Tasers: Overview

Introduction

A Taser is an electroshock device, similar to a stun gun. Unlike most conventional stun guns, however, it does not need to be pressed directly against the target. Instead, a Taser uses compressed gas to shoot two barbed projectiles connected to wires in order to deliver a high-voltage electric shock. It can be fired from a distance of several feet. The name "Taser" is a trademark owned by the company Axon (formerly the Taser International Company), which in 2003 came to hold a monopoly on the technology in the United States.

Tasers are one type of non-lethal (or less-lethal) weapon commonly used by police officers in the United States and other countries to subdue uncooperative suspects. Tasers are also used by the military, and consumer models are used by some private citizens as a means of self-defense. Tasers are billed as an alternative to firearms, with the goal of reducing injuries and preventing fatalities. In principle, a Taser is safer than a gun because it is not designed to cause serious permanent injury or death. Instead, a Taser allows a police officer to gain control over a potentially dangerous suspect by causing temporary, but powerful, muscle spasms that make it impossible for the suspect to retaliate or flee.

The increasingly widespread use of Tasers by law enforcement agencies has generated a great deal of controversy, however. Critics believe that the weapon causes an excessive and cruel amount of pain, and is often used in situations where such force is not necessary. Tasers have also been associated with several deaths by "excited delirium," although the link between Tasers and the fatalities has been disputed.

Understanding the Discussion

Electroshock device: A weapon that delivers a high-voltage electric current to a person's muscles and nerves, causing them to temporarily become weak or paralyzed.

Excited delirium: A cause of death sometimes listed for suspects who die suddenly while in police custody. The term is not an official medical diagnosis, and has been the subject of much controversy.

Non-lethal weapons: Weapons that are not intended to cause death. The United States Department of Defense defines non-lethal weapons as "weapons that are explicitly designed and primarily employed so as to incapacitate . . . while minimizing fatalities, permanent injury . . . and undesired damage." Because Tasers have been known to cause death, however, they are sometimes also referred to as "less-lethal" weapons.

Stun gun: An electroshock device that uses electrodes (electrically-charged plates) to deliver an electric shock when the weapon is pressed against a person's clothes or body.

History

The term "non-lethal weapons" was first used in the 1960s, describing several tools adopted by law enforcement agencies in the US for subduing rioters. The 1960s and 1970s were turbulent periods in US history, characterized by frequent public civil rights and anti-war demonstrations. The police and other law enforcement agencies were interested in finding ways to control large crowds. Influential reports published by the President's Crime Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice in 1967 and by the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders in 1968 also called for restrictions on the use of lethal force by the police and recommended investing federal funds to develop alternatives to lethal weapons. Authorities began to explore alternatives to both firearms and batons (short wooden clubs). Early efforts focused mainly on chemical irritants, such as tear gas.

At about the same time, Jack Cover, a scientist at NASA, was developing the electroshock device that would eventually become known as the Taser. (Cover chose the name "Taser," an acronym for "Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle," after a character in the twentieth century Tom Swift science fiction series). In the first version of the Taser, gunpowder was used as a propellant to shoot two small darts, connected to wires, which administered a brief but powerful electrical charge when they hit a target. Cover patented his design in 1974 and attempted to sell it to both law enforcement agencies and private consumers. Early sales, however, were not strong. The use of gunpowder meant that the Taser was classified as a firearm, and the specific category of firearm it fell under required anyone who wanted to use one to apply for complicated permits.

The company that first sold the Taser eventually went bankrupt. Even after it was remade under a different name, few Tasers were sold to either police squads or private consumers. The Taser received a flood of negative press attention in 1991, when a group of police officers used it on Rodney King, a man they were pursuing, in addition to beating King severely with their batons.

In 1993, a businessman named Patrick Smith bought the patent for the Taser from Cover, and changed the Taser's design so that instead of using gunpowder to fire its barbed projectiles, it used compressed air to propel them. Consequently, the weapon no longer was classified as a firearm, and in many states this allowed anyone to purchase it without applying for or possessing a license. Smith and his brothers founded a company called Air Taser to sell this version of the weapon, and sales were so strong that the company grew rapidly.

Initially, the Taser was mostly purchased by private consumers looking for a self-defense weapon. In the mid-1990s, the company decided to develop a more powerful version of the Taser designed for use in law enforcement. In 1999, police forces and correctional facilities around the country began purchasing this model of the weapon from the company, which subsequently became Taser International. By 2000, hundreds of law enforcement agencies in the US were regularly using Tasers, or testing them for future use.

Tasers Today

There is marked disagreement over the use of Tasers in the early twenty-first century. The devices became even more popular after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, which pushed the issues of security and defense into the national spotlight. Airlines began purchasing Tasers for use by their pilots. Taser International created a new consumer model of the weapon, and by 2002 the number of police departments using Tasers in the US had grown to more than one thousand.

The weapons earned considerable public scrutiny as high-profile examples of their use appeared in the media. These included a 2007 incident in which a University of Florida student was restrained and arrested by campus police at a political event. Video of the incident went viral and helped coin the verb "tase" in popular culture. Other notable cases included the use of Tasers against vulnerable individuals such as a pregnant woman, a ten-year-old boy, and a deaf crime victim. Taser use against the Occupy Movement received particular media coverage, including a graphic video of a man being shocked by police in Washington, DC. In the 2010s and early 2020s, the Black Lives Matter Movement and other protests over police use of force further amplified debate over Tasers from both supporters and opponents.

Tasers are legal, to some degree, in most US states. Many jurisdictions, however, impose various regulations and restrictions on their use. For example, in some states it is only lawful for police or law enforcement to use Tasers; other states have enacted registration laws, licensure requirements or minimum age restrictions. States that have banned civilian ownership of Tasers include Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island, though several of these bans were eventually ruled unconstitutional. Pro-Taser activists have often challenged bans and restrictions, while opponents have advocated against the availability of Tasers, whether for civilians, law enforcement, or both.

One group that strongly opposes the use of Tasers is Amnesty International. The human rights organization has released several publications condemning Tasers as brutal weapons that cause severe amounts of pain and are not governed by sufficiently strict usage guidelines, leading to their use even when the situation does not require extreme force. Amnesty International also argues that, because they do not always leave physical marks, Tasers carry with them the inherent risk of abuse by police officers and other authorities. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is another organization that has spoken out against the use of Tasers.

Opposition to Tasers has also been spurred by a series of incidents in both the US and abroad in which people held in police custody died shortly after a Taser was used to subdue them. The number of such deaths rose sharply over the first two decades of the twenty-first century; according to Amnesty International, there were more than 150 between 2001 and 2006, while Reuters reported at least 49 in 2018 alone (and at least 1,081 in total by that year, almost all from the early 2000s on). However, it often can be difficult to accurately determine fatalities that are directly linked to Tasers, since coroner's reports sometimes use the term "excited delirium" to refer to the cause of death. Amnesty International points out that Taser safety tests are performed on healthy subjects who are not under stress, whereas, in their practical application, the weapons are often applied in stressful situations to individuals who, many times, are not healthy, making these individuals more susceptible to complications such as cardiac arrest or asphyxiation. Reuters reported that deaths linked to Taser use led some US communities to consider or enact more restrictive policies for the weapons.

Support for Tasers among law enforcement officials, however, remains strong. The Law Enforcement Alliance of America, the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives and the Force Science Research Center are among the groups that have issued statements backing the use of Tasers, and police officers generally agree that the weapons have enabled them to effectively protect themselves while avoiding the serious injuries and fatalities associated with the use of firearms. Supporters of Tasers argue that banning the weapons would increase not only the number of lawsuits against policemen, but also injuries sustained by both suspects and officers. They also point out that there is no scientific proof that the deaths linked to Tasers were actually caused directly by the weapons.

In 2019 APM Reports released the results of a year-long investigation into an increase in police complaints that Tasers were less effective than other non-lethal or lethal weapons. Though various police departments had varying methods of rating the effectiveness of the weapons, all those surveyed found they performed well below the Axon company's frequent claims of extremely high effectiveness. Notably, major police departments such as those of New York City, Houston, and Los Angeles reported that newer Taser models, designed to deliver less charge and therefore enhance suspect safety, were less effective than older versions. APM Reports noted that failure to subdue a suspect not only put officers in danger, it increased the chance that the suspect would be shot. The investigation also found that many police officers were using Tasers at too close a range, preventing the weapon's darts from achieving the spacing necessary to achieve a flow of electricity that would incapacitate the target.

These essays and any opinions, information or representations contained therein are the creation of the particular author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of EBSCO Information Services.

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