and Somerset, though they will have to share 200 of the stun guns between them.
A Taser works by firing two barbs which penetrate the skin and discharge 50,000 volts along two copper wires attached to the gun.
It can also be held against a person and fired to temporarily incapacitate. Despite the high voltage, a Taser bolt is considered safe because of its low amperage.
The weapons were initially only available to specially-trained firearms officers, but last November the government announced plans to fund the provision of 10,000 Taser guns nationally and training for up to 30,000 frontline officers to use them.
This is my opinion and only my opinion please correct me if im wrong
Cops in England shouldnt have to carry tasers, England like every other country in the world should carry guns and if they ever need to use them they would have to have a bloody good reason to use them.
so many people in England take the piss when it comes to policing
and you get some much more teen violence than any other country in europe.
take this statement for example. i went to a resturant in Holland and kids aged from 16+ were allowed to order and drink a beer in resturants and pubs but werent allowed to order and drink a liquor ie Scotch/whisky
Please delete this post if you find it irelevent but it is my opinion and i believe everyone should add their opinions to give me more of an incite into the subject
Thank you _________________ What is the biggest casualty?
i think its a good idea to tell the truth and listen to peoples opinions about the truth
How many families claim their loved ones were on board any of the four flights (3 flights) but four planes?
This is my opinion and only my opinion please correct me if im wrong
Cops in England shouldnt have to carry tasers, England like every other country in the world should carry guns and if they ever need to use them they would have to have a bloody good reason to use them.
so many people in England take the piss when it comes to policing
and you get some much more teen violence than any other country in europe.
take this statement for example. i went to a resturant in Holland and kids aged from 16+ were allowed to order and drink a beer in resturants and pubs but werent allowed to order and drink a liquor ie Scotch/whisky
Please delete this post if you find it irelevent but it is my opinion and i believe everyone should add their opinions to give me more of an incite into the subject
Thank you
You are saying the Police should be carrying guns?
The Police have ready access to firearms, they just don't carry them in holsters.
The main problem with Tasers is that the Police in the US have been keen to taser anyone: political protesters, people that won't move away from from injured friend or (as in the case above) a Grandmother that was speeding and giving a Policeman earache. In none of these cases is use of Taser warranted. The police having access to a taser doesn't improve the situation on the street. What is required is the appropriate level of police patrol and training... not tasers (or guns).
Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 12:38 pm Post subject: New 'shotgun' taser
Quote:
Police could be equipped with a new wireless Taser "shotgun" with a range of more than three times that of current models. Skip
The eXtended Range Electronic Projectile (XREP) fires a series of barbed electrodes delivering a 20-second, 500-volt shock up to 98ft away, The Guardian reported.
The weapon, which is already on sale in the US, is being considered by the Home Office for use by law enforcement agencies in England and Wales.
But Amnesty International UK's arms programme director Oliver Sprague said: "We're seriously concerned about this latest weapon by Taser. This is effectively a shotgun that fires electric-shock bullets.
"Because this bullet can be fired wire-free from a standard shotgun there is a heightened risk of causing serious injury to the face and head."
Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 12:40 pm Post subject: Fears over police 'shotgun' Taser
Quote:
Police could be equipped with a new wireless Taser "shotgun" with a range of more than three times that of current models. Skip
The eXtended Range Electronic Projectile (XREP) fires a series of barbed electrodes delivering a 20-second, 500-volt shock up to 98ft away, The Guardian reported.
The weapon, which is already on sale in the US, is being considered by the Home Office for use by law enforcement agencies in England and Wales.
But Amnesty International UK's arms programme director Oliver Sprague said: "We're seriously concerned about this latest weapon by Taser. This is effectively a shotgun that fires electric-shock bullets.
"Because this bullet can be fired wire-free from a standard shotgun there is a heightened risk of causing serious injury to the face and head."
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 1959 Location: South London
Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 1:19 pm Post subject:
Lawrence Phillips wrote:
oops... I really have to start using spell check more. I tend to write fast. Its not my strong point Thanks and i have ammended that
Warning: a spell check is just a device which checks whether you have used a word which is listed as valid in its database. It doesn't know whether you intended to use "weather" or "whether". Both words exist in the English language and in most versions of English are pronounced identically. They are known as "homophones". So don't rely on spell checks.
