"Largest ever" study finds tasers safe
By Darren Murph 
posted Oct 9th 2007 11:08AM
posted Oct 9th 2007 11:08AM
Not that you needed any kind of study to prove that your shiny new personal stun gun was safe to use, but Dr. William Bozeman and colleagues have just wrapped up an independent study that "suggests the devices are safe, causing a low occurrence of serious injuries." The research was conducted at Wake Forest University, and it showed that out of "nearly 1,000 cases, 99.7-percent of those subjected to a taser had mild injuries, such as scrapes and bruises, or none at all," while the remaining sliver received injuries severe enough to warrant a trip to the hospital. Granted, Dr. Bozeman did admit that tasers could "clearly cause injuries and even deaths in some cases," but insinuated that the risk was quite low. Tase on, we guess.[Via Physorg]
Don't tase me, bro!
I ain't your bro. *zap*
Hahah...uhh, sis?
lameness repeated
DONT TAZE ME BRO
predictable
Boring!
That was a horrible event, I mean the guy got freaking tazed for asking a question. What ever happened to the freedom of speech. Since when did questions harm people?
That was a horrible event, I mean the guy got freaking tazed for asking a question. What ever happened to the freedom of speech. Since when did questions harm people?
That was a horrible event, I mean the guy got freaking tazed for asking a question. What ever happened to the freedom of speech. Since when did questions harm people?
GRRR Engadget commenting system & mozilla firefox!
Do taze me bro. Now that we know they're safe...
this isn't news.
Most of the people who end up having serious or fatal injuries have a pre-existing, serious heart condition to begin with.
tazers > you
Yep .. it's best not to have any medical condition before someone decides to taze you. Make sure you alert all cops, who want to arrest you, about a bum ticker.
Then, once they do taze you and you're dead, you can charge them with .. oh wait.
what's your point, Ohng? What would you rather subdue them with? Guns are too deadly, Batons are too harmful, Mace can have long term effects, etc etc etc.... nobody is ever happy
@ohng
Maybe the solution is to not run from the cops. Honestly if you've done nothing wrong then you have nothing to fear.
@Penguin Warlord
O Rly?
How about shooting a guy whos just carrying a table leg?
http://web.amnesty.org/wire/september2002/UK
As long as the officers recieve proper training, (similar to the way prison guards have to be maced every few years, so they don't abuse it on the inmates), a taser is a much better solution than a gun. We can't all be boondock saints. :p
This is great news.
This is terrible news. We are already seeing way too many instances of cops using Tasers (and mace for that matter) as a form of summary corporeal punishment. Supposedly our 8th amendment protects us against this (didn't help the "don't tase me bro" guy though, so I wouldn't count on it helping you).
"Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."
A taser was a lot better than broken bones. I'd like to know what injuries this guy sustained, besides a few moments of pain.
One way or another, this guy was going down.
Rather they had to tackle him, or use other means of intense physical force, they disabled him.
it's not news, nor is it great.
It just confirms what most people already know.
@Adam you are confusing the use of tasers with the use of excessive force. Banning tasers will not stop excessive force, the cops will just use something else.
Treat the cause, not the symptom.
"A taser was a lot better than broken bones. I'd like to know what injuries this guy sustained, besides a few moments of pain."
So if I run up and Taser you for no good reason, should I not be charged, since there's no permanent injuries?
Tasers are dangerous! Go back to using guns!
Oh, wait . . .
It is great to live in a society where the Police are not using Taser on people breaking the law, however using taser on people who have either did nothing wrong or simply put, didn't OBEY their Masters... ahem, sorry the police.
They say... Take your pick! Either you will be shot, or you can get taser, it's your choice! We throw are arm up in the air and say... taser me please! It's better than being shot! However what did you do wrong to warrant that taser/being shot in the first place? If a person say NO to a police office, that dose not mean that the police office has the right to use force against your simple 2 letter word. However here in America that is so normal we don't even notice anything being wrong.
If the police are the Prison guards then what the heck does that make the rest of the population? And we come to the conclusion that Brian comment should get I guess prisners in a prison would give Brian Highest ranks as well?
For all of you guys out their that think that other people are sooo bad that they need to be shot, locked up, or taser... Then this link is for you AMERICA!
http://www.blacklistednews.com/view.asp?ID=4185
America... the land of the free and the home of the br***
Great! Just what arrogant corrupted "I am above everyone and the law" cops needed to hear!
Riiight, because the alternative would be to show that Tazers were unsafe so those "arrogant" cops would have to resort to pumping lead into someone instead of voltage.
Of course there are corrupt cops just as there are corrupt people in every line of work...it is difficult to screen for morality. However, speaking as a person who has, voluntarily, been hit with a 5 sec. burst from a police issue X26 Taser, I will say that you can consider yourself lucky when the officer choses this method to subdue you in the event of resistance as opposed to OC spray, ASP baton, or by throwing small pieces of metal your direction your way at a high rate of speed. Once the officer turns off the power, the effect disappears much more quickly than you might realize, which can not be said for those other methods. And guess what, people have died after being sprayed with OC, people have died after being struck with a baton, and with the gun option, it goes without saying. The Taser is the best option all around, I am convinced of that. Like every other tool, it can be abused, but you don't blame the tool.
"The Taser is the best option all around, I am convinced of that. Like every other tool, it can be abused, but you don't blame the tool."
Amen
it's possibly a better option to disable suspects than firing bullets at them, but it also opens wide the possibility of torture without leaving much marks, hence much greater possibility of abuse.
I know a kid that bought a tazer off of ebay while we were in college...Guess what happened...we all got drunk and he ended up wasted on his hands and knees leaning over the edge of the bathtub with his head under the faucet. We were all still partying and hanging out during this time (we did have an eye on poor j to make sure he wasn't drowning or anything). Enter the tazer and the video camera...duh duh duh...j with his head hanging in the bathtub was just to inviting a target, so we rolled tape and tazed him in the ass. Needless to say he was pissed and took his revenge the next day.
boring telling of a boring story. Who cares.
Officer: To taze or not to taze? mn... perhaps... "thinking"
Dude: DON'T TAZE ME BRO!
Officer: After that how can I not? "TAZEEEEEE"
Dude: Damn that's refreshing... Do it again?...
I can't believe how lame this is.
I for one welcome our taser-wielding overseers.
This ain't Slashdot. It's been a boring joke there since the day it came out.
That are bad news! The more of these "They cause no harm, but stop bad guys" news come, the more "trained staff" will feel less concern about finally use it. Even if it would be totally unnecessary!
And what are the mental consequences? Think about it.
TAZE MORE BRO's
Who paid for the study?
Tazers should be banned because they give the false sense of "the safe alternative".
So its my fault I had some heart issue I didn't know about that without contact with a tazer might have limited me to 65 years of life, but due to the tazer I am dead right now.
With a traditional gun, its clear what that will do.
Someone needs to come up with something small you can wear that will absorb the charge and make the tazer ineffective.
You, sir, are a moron.
"Who paid for the study?"
Straight from the article: "Dr. William Bozeman and colleagues have just wrapped up an independent study"
"Tazers should be banned because they give the false sense of "the safe alternative"."
1. What about tazers is false? The study speaks for itself.
2. Is there any other "safe alternative" that has shown itself to be as effective and proven to be safe as the tazer?
"So its my fault I had some heart issue I didn't know about that without contact with a tazer might have limited me to 65 years of life, but due to the tazer I am dead right now."
It is completely your fault if you provoke and resist and officer enough to the point where he has to use a tazer. If you would just cooperate with them, there would be no need to use it.
"With a traditional gun, its clear what that will do."
What the hell does that mean?
"Someone needs to come up with something small you can wear that will absorb the charge and make the tazer ineffective."
Nice. Let's invent something that'll help criminals resist officers even further, necessitating the invention of a less-safe alternative to disable criminals.
Here's a crazy ass idea, when a cop tells you to get on the ground, you do it instead of resisting like every idiot that gets tazed fails to do.
After reading the part "Two subjects died, but autopsy reports indicate that neither death was related to the Taser." I decided to do a google search on "taser death" and I found a lot more that just 2 people dying!!!
USA: TASER-Related Deaths Increasingly Frequent; Total Exceeds 150, Reports Amnesty International
http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?lang=e&id=ENGUSA20060328001
Then I wonder... so how could this be??? After rereading the article again I notice this. "In a review of nearly 1,000 cases, 99.7 per cent of those subjected to a Taser had mild injuries, such as scrapes and bruises, or none at all."
Oh! So that is how Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center makes it seem like that taser are safe. Time to send Bonnie Davis a few emails!
Also, I wonder if 1 of those 2 people that died were from the link below?
Police fatally taser gasoline-soaked suspect
http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/21/police-fatally-taser-gasoline-soaked-suspect/
@Colorado - Hope you get tazed to death in front of your children, cop...
What happens when those tazers are abused (e.g. this person which was tazered as punishment while demonstrating)? Are there any legal actions against the owner?
Congressional medal of honor I expect.
I should also have said, I'd rather be tased than maced.
When a fascistic police state (such as - oh let's see - are there any around today?) has to use any form of brutal force and it is approved by any "independent body" then watch th use of force increase.
Tasers are safe and so are atomic bombs - until you set them off. Not a single death can be attributed to a taser sitting on a table and a person accidentally or intentionally bumping into this device, HOWEVER put the taer into the hand of these morons called Polizei or Gestapo or your local University pseudo-polizei and you can actually see someone die. Why, you may ask. Becasue these sorry sick SOBs do not know when ot stop and in fact they usually get off on the pain they inflict and look forward to inflicting more.
Here in Australia (qucikly becoming a police state under Little Johnny)... we are seeing more and more use of the taser to stop drunks on the street. Oh, that's really necessary!
When you give authoritarians the "right" the inflict pain you create a torture culture. Enjoy!
"When a fascistic police state (such as - oh let's see - are there any around today?) has to use any form of brutal force and it is approved by any "independent body" then watch th use of force increase...."
Well, gee. I don't see any jack-booted thugs breaking down your door and dragging your sorry ass out of your home or blocking your internet access. Of course, next time you and your hairy girlfriend are walking through a dark parking lot and a bunch of thugs surround you, don't bother calling 911 on your Iphone. You wouldn't want the police to use "ANY FORM" of force on those guys.
Why don't you move to Iran or China and see what a real police state can do.
Nimrod.
A Taser and a gun should be standard issue to all police officers.
Why is it that people are accustomed to police possesing LETHAL FORCE but not happy to hear of them possesing LESS-THAN-LETHAL foce?
That attitude only shows how poorly America recognizes human rights - and more importantly HUMAN LIFE.
I'd rather seee a debate over gun control and taser control than ABORTION because we should focus on how to treatr life that already lives and breathes.
Yes, I would worry about TASERS being abused by RACIST, angry and hateful police officers that are out there. Perhaps the devices should be tuned carefully to prevent abuse by police?
You guys do realize that tasers have chips in them that record the time/date/length of each deployment, and whether a cartridge was fired at that time or not, right?
If everything you do is recorded, I'd say there's pretty good potential for oversight and minimizing of abuse.
The taser is a rather new tool, and police need new training tactics, as well as need to be held responsible for unneccessary use of this less than lethal device.
The point is, this is a better alternative than MACE. If an officer is going to use mace, the perp would be much better off recieveing a jolt.
There is no need to wrap the taser into your conspiracy theories.
The tazer is not new. I carried a Nova XR5000 when I got on the force back in 1986, and we had the old style tazers with the antennas that would also shoot out the darts.
The newer models are much improved, but it is basically doing the same thing.
Prior to police using any new force option there is extensive training. You can't hand a tazer to an officer who has not been trained or certified to use it. You will open your city up to a tremendous liability.
