Leaping into the Taser age can’t be done on faith alone

Leaping into the Taser age can’t be done on faith alone

Note to Youngstown City Council: There is no such thing as a free Taser.

Council is expected to get legislation tonight authorizing the leasing of 160 stun guns for the police department. Federal grant money would be used to pay the $25,000 annual fee.

Police Chief Jimmy Hughes says he’s comfortable that the devices will be used appropriately, following proper training.

Indeed, the Taser, which is a brand name for a Conducted Energy Device (CED), can be a valuable tool, and an option to lethal force when dealing with threatening or belligerent suspects.

But before city council signs on to equipping 160 police officers with Tasers, it should ask for more than an assurance that officers will receive a few hours of training in the use of these weapons.

Policy issue

As important as — perhaps even more important than — training is a crystal clear policy for when Tasers should or should not be used.

Hughes approached council more than a year ago to buy Tasers for the department, so he has had more than enough time to put such a proposed policy together.

The International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Police Executive Research Forum have drafted guidelines for the nonabusive use of CEDs. Such a policy is necessary for the orderly operation of the department and to protect the city against the legal liability that comes with any new piece of equipment.

The guidelines would include, but not necessary be limited to, prohibiting the use of a Taser on handcuffed or secured prisoners, except where there is “overtly assaultive behavior,” to use an IACP phrase. They would take into consideration the fact that multiple activations and continuous cycling of a CED appear to increase the risk of death or serious injury and should be avoided. They would discourage the use of a Taser on medically fragile people, pregnant women or children and would require that if the Taser were used on such a person, the person would be taken to a medical facility for examination.

The guidelines would also require the summoning of a supervisor whenever a Taser was used and the timely completion of a use-of-force report. That’s a thumbnail summary; the Minneapolis Police Department’s Taser policy covers six pages.

Council should want to know the department’s penalties for misuse and whether those policies, as well as certification and training requirements, can be unilaterally enacted by the city or would have to be negotiated with police unions.

In short, equipping a police department with CEDs is not as simple, painless or cheap as signing a lease and getting a federal grant to cover the payments.

Shocking dangers

Although the makers of CEDs deny it, there is evidence that Taser shocks can be fatal. Between June 2001 and August 2008, 334 people are reported to have died in the United States after being Tasered. Medical examiners most often attribute the cause of death to various other factors, including the influence of drugs, alcohol and overexertion. However, some studies have shown that Taser currents can provoke ventricular tachycardia, which can degenerate into ventricular fibrillation, causing death.

And, while Tasers are billed as an alternative to deadly force in confronting a dangerous suspect, studies of police departments in the United States and Canada have shown that the number of officer-involved shootings do not necessarily go down when Tasers are issued to officers.

The potential for misuse of Tasers is largely anecdotal, but those anecdotes are being memorialized on the Web. And some of those videos show officers using their Tasers as weapons of convenience or retribution. In 2007, video of a Warren policeman repeatedly shocking an inebriated Howland woman got national exposure. There was also the case of a University of Florida student who wouldn’t shut up during a John Kerry appearance and was Tasered by one of six police officers who had subdued him. These cases appear to show frustrated or angry officers punishing people for offensive behavior. While some people may take a “he got what had coming to him” response, it is the job of police to make arrests. It is the job of the courts to punish wrongdoers.

Before any city rushes into the purchase, lease or issuance of Tasers, its city council and administration should be confident that everything that can be done to assure the proper use of these devices has been done.