Research studies and courtroom decisions continue to explore what’s practiced, what’s effective, and what’s legal so far as police use of CEWs is concerned. Here’s a roundup of some of the most recent developments. TASER vs. OC: And the winner is… In real-life confrontations, TASERs are effective in incapacitating actively resistant suspects over 90% of...Read More
Part of a periodic series Sgt. Thomas Ovens, an officer in the state of Washington, had scarcely hung up his diploma from the Force Science Certification Course when, in quick succession, he was called on to help defend two major lawsuits against police. In one case, officers with a large department in Eastern Washington shot...Read More
A man in England doused himself with gasoline in his apartment and then ignited the “petrol vapours” with a cigarette lighter and burned himself to death in a ball of fire. Two police officers armed with TASER Conducted Energy Weapons had been called to the scene by paramedics, but they were unable to deploy these...Read More
In a leading medical journal, a retired cardiologist whose previous assertions about the risks of TASERs have been vigorously disputed claims anew that electronic control devices (ECDs) can indeed cause fatal cardiac arrest in humans. Based on what critics say is faulty research, Dr. Douglas Zipes, a professor emeritus at the Krannert Institute of Cardiology...Read More
When a suspect tried to rabbit on foot from a drug interdiction stop in Louisiana and then refused to follow commands after officers caught him, he was zapped with a TASER three times before being successfully handcuffed–once via a probe to the arm and twice in drive-stun mode to the leg, for a total of...Read More
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...Read More
Another recent study led by Dr. Jeffrey Ho may be useful to police attorneys in getting civilian jurors to understand the true level of physiological stress inflicted on a subject by CEW broad-spread probe deployment. The stress impact of Tasing often becomes the alleged culprit in arrest-related death litigation and can easily be exaggerated in...Read More
A new force-related issue is beginning to surface in state and federal court proceedings: Whether merely threatening to use an electronic control weapon (ECW)–including pointing it, sparking it, and aiming its laser beam–constitutes a use of force under the law. “The caselaw on the subject is still relatively limited, but the question of when and...Read More
The standard Taser X26 exposure cycle in controlling agitated or combative subjects is an initial five-second discharge, with subsequent five-second cycles as deemed necessary. A new report in the Journal of Forensic Sciences suggests that much longer continuous exposure may, in fact, be safe physiologically. In a study conducted at Pennsylvania State University, scientists subjected...Read More
Two recently published, force-related court decisions of interest, brought to our attention by Americans for Effective Law Enforcement, the nonprofit organization that monitors judicial actions affecting police and conducts training seminars on legal issues: Case 1: Is an agency legally justified in requiring breath testing after an OIS? Three unions representing NYPD personnel sued in...Read More
