Taser's Effects Fueling Concern

May 30, 2005
Antigone Barton, Palm Beach Post

A deputy fired his Taser stun gun twice at the woman he was chasing — the second shot dropping her to the ground — before she announced that she was pregnant. "This was not apparent," the deputy wrote in his report, "but due to her statement I did not apply another Taser (shock)."

The report was one of more than 1,000 reviewed by The Palm Beach Post that show how Tasers have been used in the three years since departments in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast added them to their arsenals.

While a growing number of human rights watchers and scientists have voiced concerns about effects on pregnant women, children, elderly people and people with heart, neurological and psychiatric disorders, the review showed that police from Boca Raton to Fort Pierce have fired the weapons at:

• Six people 65 or older, including an 86-year-old man; and at least 35 people 16 and younger, including a 100-pound, 14-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl;

• 87 women of childbearing age, including at least three women who, after being shocked, said they were pregnant;

• At least 57 people who were high on drugs;

• At least 272 people who were shocked multiple times, including 67 shocked three times, 31 shocked four or more times and one man shocked nine times.

Some of these Taser firings ended violent confrontations in which immediate harm was possible, including encounters with armed and physically threatening suspects.

But in at least 237 incidents, the dart-firing stun gun was used only to get compliance from passively resisting or fleeing suspects.

Officers in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast fired Tasers at more than 1,000 people before Timothy Bolander died in December after being shocked four times by Delray Beach police. An autopsy found he had ingested a lethal level of drugs.

"Most of the people shot with Tasers live," said Ed Jackson, a spokesman for Amnesty International, which has called for a moratorium on the weapon's use. "It doesn't mean they are living without consequences."

He attributes Taser-use frequency to a belief that the weapon does no lasting harm.

"The idea that Tasers are generally safe is completely fictional," he said.

Taser International repeatedly has countered Amnesty International's criticisms by saying that the weapon has not been ruled the cause of any of the 103 deaths following shocks tracked by Amnesty.

"That's fine," Jackson says. "Where are the studies that show it's never been a contributing factor? Because that's the question we're asking."

Tasers have been cited in autopsies of at least two people who have died following shocks in Florida, which leads the nation in Taser-involved deaths with 24 since 1999. After a man shocked with a Taser in Escambia County died in January, a medical examiner declined to cite either a cause or manner of death, saying that not enough is known about the weapon's effects.

In November, excerpts of an Air Force study were released saying that Taser shocks can change blood chemistry, potentially leading to heart damage. The study recommended medical monitoring of those shocked with Tasers.

Study 'strongly recommends' more research

In March, a study by the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies said that Tasers can't be ruled out as a contributing cause of deaths that follow shocks.

"We strongly recommend that additional research be conducted at the organism, organ, tissue and cell levels," the report concluded. "The community needs to understand the specific effects of varying electrical wave forms... to include possible psychiatric and other nonlethal effects."

In the same month, forensic engineer James Ruggieri warned police departments that Taser shocks could damage the heart and cause delayed cardiac arrest. He advised that officers not be submitted to shocks during training.

Even the company that makes the stun gun, Taser International, urges caution about use of the weapon in the "drive-stun" mode and with repeated shocks — uses that The Post survey found have been frequent on the streets of Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast.

When the two barbed prongs that Tasers shoot are ensnared in skin or clothing, they transmit 50,000 volts of current that override the nervous system and temporarily paralyze muscles. The greater the distance between the prongs, the more incapacitating the effect. Another five-second jolt can be administered by pulling the trigger again as long as the suspect hasn't ripped out one of the prongs.

Officers also can remove the prong cartridge and discharge the weapon directly against a person's body in the "drive-stun" mode to subdue combative arrestees with a searing jolt of pain.

The Taser training manual advises that because it is not incapacitating, this mode can lead to "prolonged struggles" and that "it is in these types of scenarios that officers are often facing accusations of excessive force."

The technique also requires some care, according to Taser International, but the company's guidelines contain conflicting recommendations. The manual points out that the neck and groin "have proven highly sensitive to injury, such as crushing to the trachea or testicles if applied forcefully." The manual continues, "However, these areas have proven highly effective targets."

A recent amendment to the DeLand Police Department's Taser policy is clearer, saying that the "drive-stun" mode can be used only under exceptional circumstances. Local policies don't address the use of the "drive-stun" mode in writing, although narratives in some of the reports examined by The Post acknowledge that this use is discouraged.

Still, the weapon was used in the drive-stun mode in encounters described in at least 209 of the 1,017 reports.

George Kirkham, a former police officer, Florida State University criminology professor and expert witness in cases involving in-custody deaths, says in many situations, officers can use their hands for "pressure pain tactics" with less risk of harm. He also says Taser has given insufficient guidance on how many times a person should be shocked in either mode.

"We have seen police officers firing it 20 times," he said, "with no idea that they could be doing harm."

One shock may not be sufficient to subdue

Even in its paralyzing mode, one shock may not be enough to subdue a violent suspect, according to the Taser training manual, which advises that officers "should anticipate a second or third application."

But the same manual also warns that prolonged, repeated Taser shocks "may impede breathing" and urges that officers "minimize the overall Taser exposure."

In Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast, 273 reports document confrontations in which people were shocked multiple times — at least 31 people were shocked four or more times, including one man shocked at least nine times. In some reports, officers and deputies simply reported firing "until compliance was gained."

Shortly after Boca Raton police became the first department to use Tasers in 2001, they arrested a man who had been running naked in the streets. After he was handcuffed, he began to struggle violently, breaking a Plexiglas divider in the police car with his head and kicking officers.

Officers shocked him repeatedly with their new Tasers, subduing him briefly each time, but failing to stop him for long. After he had been shocked at least nine times, he went into convulsions and was taken to the hospital where he was found to have cocaine in his system.

"The question is whether Tasers are unsafe under those circumstances," said Dr. Jared Strote, a Washington state emergency room physician, who with a Harvard professor is conducting a study of Taser-involved deaths. People who are "deliriously high" experience blood chemistry changes that, combined with restraints and heart ailments, can be fatal even without a Taser shock, he says.

"My guess is that these people with their underlying conditions — both acute and chronic — don't have the reserve to tolerate the Taser, and it makes them more likely to go into a fatal heart rhythm after the shock."

Taser International anticipates more deaths

The man survived, but the report of his violent, erratic and apparently drug-induced behavior, as well as struggles with officers and repeated shocks, parallels the stories of almost all of those who have died following Taser shocks in Florida.

Taser International urges departments to be prepared for those stories. The company points out in its training materials that the weapon often is used when other means of control have failed with people using hard drugs and showing signs of a condition that medical examiners call "excited delirium," which can be fatal even without a Taser shock.

The firm includes an "In Custody Death Checklist" with its training materials.

In it, the company notes that it "anticipates more in-custody deaths given the significantly large deployments of Taser conducted energy weapons."