Oh and it should have been "amended". A spell check should pick that one up as "ammended" doesn't exist in any form of English I know of.
Sorry to be pedantic. Your meaning is more important than your spelling.
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2011 7:44 pm Post subject: Gestapo Now! Dale Burns Murdered by Taser in Cumbria
· In 2006, a 47-year-old man died after being shocked with a Taser. Brian Loan was believed to be the first person in the UK to die after being shocked with the electro-shock weapon. A Home Office post-mortem reportedly found that he had died of “natural causes”.
· Last month an 82-year-old man was hospitalised for days after being Tasered in west London by a Metropolitan Police officer. The man was reported to have been arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon and criminal damage to a motor vehicle.
· Police in the United States have carried Tasers for several years. Since 2001, Amnesty International has recorded the deaths of more than 450 people in the United States after they were struck with a Taser. In many instances, most of the deceased were unarmed and did not appear to present a serious threat when they were shocked, in some cases several times.
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=19632
So, what kind of clothing would you need to stop the barbs? before they hit the skin?
To stop the barbs, one of those stab resistant? vests might do? it, and a bullet resistant vest definitely should.
If only it could reverse the charge and? taser the cop!
Yeah!? You must place the fine metal grid in your clothes. And then it makes the short-circuit for taser arrows. Although the arrows penetrate into the body, but the current flows through the metal grid and not through the body. And if you place the metal grid in the gloves then you have to connect electric the sleeve of the jacket with the gloves, for the case that an arrow hits to the glove and other in the sleeve. It would be invisible on every kind of clothes.
I wana see the cops faces when they try to taser this guy...then i wonder how long it will take? them to shoot him becouse he isn't cooperating with the taserer.
fish5133 wrote:
Wanted 30,000 Sadists
Quote:
A police force is set to extend its use of Tasers by training extra officers, including traffic cops, to use the electric stun guns.Avon and Somerset police are training 140 non-firearm officers to use Tasers to deal with potentially violent situations.
There are currently 130 firearms officers and 30 other support officers who carry the 50,000-volt stun gun in the force.
The move comes after a year-long pilot study which involved support officers carrying the weapons for the first time.
The first of the new wave of officers will be in Somerset, where 60 will be trained.
A further 50 officers from the Road Policing Unit and 30 from the Support Group will have training phased in over the next year.
This will bring the total number of Taser-trained officers to 300 across Avon and Somerset, though they will have to share 200 of the stun guns between them.
A Taser works by firing two barbs which penetrate the skin and discharge 50,000 volts along two copper wires attached to the gun.
It can also be held against a person and fired to temporarily incapacitate. Despite the high voltage, a Taser bolt is considered safe because of its low amperage.
The weapons were initially only available to specially-trained firearms officers, but last November the government announced plans to fund the provision of 10,000 Taser guns nationally and training for up to 30,000 frontline officers to use them.
Joined: 13 Sep 2006 Posts: 2568 Location: One breath from Glory
Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2012 5:53 pm Post subject:
Police taser in the back, rough up and handcuff blind man mistaking his white stick for a samurai sword.---- couldnt make that one up!
Listened to the poor guy on the radio explaining what happened
Quote:
Police Taser blind man in the back mistaking his white stick for a samurai sword The IPPC is investigating an incident in Chorley, where an innocent person was struck by a 50,000-volt stun gun
An innocent blind man with a white stick has been shot in the back by police with a 50,000-volt Taser after officers mistook it for a samurai sword.
Colin Farmer, 61, was hit following reports of a man walking through Chorley, Lancashire, early on Friday evening, with a sword. He said that he initially thought he was being attacked by hooligans when he was struck by the Taser.
The matter is being investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) after Farmer, who has said he intends to take legal action, made a complaint to the force.
Farmer, who used to run an architects' practice and is a fellow of the Institute of Directors, was on his way to meet friends at 5.45pm and was walking along Peter Street near a restaurant. "I didn't even know the police were there," he said. "I heard this man shouting. I thought they were shouting at some people."
Farmer, who has suffered two strokes, the most recent requiring two months in hospital in March, was fearful he would suffer another stroke.
