Break-in suspect dies shortly after being shot by stun gun

July 2, 2005
JONATHAN JENKINS, TORONTO SUN

ONLY A few days after Niagara police front-line supervisors were issued Tasers, a man died yesterday shortly after being shot with one.

"They told me he went into a house and all that, but they also said they used that Taser gun on him," Apat Foldi, the father of James Foldi, 39, said.

"He was going around in circles and the police didn't want to go near him. So they used this gun on him and boom -- done."

Niagara police said they were called out to Beamsville around 2:30 a.m. after several complaints of a man breaking into homes.

They said they tracked down a suspect in the area and arrested him, then noticed right away he needed medical attention

He was taken to West Lincoln hospital and pronounced dead.

The province's Special Investigations Unit confirmed a Taser was used on Foldi.

"An autopsy is being held as we speak and the pathologist is determining what the cause of death is -- we'll go from there," SIU spokesman Rose Bliss said.

"Obviously, it's also important to note the Taser is an approved, less-than-lethal-use-of-force weapon that the police are authorized to use."

Apat Foldi said he last spoke to his son on Tuesday.

"He was fine, everything was no problem," he said.

He acknowledged his son did have problems with drugs and alcohol and wondered whether that may have played a role.

"They test them on normal people. They don't test people on alcohol or drugs to see if it works on them," Foldi said.

"If someone's drunk or on drugs and they use it on them, maybe it kills them."

However, Foldi stressed he didn't know many details of what happened and was waiting to see the result of the investigation before he came to any conclusion.

"I have to wait to see what's coming out of it," he said.

Niagara cops announced May 13 that front-line supervisors would begin carrying Tasers on routine patrol starting in the last week of June.

Members of Niagara's Emergency Response Unit also carry the weapons, as do tactical teams in Toronto, Peel and Durham.

At least nine people have died after being hit with Tasers in Canada since the weapon was approved.

Alternative to taser needed, coroner says

July 2, 2005
JONATHAN WOODWARD, Globe & Mail

VANCOUVER -- The death of a fifth person in B.C. after being shocked with a taser means that police and the medical community need to look for other ways to deal with a condition known as "excited delirium," the province's chief coroner says.

Some thrashing, violent people have elevated hormone levels that put them at risk no matter what type of restraint -- handcuffs, pepper spray, or electrical shock -- police use to subdue them, Terry Smith said yesterday.

"It's a medical emergency, in the truest sense of the word," he said. "Do we need to look at the taser? Absolutely. Certainly, nobody's going to dismiss the fact that we need to determine what the physiological impact, if any, of the taser is.

"But whether you put that person [who is in a state of excited delirium] in handcuffs or you put them in a straitjacket and strap them to a gurney, there's a high probability of negative outcome, even death."

Early Thursday, 41-year-old Gurmeet Sandhu was shocked with up to 50,000 volts from a taser in an altercation with the RCMP outside his Surrey home.

His wife told reporters that her husband was shocked multiple times, while the Surrey RCMP say they are waiting for their investigation to finish before the circumstances of the death can be confirmed.

Mr. Sandhu died two weeks after the Victoria police department released a long-awaited report on taser use. It had been commissioned in response to the death of Robert Bagnell in his Granville Street hotel room after he was subdued with a taser in June of 2003.

The report said police should get more training on taser use, deploy the weapon only when people are actively resisting arrest or posing a threat to others, and that the device shouldn't be used multiple times.

The report also said a person shocked by a taser should be restrained in a way that allows them to breathe easily.

Constable Mark Searle of the Surrey RCMP said he couldn't comment on whether police had followed the report's recommendations. He did say, however, that the attending officer had felt he was in danger and pressed an emergency button to call for help.

"That's a drop-everything call," he said, adding that the officers had gone through their full possible range of options -- using physical force, pepper spray, and finally, the taser weapon -- in attempting to subdue Mr. Sandhu.

Mr. Smith's warning about the use of tasers came on the same day that a man in Beamsville, Ont., died after police used a stun gun in his arrest.

The B.C. Coroner's Office has begun investigating Mr. Sandhu's death, Mr. Smith said. It will perform an autopsy and do toxicology tests to determine the levels of drugs that were in Mr. Sandhu's body. Mr. Smith said he didn't know when the investigation would be complete.

Gannett papers sued by Taser International over stories

July 2, 2005
Robert Anglen, The Arizona Republic

Taser International Inc. filed a lawsuit Thursday claiming that USA Today and The Arizona Republic published inaccurate information about its electric stun gun.

Taser, which is facing inquiries by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Arizona Attorney General's Office over the safety of the weapon, accused the newspapers' parent company, Gannett Co., Inc., of libel, invasion of privacy and damaging its business.

"Over the course of this biased campaign, more than one billion dollars of shareholder value has been erased," Taser Chief Executive Officer Rick Smith said in a statement Friday. "Further, we have reason to believe that some law-enforcement agencies delayed deploying Taser devices based on this false and misleading information."

Gannett spokeswoman Tara Connell said the company would study the complaint before it issued a comment.

