"...The [two] lawsuits [seeking a total of $20M] name the police officer, the city of Kankakee, Kankakee School District 111 and two teachers. ..." [LINK]
"Misuse or abuse of the Taser by any police officer is strictly prohibited by the rules and regulations of the Kankakee Police Department..." [ibid]
Obviously, the rules and regulations are being completely countermanded by the deceptive and misleading marketing and the defective "training".
A recent news report stated that Taser International was still handing out taser shocks for fun at the Consumer Electronics Show. This sort of "playing around" with what is potentially a dangerous weapon obviously leaves a stronger impression than mere "rules and regulations".
So even with the best of intentions, the local government and school district find themselves in serious legal jeopardy thanks, in large part, to the marketing approach used by the stungun salesmen.
This incident has happened before [ibid] and will almost certainly happen again.
Police officers are getting a mixed message, common sense contrasted against the drumbeat that tasers-R-safe and tasers-R-fun. Part of the solution will be for leaders in the law enforcement community to tell the stungun salesmen to shut-up and stop fooling around, or else.
Your Taser Use Policies don't stand a chance in competition with the louder marketing message.
And government regulators should consider finding an existing law that might allow them to jail those that hand out taser shocks just for laughs.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment