Police lawsuits against Taser

A Must-Read -> Las Vegas Sun [LINK]

Metro officers hurt during training sue company, say warnings didn’t suffice

Extract:

Collectively, the officers’ lawsuits call into question safety claims made by the company.

Metro [Las Vegas Police], a champion of the device, has quietly changed its policy to reflect the risks of being Tasered. This is a perilous position for the department. Metro cannot have officers injured during Taser training, yet the department cannot come out swinging against Taser either — Metro must defend use of a weapon its patrol officers carry. Moreover, when Tasers are used in the field, and a citizen sues the department because of a resulting injury, Metro hires the Taser company to provide expert witness testimony on the device.

The changes Metro made in Taser training policies — which include ceasing the practice of shocking officers during training — may speak louder than any public defense the police, or Taser, have made for the device.

Even more revealing is that Metro has distanced itself from the company. In the past, police officials say, Metro was featured on the Taser Web site in an online endorsement of the product. Within the past year, however, the department asked to have Metro’s name removed from the site, police officials say.

In April, former Sheriff Bill Young supplied a court with a written document stating, “It is my professional opinion that Taser intentionally downplayed the risk of Taser M26 shocks to sell its product to police officers ...”


The above is just an extract. There is much more. Please follow the above link and read the whole thing top to bottom. The overall impression matches exactly my view of Taser and their safety claims.

Review the wide range of injury claims made by the injured officers and see if it fits with your understanding of the word "safe".

And this is just what is going on in one city: Las Vegas. Multiply this fiasco by the entire USA (and more) and you'll see that Taser has been playing with fire.


PS: Remember that Taser's latest claim (about the only claim left standing) is that tasers reduce injuries. LOL.