Tasers: Vital Police Equipment or Excessive Force?

In September of 2007, Andrew Meyer, a student at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Fla., attended a town hall forum that featured Senator John Kerry. Meyer posed a controversial question and refused to leave until it was answered. Local police then tried to remove him from the building. After a few minutes of struggling with police, Meyer was tased and uttered the phrase, “Don’t tase me, bro!”  That phrase has been part of viral history ever since.

While no such incidents have occurred in the Fargo-Moorhead area, many residents still associate Tasers with that phrase. Ashley Hoeck, a college student at MSUM, said the clip she saw on YouTube is the first thing she envisions when hearing the word Taser.

“That video was so popular that you couldn’t get away from it. ‘Don’t tase me, bro!’ went from being a desperate plea to an overnight pop culture phenomenon, something an artist might write in a song or friends would greet each other with in the street,” said Hoeck.

It is because of internet clips like that one that the general public might have a negative view of Tasers. Lieutenant Joel Vettel of the Fargo Police Department hopes that view changes.

“We’ve never lost a life to a Taser and we’ve saved several,” Vettel said.

Aside from being used in traffic stops to subdue actively aggressive citizens, Tasers have been a way to stop suicidal persons from inflicting harm on themselves or officers. If a person is wielding a knife or threatening officers it can be a successful way to disarm and detain them, while still avoiding physical confrontation.

“The Taser really gives us the option of disarming someone with a knife without getting close and near danger. I think that’s an area where we have been hugely successful and I don’t think people see that,” said Vettel.

Although no lives have been lost in Fargo-Moorhead since its implementation in 2004, there have been an alarming number of deaths nationwide that have occurred after the individual was shot with a Taser.

A study by the human rights group Amnesty International shows that more than 351 people have died since June 2001 after being shot with Tasers. The study also showed that many of the individuals were subjected to repeated or prolonged shocks and many also had underlying health conditions such as heart conditions, mental illness or were under the influence of drugs.

In July 2009 Fargo resident Leonard Ritter was involved in a standoff in his apartment building in south Fargo. After four hours, firing several rounds from a handgun into a police robot and an attempted escape from his balcony, Ritter was Tased by police and taken into custody. Ritter was later taken to the State Hospital in Jamestown, N.D., where he was evaluated and it was determined that he suffered from mental health issues.

While it is virtually impossible for an officer to tell if someone is suffering from a mental illness it is obvious that more care needs to be taken before deciding to tase an individual that is being unresponsive.

Just type the words “Taser” and “death” into any search engine and numerous news stories pop up. After reading several of these stories, one cannot help but wonder—where do the police draw the line? A ten-year-old girl was tased for refusing to go to a youth shelter in Ozark, Ark.; three young children near Mount Vernon, Ill., were tased after the police were called to the Southern Thirty Adolescent Center.

Mark C. Backlund, a Fridley, Minn., man, died after being tased in a traffic stop after police said he was being uncooperative. A Tennessee man died after being tased 19 times outside of a night club. This man, Patrick Lee, was under the influence of LSD and officers noticed he was under the influence, yet they continued to tase him because he wasn’t cooperating. Lee’s family tried to fight back by suing local government and the company Taser International. A jury found police hadn’t used excessive force, despite the fact that Taser International advises that for a subject in a state called excited delirium, repeated or prolonged stuns with a Taser can cause significant and potentially fatal health risks.

Taser International has dismissed 100 wrongful death suits as of December 2009. There has been only one instance where the company was found liable for a death. A San Jose, Calif., jury found that the company had failed to warn Salinas police that prolonged exposure to electric shock from the device could cause risk of cardiac arrest that could ultimately end in death. The man was tased an estimated 30 times.

Taser International maintains that it provides a safe product and is not responsible for any deaths that may occur after an individual is tased. But shortly after the company lost the lawsuit, the point where the device should be aimed on the body was changed. It is now recommended that officers aim below the chest cavity.

“Does that mean that if we have an officer that ends up shooting someone in the chest area, that that’s wrong? No, the officers are going to be shooting at an area as best they can. There are a variety of conditions out there but we certainly wouldn’t be utilizing a device if we didn’t think it wasn’t safe,” said Fargo Police Lieutenant Vettel.

In the incident that involved three children near Mount Vernon, Ill., one of the children was tased in multiple spots, including the neck. Regardless of whatever conditions exist out in the real world, when is it ever appropriate to tase a child in the neck? The Illinois Department of Family and Child Services made clear that “shocking children with Tasers can result in serious physical and mental injury. Use of these weapons is especially troubling in cases where the children involved have committed no crime and have not even been charged with wrongdoing.”

During the interview, Lieutenant Vettel was not able to provide specific criteria for what has to happen in a situation for the Taser to be used or what constitutes an appropriate or inappropriate number of times that someone should be tased. The current plan relies quite heavily on what each officer deems appropriate.

“Everyone is approaching a situation differently. People aren’t always going to respond the same way whether we train them all the same way or not. At the end of the day, they (officers) need to be able to say, ‘Was [the use of force] necessary and was it reasonable?’” said Vettel.

Extensive scenario training is the cornerstone of their preparation, said Vettel, and the ability of officers to use the right judgment is a key factor for appropriate usage of the device.

Vettel credits the highly praised training program, along with the Response to Resistance reports, with the appropriate use of Tasers by the Fargo Police Department.

Whenever force is used, a Response to Resistance report has to be filled out. It then gets passed on up the chain of command, ultimately reaching the chief of police. The chief decides whether appropriate action was taken.

The Fargo Police carry the Taser X26. The weapon uses compressed nitrogen to shoot two small probes up to 21 feet. The probes look like fishing hooks that aren’t curved. When they make contact with a target, powerful electrical pulses are sent through the wires into the body. The target loses muscular control and can’t perform coordinated actions.

It’s frightening that a Taser’s electrical pulses can increase an individual’s heart rate by up to 250 to 300 beats per minute. The average heart rate is anywhere from 60 to 100 beats per minute.

“It felt like a shock. My heart was pumping pretty fast afterwards. The next day I was a little sore where the prongs had been,” said J.R. Sullivan, a Fargo resident who was tased after resisting arrest in a traffic stop.

A Taser is different from the baton it replaced—it’s a less personal way to use force. With a baton, an officer has to personally inflict a blow on someone. A Taser can be used from up to 21 feet away and all the officer has to do is pull a trigger. Taser usage is not so up close and personal.

There is a version of the Taser that is available to the general public. The C2 is a small, compact version of what the police carry on their belts. There is an LED light in the device to help the user tell where they are aiming the Taser. It is only available on the Taser International Web site and it comes in a variety of colors to match your shoes or your cell phone. Should such a product be put into the hands of consumers when it may not even be used appropriately by police officers?

It isn’t legal to carry a Taser, or any other weapon for that matter, that is concealed. Before deciding to purchase any kind of protective weapon the buyer should be fully aware of the legal ramifications of carrying the weapon.

“I always tell people if you’re going to buy a weapon, one, make sure you understand the legal aspects, two, make sure you know how to use it. You’d be amazed at how many people I encounter that have pepper spray in their purse and have never sprayed so they don’t know how it works,” said Vettel.

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