Independent study indicates Tasers generally safe in police hands

[Zandor]

Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS

SEATTLE -- Tasers and similar stun guns, increasingly popular among law enforcement agencies nationwide, are generally safe for police to use, according a study paid for by the Justice Department. However, the study's author cautioned that the weapons have the potential to injure or kill.

In the review of 962 reported cases of people jolted with electrical conducted energy weapons, a technical term for devices designed to deliver temporarily disabling bursts of electricity, 99.7 percent had no injuries or minor ones such as scrapes and bruises that did not require hospitalization...





Read more: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_WA_Taser_Safety.html?source=mypi

[Kagemusha]

1. It's the exceptions that are the problem.

And anyone who uses them indiscriminately is a cruel idiot.

[DaveJ]

2. The study may have taken that into account

I don't know since I haven't read it. The study should have compared the effects of tasering verses the effects of using old fashioned physical force. The latter can also be dangerous.

[Kagemusha]

6. It's not my field so I'll live but, I'd really love to see such statistics too.

Just for intellectual curiosity's sake, I'd like to know how many people got hurt when non-tasers were used.

[Zandor]

3. "study paid for by the Justice Department"

Hmmm.

[MikeNearMcChord]

4. I would love to try a taser on one of these lab nerds

just to see.(lets just say I am from Missouri):evilgrin:

[truthisfreedom]

5. Nothing to see here, move along.

Putting torture tools in the hands of thumpers is ALWAYS a bad idea.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[mcscajun]

8. Take this study with a large helping of salt; it hasn't been peer-reviewed yet.

"Bozeman stressed that the findings have not been published in full or undergone formal peer review. Partial findings covering 597 cases were published earlier in the Annals of Emergency Medicine."

[micraphone]

9. Wait for the peer review

I'm still trying to figure out why it takes 7 huge cops AND (sometimes multiple) tasering to subdue an unarmed cleric, a woman and a student.

Not at the same time, of course.

[armodem08]

10. The problems occur when police use them for compliance.

If the police use them for compliance, rather than to disable a threatening person (either to someone else or themselves), then the line is as murky as it can be. Every command must be obeyed, and the power dynamic shifts significantly. Sometimes people may feel obliged to consent to searches, too!

[Lost4words]

11. its when the taser hits the target that they become less than safe

But Police injuries are way down.

8643

[AllexxisF1]

12. I really do not understand the hate toward tasing people.

I mean hell you do what ever the Officer tells you or you get zapped. Better to get zapped than beaten down with a billy club or shot. I mean damn sure there are some bad seeds out there but as a whole I believe non killing weapons are better than a gun as the only option.

[benEzra]

13. The problem occurs when Tasers are used at too low a force threshold...

mere failure to obey (like the woman who walked away from the officer writing a parking ticket and got Tased), mouthing off/contempt of cop, "attitude adjustment," etc.

Used properly, I don't have any problem with them, either. But there does seem to be quite a bit of mission creep as far as their operational deployment goes; people are getting tased in situations that, sans taser, no force whatsoever would have been used.