He said the whole thing was like being "trapped in a nightmare": "I thought I was going to be attacked by hooligans. The next thing they fired a Taser at me, although I didn't know it was a Taser at the time. I just felt a thump in my back. As soon as the Taser hit me, I hit the ground."
He repeatedly attempted to explain to the officer that he was blind, but he knelt on him and dragged his hands behind his back and handcuffed him. Farmer, who has bruises on his hand, said he was "absolutely terrified."
"I walk at a snail's pace, they could have walked past me, driven past me in a van or said: 'Drop your weapon.'"
The matter was referred to the IPCC by the Lancashire force.
Ch Supt Stuart Williams, of Lancashire police, said the force deeply regretted the incident.
Farmer was taken to hospital for treatment and later discharged. Williams said the officers stayed with him in hospital and took him to meet his friends in Chorley at his request.
Williams said police had "received a number of reports that a man was walking through Chorley armed with a samurai sword".
"A description of the offender was circulated to officers and patrols were sent to look for the man," he said. "One of the officers who arrived in Chorley believed he had located the offender. Despite asking the man to stop, he failed to do so and the officer discharged his Taser."
Williams said it "became apparent that this man was not the person we were looking for and officers attended to him straight away", taking him to hospital.
He added that the force has launched an urgent investigation to understand what lessons could be learned. (the cop should have gone to specsavers)
"We have clearly put this man through a traumatic experience and we are extremely sorry for that," he said. They have remained in contact with the man and his family over the past few days to enquire about his recovery, he added.
A 27-year-old man carrying a samurai sword was later arrested on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly.
On the day before Thanksgiving this year, international stun gun and cop-cam company Taser International, Inc. announced it had given up its fight in two major legal battles over "suspect injury or death." In a 275-word statement submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the company's chief financial officer said it would pay a total of $2.3 million in settlements to plaintiffs who had sued the company in product liability cases.
This was rare. Taser prides itself in fighting to the bitter end in any case alleging that its products do anything but save lives. Yet there it was in a financial disclosure — Taser backing down.
Taser brushed it off as a remnant of simpler times. According to the vaguely worded statement, enhanced "risk management procedures" and "revisions to product warnings" in 2009 corrected a legal vulnerability. The $2.3 million payouts would address the last lawsuits tied to that vulnerability; they would amount to housekeeping — cleaning up lingering messes that had remained on the company’s books since before 2009.
WHAT WERE THESE "RISK MANAGEMENT PROCEDURES"?
But what were these "risk management procedures"? What were these "revisions to product warnings"? What was the vulnerability? And what were these cases? Taser’s press liaison told The Verge that its SEC declaration "speaks for itself" — a clear indication that the company has no plans to say anything further about settlements unless it’s forced to.
But a little research helped to pin down procedural changes Taser made in September, 2009. And a public records search helped to narrow the possibilities down to four representative cases that may have been settled. Those cases have a few major factors in common: they involve a Taser shot at someone’s chest; they involve someone going into cardiac arrest; and they involve an accidental death.
For years, Taser has battled in court to show that its electronic control devices — its ECDs such as the X2 and the X26 — cannot kill. But if its recent settlements are any indication, the company may either be slowly backing away from that premise, or at least attempting to draw a line in time after which the company feels it's no longer liable for someone’s death.
CONTRIBUTING FACTORS
As bars were closing at about 2AM on April 19, 2008, 24-year-old Kevin Piskura was at a music venue about a block away from the Miami University campus in Oxford, Ohio. As the bar closed its doors and patrons exited, a fight broke out. Oxford Police were called. According to a civil complaint filed in 2010 by Piskura’s parents, an officer ordered Piskura to "step back or back away" from the fight. It’s not clear whether he did or not, but the officer soon pulled out a Taser ECD and shot Piskura in the chest. Piskura went into cardiac arrest; his heart stopped beating. He was taken to a nearby emergency room and soon life-flighted to a Cincinnati hospital where he died five days later. This past March, Piskura’s parents settled with the City of Oxford and the Oxford Police Department for $750,000. In October, Piskura’s parents suggested they were considering a settlement with Taser.
