What is up with the tasers?

Question

I understand that they are less lethal than bullets, but come on! I keep seeing these officers tasering people like its nothing and at times when it seems in the most inappropriate situations. Don't get me wrong, I applaud our officers for their hard work trying to keep us safe, but perhaps some additional training is needed on this tool. If you are that afraid that you feel you need to reach for the taser or pepper spray at the getgo, perhaps it is time to get a different job. Am I wrong??

Answer 1

What you see is not the police "tasering people like it is nothing", as you say. In reality, 97% of police contacts involve no use of force at all.

The problem is, this is not newsworthy. It would be quite boring to watch. So you only see the 3% of police contacts that do involve force.

This gives you an unfair representation of how often police actually use tasers.

As far as Jen's comments.... it is true you can not move while being tased, but you can still hear. For this reason, we are taught to continuously give orders like "put your hands behind your back", so they understand what to do, so they can avoid being tased again.

And as far as the deaths... there has not been one confirmed death as a direct result of the taser. The majority of the people have already consumed a lethal overdose of drugs, and the body is already shutting down, causing the irrational behavior. Cocaine psychosis and exicted delerium are two common conditions causing this.

Electricity is not stored in the body, so if the taser was the cause of death, it would happen immediately. Every case I have read, hours have passed from the time of custody until the time of death. And all have had pre-existing medical conditions. I'm sure we will hear something similar from the BC airport case, where 10 hours elapsed before he died.

Finally, voltage does not kill, amperage does. The taser only delivers .0021 amps, 30 times less than the minimum lethal amount of .07 amps.

Answer 2

Yes - you are wrong.

Thank you for the applause and support.
Understanding what the Police do and why would be a good thing as well.

Perhaps you would prefer that an officer attempting to take a suspect in custody, just allowed the suspect to escape instead of facing the often violent confrontations that come with making an arrest.

That is a a major part of the Police work that "keeps you safe." Taking violent and potentially violent offenders off the street.

Answer 3

Before anyone opens their mouth and spews anything that will make anyone more ignorant you need to actually need to do research. If you go to www.taser.com and go to the research tab you will find actual scientific stats from experiments on humans and animals. Tasers don't kill people...what they don't tell you when someone that has been tased because they would not comply is that they had an 18 pack of beer and 3 line of cocaine in their nose. It is the drugs that kill them not the taser. Tasers also do not interfere with pacemakers or defibrillators contrary to popular belief.

Do your research before you make assumptions.

Answer 4

"If you are that afraid that you feel you need to reach for the taser or pepper spray at the getgo, perhaps it is time to get a different job. Am I wrong??"
.....Yes.

By the way, nearly every department requires that in order to carry a taser, you must be tased yourself. They know what they're dealing with.

Answer 5

I have read about three people in the last week who have died from being tasered. That's pretty lethal. One of the victims was 17 years old and ALL were unarmed.
I have seen videos where cops are shouting at an individual who is being tasered to put their hands behind their backs WHILE they are in the midst of having electric shock run through their bodies. They cannot control their movements, yet somehow they are expected to put their hands behind their backs. When they don't comply (because they are physically unable) they are tasered yet again. People aren't cattle. Did these overzealous taze-a-holic cops miss the sign up to be a rancher?

Answer 6

Yes, less than lethal tazers have saved many lives.
How many times should an officer request a person comply before using a tazer? The idea is to save lives those of the officer and the person failing to comply. If your an officer and you asked someone to remove their hand from their coat pocket once and they don't comply. How many times are you going to ask them before you use a tazer. They could have a gun or their wallet in their hand.

Answer 7

lets not forget the people are getting tased because they are criminals and should have been listening to the officers. Yes I am sure that there are cases where taseing was unnecessary. I have also seen case where serious injury would have happened if it not have been for the taser.

Answer 8

Well, I grew up when officers "less-than-lethal" options were batons, flashlights, and their hands... as well as tear-gas, fire-hoses and their dogs.

I DO agree that we have SEEN some video that is alittle scary... the Utah officer tasing a traffic stop, the officer tazing the drunk woman a half dozen times, and the "Don't Taze Me BRO !!" idiot...

I think being a cop is a lousy and thankless job...

Answer 9

we all applaud our officers, but truth is some of them don't need to be officers in the first place. No criminal should be coddled by any means but there are times when I truly believe that cops put on a show for those watching, and that they feel they must 'show force' under any circumstances.

Answer 10

Do not listen to ADW644 answer.
The man who was in the throws of an epileptic fit recently was not a criminal.
He could not get up when ordered so he was tazered.

Gun happy was how we termed the people who did that type of thing when I was in the forces.