TASER: An Officer’s Perspective and a Jolt of Reality, By Nick Dial

Nick Dial is co-founder of circle the wagons.net. Nick is a certified police officer in the state of Arizona, graduating from the police academy in 2006 with a 4.0 GPA. ... [LINK]


TASER: An Officer’s Perspective and a Jolt of Reality, By Nick Dial (6 Jan 2010)

Here: [LINK]

I graduated from the police academy in 2006, and worked both as a deputy for a sheriff’s office and police officer for a municipal city. ...

...the TASER must be respected as a serious tool that can cause harm, or even in some cases, kill. Therefore, it should be deployed tactfully in appropriate situations. Using the TASER as a compliance tool is simply bone-headed and dangerous to the general public. ...

...With the many cases of misuse, one must ask, why? The answer is pretty simple – training. ...

...TASER states in their bulletin that “the available research does not support this” [causing ventricular fibrillation]. This is another complete false statement and misleading. ...

...Again, however, we see more hypocrisy on the side of TASER International. ... Evidently, it’s ok for TASER International to promote testing with pigs when it’s in their favor, and to dismiss it when it is not. So far much of TASER’S positions on the issue have been nothing more of double talk and misinformation. ...

...The number of officers injured during “safe” taser training must be taken seriously. ...It is not a toy...

...The longer this device is used without proper testing, study, care, and respect, the longer people will unintentionally suffer unwarranted injury or death as a result. There are now many cases pending regarding people who died shortly after being hit with the TASER – and it was in situations where lethal force would not have been used or permitted.

One thing should be remembered above all else - as law enforcement officers, we commit to protect the public and to serve. It is a cause greater than ourselves. The TASER is a tool, not a symbol of loyalty. We are loyal to the oaths we take and that includes getting to the bottom of how safe this device truly is before we subject someone to its use unnecessarily.


Amen.