The Piskuras did not return calls from The Verge, and an attorney representing their case declined to comment. But Kevin Piskura’s death fits a pattern consistent to ongoing product liability cases involving Taser-related incidents in which someone was killed prior to September, 2009. The $2.3 million payouts likely stem from similar cases; these incidents occurred before Taser made its switch from "non-lethal" to "less lethal."
Regarding that: letters to medical journals and plenty of anecdotal evidence have suggested at least since 2005 that even healthy people could suffer cardiac arrest if shot near the heart with Taser’s "non-lethal" ECDs. By September, 2009, Taser changed its product warnings accordingly. Today, Taser’s ECDs are branded as "less lethal" instead of "non lethal," and its training materials warn that "exposure in the chest area near the heart … could lead to cardiac arrest."
Another ongoing cardiac arrest case against Taser involves Ryan Rich. A 33-year-old physician in Las Vegas, Rich went into cardiac arrest and died in January, 2008 after he was shot five times with an ECD, including once in the chest. That case is headed to trial in January.
A third case comes out of the Detroit suburb of Warren, Michigan, and will head to trial in May, 2014. It involves the 2009 death of 16-year-old, 5-feet-2-inch Robert Mitchell, who died in an abandoned house after being shot in the chest by a Warren police officer with a Taser ECD.
"TURNER COLLAPSED 37 SECONDS AFTER THE DEVICE WAS ACTIVATED."
Darryl Turner’s case is a fourth possibility. Turner was 17 years old in March 2008 when he got into an argument with his boss at the North Carolina Food Lion grocery where he worked as a cashier. According to a complaint later filed by Turner’s parents, the argument escalated to shouting and Turner’s boss eventually called 911. A police officer from the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department arrived and asked Turner to "calm down." When the teenager refused, the officer pointed his Taser ECD at Turner’s chest. Turner began to step toward the officer, so the officer "held down the Taser’s trigger, causing the device to continue emitting an electrical current, until Turner eventually collapsed 37 seconds after the device initially was activated." Paramedics soon arrived to find Turner handcuffed and unconscious. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
In an uncommon outcome, Turner’s family was awarded a massive payout in 2011. Taser appealed. In November of this year, an appeals court issued its opinion that Taser should remain liable for Turner’s death, but that the jury’s award needed to be reconsidered. "We have no doubt that Turner had significant value to his parents," the appeals court’s decision read. But the court couldn’t agree with a "reasonable level of certainty" that the boy’s life was worth $6.15 million. The parties are scheduled to head back to court in 2014 to haggle over that figure. Unless, that is, Taser has decided to cut its losses and settle out of court.
ON THE RECORD
Taser International is very good about keeping records. In addition to its Axon Flex on-body police camera that allows officers to record interactions with suspects, the company also collects data every time a Taser ECD is fired. But it’s up to police departments — and up to Taser International — to decide how much of that information is revealed publicly.
The company takes a similar approach in the courtroom.
Taser typically insists on keeping its legal settlements — such as those referenced in its recent $2.3 million payout — secret. Rarely are the terms made public. But it happens occasionally. One Northern California case involved a drunk man off his psychiatric meds who was shot with a Taser ECD after refusing to get off a bus. He went into cardiac arrest. An emergency crew was able to resuscitate him on scene, but after going 18 minutes without a breath, the man suffered a crippling brain injury. He would require a caregiver from that point forward.
After a long legal battle, Taser agreed to settle that case. As per usual, it demanded that the settlement agreement be kept secret. The defendants in the case agreed. But eventually it was revealed that the company had settled for $2.85 million. The settlement figure was only made public after a probate court judge made the unusual decision to disclose the dollar amount in open court.
THERE WAS, THE JUDGE SAID, "THERAPEUTIC VALUE" IN MAKING THE INFORMATION PUBLIC
A report from the San Jose Mercury News later explained the judge’s reasoning. There was, the judge said, "therapeutic value" in making the information public.
Whether or not a judge makes similar decisions about Taser’s recent settlements, it’s clear that the company has decided to settle cardiac arrest cases as quietly as possible because it has maintained for years that its weapons are effective, non-deadly alternatives to firearms. If too much attention focuses on Taser-related deaths, there’s a risk that police departments might choose to sidestep the controversy altogether and opt against Taser's products.
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