The focus of the suit is the content of a June 3 USA Today article, which Taser says overstated the electrical output of a Taser stun gun.

USA Today published a correction three days later, saying that "due to a mathematical error, the original version of this story significantly overstated the amount of electricity delivered by a Taser."

Taser also accused The Republic of "unfairly impugning the safety aspects" of Taser and "groundlessly linking" the stun gun to more than 100 deaths.

An ongoing investigation by The Republic has identified 120 people who have died in the United States and Canada since 1999 after a police Taser strike. Of those, medical examiners have cited Taser in 17 deaths.

In autopsy reports, the medical examiners list Taser as a cause of death in three cases and a contributing factor in 10 cases. In four other cases, they could not rule out Taser as a cause of death.

Taser controversy refuses to die

June 30, 2005
Matthew Davis, BBC News, Washington

With electronic stun guns now being used by a growing number of UK police forces, BBC News examines the controversy in North America, where a series of deaths have put Tasers under fresh scrutiny.

When Robert Bagnell died in Canada last June, his family were told he had suffered a probable cocaine overdose.

The truth emerged in fits and starts, however. They eventually learned that police had jolted him with 50,000 volts of electricity from a Taser gun.

Officers said they had to subdue Mr Bagnell to save him from a fire.

But a year on, questions over his death are still unanswered, while concerns over the safety of stun guns refuse to go away.

The "less-than-lethal" weapons have been involved in 74 deaths in the United States and Canada, according to Amnesty International. "These reports clearly indicate that the Taser technology, while not risk-free, is among the safest use-of-force options our law enforcement officers have"

It also claims Tasers have been used gratuitously - against children or the elderly or on people posing no real threat.

In a sign of mounting concern over the effects of the weapons, Chicago police halted deployment of Tasers in February after a teenager suffered cardiac arrest and a man died after being stunned.

For Patti Gillman - Robert Bagnell's sister - too many mistakes are being made.

"It is far more than a coincidence that my brother was shot by a Taser, then died of a heart failure.

"We believe he was having a seizure at the time police stunned him. But he was unarmed, not posing a threat.

"The first response should have been medical attention, not assaulting him with a weapon."

Vancouver police say they are still awaiting a final report into the death, but believe stun guns are safe to use.

Tasers 'relatively safe'

The widely used M26 Taser gun delivers a 50,000-volt shock through two barbed darts, which incapacitate people for five seconds.

Rick Smith, CEO of Taser International, says that while it is "not risk-free" it is "among the safest use-of-force options our law enforcement officers have".

He blames Amnesty's report for a downturn in business which has seen Taser's stock lose more than 60% of its value in the first quarter of this year, wiping $1.4bn off its market value.

In a statement he said: "Anyone living in the real world in which law enforcement officers worldwide have to make split-second life or death decisions knows that Amnesty International's report and position is out of step with the needs of law enforcement concerning our proven life-saving technology."

A report in March by the US Potomac Institute for Policy Studies said current research suggested stun guns were "relatively safe" when used appropriately.

It noted that in all the cases in the Amnesty report, other factors like drug use and pre-existing heart conditions could also have led to the deaths.

But the institute called for more research, particularly in understanding exactly how the weapons work on the body - and what the long-term side effects could be.

'Learn from mistakes'

Meanwhile, the US National Institute of Justice (NIJ)is funding several studies in to what is describes as "less lethal weapons issues".

"I hope the British police, having given Canada and the US a bit of a head start, will tread carefully and learn from our mistakes"
Patti Gillman

Q&A: The stun gun

Last September it gave a $490,000 grant to the University of Wisconsin to study the effects of electro-muscular devices and how electrical currents move through the body.

It is also funding a International Association of Chiefs of Police study on best practice in use of the weapons.

The moves come as a number of UK police forces - where officers are not routinely armed - are embracing the weapons.

In May, a Police Review survey of 100 officers found 80% thought that all officers on frontline duties should be issued with stun guns.

More than half the public also want to see Tasers being deployed, according to the magazine, which polled 1,000 citizens.

The UK Home Office believes Tasers are safe to use, but says their use should be restricted to firearms-trained officers.

Patti Gillman, still searching for answers on her brother's death, sounded a cautionary note.

"The Taser issue is controversial in Canada only in certain circles, but is mostly ignored by the mainstream public," she said.

"But I suppose it's only background noise to most, until it enters your life as it did ours.

"I hope the British police, having given Canada and the US a bit of a head start, will tread carefully and learn from our mistakes."

Taser technology review - final report

June 14, 2005
Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner

One of the authors of this review was Sgt. Darren Laur, a former Taser Shareholder

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."

Are officers too quick to fire tasers?

May 29, 2005
Antigone Barton, Palm Beach Post

Until November, Taser International's Web site stated that the weapon is "solely designed to stop the most hardened of targets: extremely violent, aggressive, goal-oriented and drug induced suspects."

Taser's Tuttle said that refers to "the 1-percenters with superhuman strength and mind-body disconnect." But he adds, the weapon can be used on suspects "up to" that level of resistance as well.

