Among the findings:. When used properly, such devices allow police officers to bring under control threatening and unruly subjects without the need for deadly force or physical restraint maneuvers, supporters say. They minimize the risk of harm to suspects and officers. While no reliable data exists on how often law enforcement uses weapons like Tasers, a Department of Justice report cited survey-based studies that put the risk of death from the devices at less than 0.
Members of the public also support the use of Tasers. After the fatal shooting of Walter Wallace Jr. They did, though, reduce the rate of police injury.
The company behind the best-known and most widely used conducted-energy weapon sold its first Taser to police in Florida in The technology had been around for more than 20 years by then but was slow to catch on because the original version used darts propelled by gunpowder, so the weapon was treated like a firearm under the law. Jack Cover, an aerospace scientist working with Taser International Inc. That same year, New Jersey became the last state to authorize the use of Taser-like weapons for law enforcement.
They are now legal to sell and own in at least 46 states and Puerto Rico. But Taser training is too often cursory, use-of-force experts said. Taser training primarily focuses on how to operate the weapon, which is not good enough, said Lon Bartel, a Taser master trainer and director of training and curriculum for VirTra, an Arizona-based company that uses virtual reality to replicate real-life scenarios for law enforcement officers.
Fewer than 1 in 3 officers have been trained in how to switch from a Taser to a firearm and vice versa as the situation changes, Bartel said. As early as , the Police Executive Research Forum, a national nonprofit policy organization, issued 52 guidelines calling for tighter restrictions on the use of Taser-like devices, including barring use on passive or fleeing subjects, barring use by multiple officers on a single person, and requiring mandatory safety training.
Four instances ended in death, including Daunte Wright. The city's police chief, Tim Gannon, said in a news conference this month that Potter was trained to carry her sidearm on the right side of her duty belt and her Taser on the left.
Axon also has issued warnings since at least that repeated Taser hits increase the risk for serious injury and death. But a lawsuit claims those warnings were ignored by the Wilson, Oklahoma, Police Department, whose use-of-force policy did not prohibit repeated Taser strikes when two officers killed year-old Jared Lakey in July The officers fired their Tasers 53 times over nine minutes at the unarmed and naked man as he lay on the ground, according to the lawsuit.
Mistaking a gun for a Taser is rare, but it has happened before. Comprehensive nationwide figures aren't available. However, a law journal published in found nine examples of police officers accidentally using a handgun instead of a Taser between and Two of these incidents resulted in death.
There have also been more recent instances of a suspect being shot instead of Tasered:. Read more from Reality Check. Send us your questions. Image source, Getty Images. He cited a University of California, San Francisco UCSF , study that aggregated data from 50 cities and found an increase in in-custody deaths and fatal shootings by police in the first year after departments acquired Tasers.
Even the threat or sight of a Taser can exacerbate conflicts when police are interacting with someone experiencing mental illness or intoxication, according to experts. Police alleged he had jaywalked and eventually wrestled him to the ground and fatally shot him.
Axon disputed claims that Tasers increase police violence. Activists say cities should be reducing police contact with civilians, starting with removing armed officers from traffic enforcement and other services — instead of giving them more money for new weapons or training or other reforms that have failed to curb brutality.
Daunte Wright case: why Tasers have failed to stop police killings. Zipes gathered data on eight adult males who had lost consciousness after being stunned with the TASER X26 — he reviewed their electrocardiogram results, as well as their medical records. Dr Zipes also looked at the autopsy results of seven of them who had died. One survivor had impaired memory. According to Dr. A fighting, fleeing individual might have a normal heart rate of , but the ECD shock may increase that rate substantially, leading to ventricular tachycardia , which can progress into ventricular fibrillation that stops normal blood flow.
When this occurs the patient needs urgent CPR to pump blood to the heart and brain, says the American Heart Association.
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