Taser QotD: On what "...responsible leaders..." do

From a private email exchange with a thoughtful Chief of Police.

"...responsible leaders do not get information 'from one side,' as you stated. It is through exhaustive research and real-life experiences that key decisions and policy are made."

Keyword: "responsible" police leaders.

There are far too many irresponsible police "leaders" (sic) that have naievely bought into the promises and assurances made by the stun gun salesmen. These jurisdictions are, one-by-one, learning the painful lesson that relying on draft Taser Use Policies supplied by the manufacturer that still promotes these weapons as inherently safe (with respect to internal risk factors such as, for example, cardiac effects) is a huge mistake with life-and-death consequences and a quagmire of moral and ethical issues.

Consider that Taser International has formally denied supplying draft Taser Use Policy to any police force. Meanwhile a survey revealed that 95% of jurisdictions surveyed used Taser Use Policies supplied by Taser Intetnational.

Recommending policy - what's the truth???? [LINK]

No one has ever sorted that question out. One possible explanation is that the Chairman of Taser International made a bald-face lie to the Canadian House of Commons committee (SECU) investigating the issue of tasers. [LINK] Another explanation is that he was playing word games with past tense versus present tense. Or perhaps the survey was wrong. See also [LINK][LINK].

By this measure, responsible police leaders are outnumbered by 19-to-1 by the vast majority that have Taser Use Policy that is based on information provided by Taser International.

And that's why the MD AG's report needs to provide a reported SIXTY (60 !!) recommended changed to those policies.