Police lawsuit against Tazer

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Preacherman

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From KOBTV (http://www.kobtv.com/index.cfm?viewer=storyviewer&id=21240&cat=NMTOPSTORIES):

Police officers in N.M., other states sue stun-gun maker

Last Update: 08/20/2005 3:29:33 PM
By: Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) - Police officers in New Mexico and four other states have filed lawsuits against Arizona-based Taser International.

The officers allege serious injuries after being shocked with the electronic stun gun during training classes.

All of the lawsuits have been filed in the past two weeks in Phoenix on behalf of officers in Florida, Kansas, New Mexico and Ohio.

The officers allege they suffered “severe and permanent” injuries.

Those include multiple spinal fractures, burns, a shoulder dislocation and soft-tissue injuries.

Scottsdale, Arizona-based Taser has marketed the weapons to 7,000 law enforcement agencies and promoted the gun’s safety.

The devices temporarily paralyze people with a 50,000-volt jolt.
 
Cops suing tazer, hehe, I thought tasers were safe, at least they were when non LEO's were claiming injury.
 
Nonono, this is totally different. They only become dangerous when it's in a controleld circumstance, and you have a padded mat to collapse on, if you aren't caught by a spotter. Only when these elements are combined does a tazer become dangerous.

Seriously, I actually have been convinced by the persuasive leos here that the incidental injuries from a Tazer are almost inconsequential. The guy falls, and hits his head on a car bumper as he does. This is rough. But in fact he could have gotten the shoot kicked out of him with batons, and it'd be rough too.

It's the other deaths from Tazers that I find intriguing, the ones that sound like a something between heat stroke and heart attack.
 
Tasers are way over-rated. 50,000 volts with an extremely low ampere rating passing between two electrodes, at most, through 1 layer of skin, brings out the cry babies even in law enforcement?? Of course the feeling is going to be quite uncomfortable. It's specifically designed to be that way. Didn't the subjects of such an electrical experiment know this beforehand? Were they warned about the high voltage? Do they even know what "voltage" is?

Police departments should have their own sign legal waivers before ever experimenting with the tasers.
 
I'm under...

the impression that most law enforcement agencies require their officers to personally experience the effects of a taser prior to being allowed to carry one. I'm not thinking it's because of negligent discharges, but because of the required training protocol.

migoi
 
I'm under the impression that most law enforcement agencies require their officers to personally experience the effects of a taser prior to being allowed to carry one. I'm not thinking it's because of negligent discharges, but because of the required training protocol.
Click to expand...

You are right migoi. PD officers in most cases must feel firsthand the effects of what a taser can do before they can carry. We know this already. Most of us here are just wrestling with the "why?" of it. I mean ... a firearm pushes a bullet PDQ! and it can be destructive. Everyone knows that already. But you don't see lines of people readily wanting to eat a 9 or 45 to "experience the cool effects". Why? I'll tell you why. It's because everyone knows what a bullet's capable of. How can it be impossible for them to know the same about any other weapon on the force?

Perhaps the police need the help of citizens afterall. They need us to help protect them from their own foolishness.
 
What crap. Just because they can't seem to avoid electrocuting themselves...
The four rules apply to tasers, as well.
Click to expand...

I think you missed why they were shot here.
 
Same here. And this is the first I have heard of cops suing Taser for anything. I wonder if there is anything to this? AFAIK, no agency around here has experienced problems with the taser, and we taser officers by the thousands. My agency alone was circa 2,000 officers taking the ride, not a single complaint of anything besides "OMG DID THAT HURT" and a little sting from the probes.

Mike
 
If the police win this lawsuit, then I believe Taser will ultimately go bankrupt from subsequent lawsuits.

The police case will give legitmacy to the cases of simple civilians.

I think Tasers are overused by police, so maybe that would be a good thing.
 
I've spoken with dozens of officers who have been hit with a TASER. Some were "lucky" enough to get the full 5 second ride, and some were "fortunate" enough to do it again when switching agencies. The only injuries I have heard about from those officers, who have all observed dozens more, is minor injuries from falls, with none being "permanent." Therefore I will be very interested in seeing what kind of details come out in this case, but it seems inconsistent with everything I know about the TASER use in training officers.
 
The NC attorney general Roy Cooper has stated he is more afraid of tasers in private hands than in the police.

But this was in response to an incident in Asheville, North Carolina where apparently a cop misused a taser on a woman and got fired.

:confused:
 
Our Dept used to be only Sgt and above carried Taser, but right after I promoted, they discontinued Taser use, as 11 people in three years died from them, or some garbage like that. Weenies who run sobbing in terror from lawsuits should never be in positions of power...
 
Cops suing tazer, hehe, I thought tasers were safe, at least they were when non LEO's were claiming injury.
Click to expand...

Exactly.

The "How" this occured is most certainly intentional discharges, for training purposes, not NDs. The cops' theory is that "you knew or reasonably should have known that they would cause permanent/serious injury, and you definitely knew we were going to shoot each other in training because we told you that".
 
11 deaths in three years out of how many thousands of uses is what makes the deaths statistically insignificant. Very significant of course to the die-ee's but overall not approaching unintended death by any number of causes.

There have almost certainly been more unintended deaths "caused by police" during arrest during that time by positional asphyxia but that doesn't cause us to start calling merely pinning a struggling arrestee down "lethal in se."
 
Calling the deaths "statistically insignificant" is different than calling them "garbage". Making comments that use words like "garbage" in reference to life is why plaintiff's lawyers have a field day suing police. Sometimes you just have to know when to shut up.

At any rate, I would sell my Tazer stock now, if I had any. This is the beginning of the end for that company.
 
Hmmm, I thought that's where the term less-lethal came in.
Click to expand...

Thats right, but the problem is that for some people it is not less lethal. Being less lethal is like being less pregnant.

The company tries to legally disclaim its product by proclaiming it "less lethal", but everyone, from the police to the people in the community the supposedly protect, expect the device to be non-lethal.
 
Anything can be lethal under the (in-?)correct circumstances, some are just less likely to be lethal than others.
That said, the brass appearantly decided that the risks associated with taser usage are worth it.

A billy club is normally nonlethal, unless used incorrectly, be it ignorance, chance or stupidity...
 
In an accident in my high school theater I took a jolt of 240 volts in one hand and out the other. Probably the only thing that saved me was my muscles convulsing and throwing me back, breaking the circut. Both my hands where throbbing and I was on a MAJOR adrenaline rush. I don't think the same thing in a "Non lethal" form makes people more cooperative in the long run. They are now more pissed than before, probably now on an adrenaline rush as well. Plus the Tazering of old ladies and 13 year old girls just increases the ever so favorable :rolleyes: stereotype of cops.
 
Taser voltage is about the same as modern automotive spark, isn't it? HEI is around 35,000, and the newer cars are even higher.

Which leads me into the off-thread comment that I watched a guy discover you couldn't drown out a flathead Ford V8 with used Lone Star--but you could discover a whole new quantum level of pain.

Art
 
Someone might want to check out the differences between AC and DC (and pulsed DC) shocks. The body does react differently.
 
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