Did Court Deal Fatal Blow to Tasers for Police? [LINK]
In addition to all the main points, the article includes some interesting statistical tidbits.
"...According to a San Jose Mercury News study of the San Jose Police Department use of Tasers in 2007, Tasers in dart mode are only effective 70 percent of the time in bringing down their target, and in stun mode only 60 percent of the time. ..."
Well that explains why we keep seeing so many reports of "ineffective" taser deployments.
Didn't the manufacturer claim that tasers are "...safe and effective..."?
"...In a Houston Chronicle study of Taser use by the Houston Police Department in a two-year span, officers deployed the weapon more than 1,000 times, but in 95 percent of those cases the subject was unarmed. The study also found that more than 50 percent of the Taser incidents escalated from relatively common police calls, such as traffic stops, disturbance and nuisance complaints. In more than a third of the incidents, no crime was charged or prosecuted. ..."
Nothing like an escalation of a minor incident when the police are naively relying on a weapon that's too often ineffective.
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