Why are cops going crazy with the taser these days?

raviet31

None of the deaths involving the taser have been directly linked to the taser. All of the deaths have had underlying conditions, usually the suspect is high out of their mind.

It seems that many people forget that cops are people and they have families too. No cop wants to get hurt on the job. Why should a cop, who is dealing with a disorderly person, who is refusing to comply, risk getting punched, kicked, or hit with a bottle when making an arrest?

Additionally, cops don't walk into a bar, where someone is acting disorderly, and just blast them with the taser. They follow a continuum of force that starts with just their mere presence. If the person continues to refuse to comply, the police have the option to escalate to the next level in the continuum. Eventually, if the person continues to refuse to comply, they can go for the taser. And if a person continues to refuse to comply, when a taser is pointed at them, the cop is telling them their going to get tased, then I have very little sympathy for the one about to get tased.

trooper3316

Over 98 percent of police contacts have no use of force at all. Of the remaining 1%, the taser is only one of the options used. Of all the taser usages, about 2% result in injury. Most of these injuries are from the fall, as you can not control your muscles.

Taking all those statisitcs into consideration, the chances of getting injured by a taser are incredibly small. However, police contacts where everything goes right are not newsworthy, so the media concentrates of the very small percentage of controversial ones. This gives you an unfair representation of how many times it is actually used.

The standard for using the taser is "acitive resistance or the threat of". This means at this point, the other options are wrestling with the person, or using a baton.

If you go hands on, there is a 55 percent chance the subject will get hurt, and a 45 percent chance of injury to the officer. With baton there is an 85 percent chance the subject goes to the hospital.

The taser may not be perfect, but it statistically the safest weapon they have.

sherry

Drunks have the tendency to go from silly to violent at any given moment. They are impaired,,and i would much rather hear someone complaining they got tased, than their family mourning their deaths. Our police officers have no idea what the persons next move may lead to, and i am sure the deaths by gunfire far exceed the deaths by taser fire.

celtish

Why are you Americans so weapon-crazy?

California Street Cop

I'm all for it. Ban the crap. I've never carried it on my belt.

As a matter of fact, just to please all the taser haters here, I've stopped carrying my taser.

Now, when I'm faced with a lot of those scenarios where I would have deployed my taser, I'll be using my baton and causing injury, not just pain.

For the very few instances when my taser could have saved my life I'll be using 230 grain .45 caliber bullets at 985 FPS to do my defending.

Grunt

Ya 1 just tased a 11 year girl no excuse for that one except a Punk

FRAGINAL-NOYPI

Taser is the easiest way of frightening the people and the policemen are using it to the maximum.

Julia

Would you rather they go back to being "gun crazy" as the media makes them out to have been?

sarcasm is fun

Let's face it: Tasering is loads of fun.

Having complete control over another living thing is just awesome. Being able to inflict incapacitating pain, arbitrarily . . . well, it doesn't get any better than that.

mebe1042

Acting "Silly"? I'd hate to see these people when they're fighting mad. None of the deaths you mention resulted directly from the Taser being used on the person. The deaths resulted from complications of drugs in the subject's system and the extreme physical exertion by the subject prior to a Taser being deployed on that person. If they could kill, quite a few Police Officers would be dead from being Tased in training. But, it hasn't happened.

As raviet pointed out I have to follow what is called a "Force Continuum" or "Conflict resolution" for you Politically correct types. I have to go through dialogue, control talk and empty hand control before using less than lethal weapons. From there I have a Baton where I can seriously injure someone permanently, O.C. spray which might work but affect me or other Officers in the process or use of the Taser. What makes the Taser unique is that Officers now have an option that would have otherwise required deadly force to stop a threat.

What a lot of people don't realize is that ANY use of force that a Police Officer uses has to be justifiable.

"That One"

If you think we use the taser too much, then become a cop. You can use whatever level of force you think is appropriate.

2amend

why are criminals going crazy shooting at cops? if you dont want to get tasered dont be a jack ***.

uptowndog

Why don't people follow the rules instead of acting stupid

Five-O

Wow. I finally see a question my fellow boys in blue are showing up on instead of the people who watch too much TV. Trooper answered this very well. I will state too that it's a TOOL to be used to reduce injury to officers. Someone squares up on you and you point the x26 red dot at them, it's a good way to gain compliance because they've heard there boy scream like a little girl when they were tased. If someone squares up on you and you tase them. Guess what, you didn't have to brawl with them. While they would go to the hospital, you've reduced the chance of them grabbing your gun, shooting you, you not going home to see your wife and kids, mom crying at your funeral, the biggest gang in the world being sad for a brothers loss, you get the point..... It's far more dangerous of a job than anyone NOT doing the job can possibly understand by watching CSI:Miami or COPS on TV. Try living the reality. You'll see the tasers positive side.

To answer your second question, as trooper stated, most agencies require "active resistance" out of the person. ie. "Put your hands behind your back!" Person takes off and runs then refuses again to put hands behind back. TASER TASER!! Try the 50,000 volts sometime it's GREAT!!

jossieray

Well the way I see is this. If the person wasn't doing any thing wrong then the cops wouldn't have the tazer out would they. Even if they are drunk and acting silly it was there choice to do it in a public place so they are going to have to pay the consequences. Cops deal with shi* all day long and I would rather see them protected and go home safe at the end of the day than worry about rather or not I thought they used to much force in a certain situation. We are not there we can not judge if the cops felt threatened or not........

TURANDOT

Most will retire without ever firing their gun.
They have to break in the taser!

NSA

Pick one:

1) Shot with 9mm

2) Shot with 12ga shotgun

3) Chewed by K9

4) Shot with Pepper spray

5) Hit with riot baton

6) Hit with PR24

7) Shot with TASER

8) Obey the law and follow the instructions of the police.

9) Get your butt kicked by the police officer trained to kicked your butt.

Personally, I choose number 8.

Enter Your Message or Comment

User Name:
User Email:
Post a comment: