"Largest ever" study finds tasers safe
By Darren Murph 
posted October 9th 2007 11:08AM
posted October 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]
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.
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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.