This seems kind of obvious. I don't think anyone thought tazers weren't safe. That is like saying if someone hits you in the stomach with a baton, you like won't suffer serious injuries. It doesn't change the fact that that type of physical force needs to be used very sparingly.
Tazers don't kill people. Power hungry cops with no sense of respect for peoples rights kill people.
Tasers are really safe, until you get shot by one. (Just like a real gun!)
Keith
Nuclear bombs are safe too unless some insane idiot sets one off.
I dare to say guns are safer because due to their danger, they are less likely to be used, while a non-lethal yet very painful weapon like a tazer would just invite a power hungry cop to use it more likely.
Such studies are only conducted to make a point to dumb people who think the danger of any weapon or object just lies within the weapon or object itself, and not the user.
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What about that one drunk mother who got tazed a bunch of times? The officer was walking around tazing her and kicked her over. It's kind of sad when an officer can't control a drunk lady and has to resort to a tazer. Also the fact he was standing up the whole time and didn't even make an effort to "secure" the "criminal" was pretty sickening.
Ask any LEO whether they'd take down a man or a woman.
You'll soon find out why you don't go hands on with a woman until you're ABSOLUTELY sure she's ready to comply. Guys will fight, but when they're quit, they're generally done.
Crazy women are nuts man.
In a related study, Drs. Obvious and Plainly-Evident found that 99.7% of people shot by police firearms or struck by batons required medical treatment. Occasionally these would produce severe, life-threatening wounds.
Considering the options, I'd rather be TASERed. .40S&W hollowpoints will leave a mark.
Then again, I'm not stupid enough to get the police upset with me in the first place.
I wonder how many of the Dr. William Bozeman entourage or the taser-wielding public servants have actually been hit with a taser?
What's the point of the study, that tasers are toys? What's next, taser tag?
150 people have died from being tasered from about 2000-2006. And counting.
Ever hear of the "thin blue line"?
If cops were in shape, as they should be anyway, suspects wouldn't be able to run from them.
If cops were in shape, as they should be anyway, suspects wouldn't be able to run from them.
Tasering should only be used in self defense, not to "subdue". Most cases of "subdueing" result from poor training and only make matters worse, as with the recently tasered student.
Tasering should only be used in self defense, not to "subdue". Most cases of "subdueing" result from poor training and only make matters worse, as with the recently tasered student.
Tasering should only be used in self defense, not to "subdue". Most cases of "subdueing" result from poor training and only make matters worse, as with the recently tasered student.
Tasering should only be used in self defense, not to "subdue". Most cases of "subdueing" result from poor training and only make matters worse, as with the recently tasered student.
I think everyone should carry a taser for self defense as for those arrogant cops who tazered the don't taze me guy they and their department should be sued for an insane amount and or out right fired for what they did as that guy did nothing wrong.
People like that have no business being police officers as they are mentally unfit for the position.
FTR:
In January AI wrote about 220 people killed by tasers
http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?lang=e&id=ENGUSA20070108001
(I guess some of them not directly by tasers, but by their consequences such as head injuries while falling down unconscious)
I'm looking into the taser death studies myself and so far have found no reference to how such a report can claim to investigate nearly 1000 uses with only 3 reported serious injuries while Amnesty International report close to TWO HUNDRED deaths since 1999. I want to believe in the study above, but until someone can lead me to a souce that helps rectify this huge disparity in facts, I'll have to shift my opinion of police use of taser to a NO. (I am a former law enforcement officer).bb.
From the Article:
The independent prospective study was funded by the National Institute of Justice and included six law enforcement agencies across the United States. A tactical physician at each participating agency reviewed police and medical records after each successful application of a Taser. Injuries were identified and classified as mild, moderate, or severe and their relationship to the Taser was classified as direct, indirect, or uncertain.
---
There is no disparity. They just took a sampling. To be quite honest though 200 since 1999 (9 years!) doesn't seem like much given how often tasers are used. I would be interested in knowing how the departments were chosen though. The fact is until the study is peer reviewed and reproduced it's hard for us amateurs to say what's what.