Fairness of Taser study in question

May 11, 2005
Kevin Johnson, USA Today

WASHINGTON — An adviser to a federally funded study concerning the safety of stun guns made by Taser International also is a paid consultant to Taser, the Justice Department acknowledges. The situation is raising questions about potential conflicts of interest in the $500,000 study, which is being done amid reports that dozens of people have died after being shocked with stun guns.
Robert Stratbucker, a physician from Omaha, is among four paid advisers to a two-year study that is being launched by John Webster, a professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Wisconsin. Webster's application to the Justice Department for a research grant last fall cited Stratbucker as an adviser, but it did not mention that Stratbucker is a medical consultant to Taser, the nation's leading seller of stun guns.

Stratbucker has worked with Taser as the Arizona company has touted its stun guns — also known as Tasers — as non-lethal weapons that offer a safe way for police to subdue suspects. Taser, whose Web site lists Stratbucker as the company's medical director, has cited his research in promoting its stun guns.

About 7,000 of the nation's 16,000 police agencies have bought Tasers. But concerns about whether the weapons are safe have increased recently, as Amnesty International and The Arizona Republic have reported that more than 100 people have died since 1999 after being shocked with stun guns. The reports have led officials in Arizona, New Mexico, Wisconsin and elsewhere to launch inquiries into stun guns or to consider limits on when police can use them.

The Justice Department said in a statement to USA TODAY that Stratbucker's role in the Wisconsin study will be "small" and that it will "not influence the research goals, scientific measurement, data collection or conclusions." In an interview, Stratbucker rejected the notion that he has a conflict of interest. "I have never felt that I had any obligation ... to tailor the results of my research," he said. Separately, Webster said the study is an independent assessment of Tasers.

But critics of the study say Stratbucker's duel roles raise questions about the objectivity of Webster's work and about the Justice Department's vetting of grant applicants. "Dr. Stratbucker's involvement makes it clear who is really pulling the strings," said Mary Beth Sweetland, a vice president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Her group opposes the study's use of pigs to test the effects of Taser shocks. (Webster said the pigs are anesthetized during experiments and "feel no pain.") The results of the study "are a foregone conclusion," Sweetland said, making the research "cruel and pointless."

Stratbucker's presence is "a potential conflict of interest," said Hubert Williams, president of the Police Foundation, a think tank here that researches law enforcement issues and wants federal money to do its own stun-gun study. "We wouldn't do it."

The critics also cite Webster's written summary of his study that he filed with Justice. He said his premise was that "Tasers do not kill," and that he hoped "to find why these people are dying, and thus save lives."