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Injuries

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New Study: Rarity Of Police Use of Force & Severe Suspect Injuries Confirmed

Contrary to the prevailing depiction of police in virtually every news cycle, a new study confirms once again that use of force by officers is actually a rare occurrence. A research team headed by Dr. William Bozeman of the Dept. of Emergency Medicine at Wake Forest School of Medicine in North Carolina reviewed police and...
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CEW Darts In The Eye: First Thorough Study Documents Risk

In the first study of its kind, a research team has comprehensively documented the risk of barbed darts from conducted electrical weapons penetrating the eyes of suspects. While certainly cringe-inducing, the risk, in fact, is small: only 1 in every 123,000 CEW discharges in the field results in eye injury, the study reports. But the...
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Electrical Weapons & Fires: How Big Is The Risk, Really?

Officers in Texas responding to a 911 call discovered a middle-aged Hispanic sitting in his car outside his house, holding a cigarette lighter as he poured gasoline on himself and threatened to set himself on fire. For months he’d talked of suicide by burning. This day he’d doused his home with fuel and, he said,...
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New Study Of Unanswered Question: Do CEW Darts Cause Infections?

More than 3.3 million darts from conducted energy weapons, including thousands that likely were contaminated with Staphlococcus aureus bacteria, have penetrated human skin. How many would you guess have caused infections? The best guess would be “zero,” according to what is believed to be the first scholarly paper to review this issue. The research group,...
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FSI Investigates Unintentional Discharges: When Are You At Greatest Risk?

When are you most likely to experience the shock and potentially deadly consequences of an unintentional discharge: a) While clearing an area in response to a call? b) While performing routine firearms tasks, including cleaning your weapon? c) While already engaged with a suspect in high-risk circumstances? And where is this unwanted firing most likely...
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Study Falls Short But Hopes Of Open Dialogue On Injuries By Cops

A medical research team trying to define the number and nature of civilian injuries at the hands of peace officers has deplored the lack of reliable single-source information on that topic. In a new study, the researchers had hoped to analyze data on law enforcement-related injuries and deaths of civilians for “racial/ethnic and gender patterns”...
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Researchers Want ER Docs To Focus More On “Excessive” Force Claims

A newly published study that calls for ER doctors to give more attention to complaints from injured suspects about “excessive force” and “police brutality” has been published in a prominent medical journal. The authors, citing concerns by the ACLU and the World Health Organization about unnecessarily violent police behavior, argue that prisoners’ injuries should be...
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Knowledge Gaps Nix Firm Conclusions About CEW Risks, Experts Say

A blue ribbon panel of experts assigned to determine “what is known and not known about the physiological and health effects associated with CEW use” has presented five “key findings” in a recently issued report: “[W]hile fatal complications [from CEW deployment] are biologically plausible, they would be extremely rare.” When a sudden in-custody death does...
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New Study Shines A Revealing Light On Police Injuries

A groundbreaking pilot study of more than 9,700 officers, aimed at determining whether it’s feasible to establish a national reporting system for police injuries, has revealed a wealth of intriguing facts about LEOs hurt on duty. Among the highlights: Training exercises were second only to making an arrest as the activity most often engaged in...
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Should ER Docs Be Required To Report Suspected Cases Of Police Brutality? Controversy Flares Over What’s Needed

A resounding clash between researchers has erupted over the question of whether emergency room doctors should report suspected cases of excessive force by LEOs. On one hand are American researchers—MDs and PhDs—who argue that in the interest of “violence prevention” ER physicians should notify Internal Affairs investigators whenever they see a patient whose injuries may...
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