The wording no longer appears on Taser's Web site, but the company's manual used to train Taser instructors, says: "The Taser is best utilized in situations where a hostile or potentially hostile individual is threatening himself or another person." On its Web site, the company typically refers to the target of a Taser as "the attacker."

Third So-Called "Independent" TASER Study Linked to Manufacturer

May 23, 2005
Amnesty International

(Washington, DC)—Today Dr. William F. Schulz, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA (AIUSA), released the following statement regarding documents listing Taser International executives, consultants and businesses partners as panelists in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) TASER study. This discovery reported over the weekend by the Arizona Republic marks the third time in five months that the manufacturer has been linked to "independent" studies:

"Police departments around the world are purchasing TASERs based, in part, on constant reassurances from the manufacturer that numerous 'independent' studies have proven the electro-shock weapons to be safe and effective. But new revelations reported by the Arizona Republic over the weekend have made it abundantly clear that the company did not voluntarily reveal its connections to this study and the individuals who actually made the claim that TASERs are safe. In October 2004, a Taser International executive called the DoD report the 'granddaddy' of all independent studies. However, even as he made that claim, the company knew that their employees, business partners, and a long list of Taser's clients and supporters had participated in virtually every aspect of producing this report.

For example, the report states that the final version is a product that was reviewed by the 'Independent External Review Workshop.' But, Taser International has consistently failed to voluntarily reveal the fact that nearly half of the members of that panel were either employees of or had some other type of relationship with the company."

(End of Statement)

The Arizona Republic story marks the third time in five months that it has been revealed that Taser International has tried to hide its involvement in so-called independent studies. In January, media reports exposed information that three of the four researchers on an allegedly independent study were employees of Taser International and one was a paid consultant for the company. Two weeks ago, the public learned that the recipient of a $500,000 federal research grant tried to hide the fact that he would be paying Taser International's medical director $18,000 to consult on his supposedly independent study.

Amnesty International continues to call for comprehensive, independent medical studies to determine the risks TASER shocks pose to the general public. Everyday that TASER supporters refuse to engage in an honest debate and stonewall attempts to find answers to these questions is another day that the real, lifesaving potential of this new technology will go unrecognized.

Taser tied to 'independent' study that backs stun gun

May 21, 2005
Robert Anglen, The Arizona Republic

Taser International was deeply involved in a Department of Defense study that company officials touted to police departments and investors as "independent" proof of the stun gun's safety, according to government documents and e-mails obtained by The Arizona Republic and interviews with military officials.

This information is surfacing at a time when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Arizona attorney general are pursuing inquiries into safety claims that the Scottsdale firm has made.

The stun guns are being used by more than 7,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States, but a series of deaths and injuries associated with the devices have raised safety concerns.

E-mails that military officials exchanged also reveal for the first time that they asked Taser to tone down public statements about the study. In addition, they urged the company to commission an independent study rather than rely on the Defense study.

The Air Force conducted the study for the Defense Department to assess the risks and effectiveness of Tasers so the military could decide whether to buy them.

Since October, Taser officials have contended that the company had no involvement in the Defense study, which helped fuel a sharp rise in the company's stock price last year.

Bulk of research

But information obtained by The Republic shows that Taser officials not only participated in three panels to determine the scope of the study, analyze data and review findings, it also provided the bulk of research material used in the study.

"Were they (Taser) totally disconnected (from the study)? The answer is no. They were not disconnected," said Larry Farlow, a spokesman for the Air Force Research Laboratory in Texas that oversaw the study.

Taser critics - civil rights lawyers, human rights activists and government officials - contend that there is insufficient evidence to support the company's assertions that the stun gun is safe. They have called for independent research.

Taser has repeatedly characterized research that its own employees or consultants helped conduct or write as independent. The company has also paid training fees and given valuable stock options to police officers involved in decisions to purchase the stun guns.

In an interview earlier this month, Steve Tuttle, Taser's vice president of communications, maintained the company's position that the Defense Department study was independent. He acknowledged that Taser employees had some involvement in the study but insisted that that did not influence the findings.

Taser officials have described the Defense research as "a major independent safety study." But Air Force researchers said the study was not meant to be a comprehensive review of stun-gun science or safety, and they made no findings on the device's safety.

Touting findings early on

Taser trumpeted results of the study long before the actual report came out on April 1. In an October news release, Taser Chief Executive Officer Rick Smith said, "This comprehensive independent study further supports the safety of Taser" and "reaffirms the lifesaving value of Taser technology."

That announcement had an immediate impact on Taser stock: It shot up 60 percent during the next month. Taser executives and board members sold 1.28 million shares for $68 million in November.

Since then, the stock has dropped dramatically as a series of deaths caused cities nationwide to reconsider purchases of Tasers and to delay deployments.

An ongoing investigation by The Republic has found that medical examiners have cited Tasers in 15 deaths across the country. They called it a cause of death in three cases, a contributing factor in nine cases and said the stun gun couldn't be ruled out as a cause of death in three cases.

Taser maintains that its stun guns have never caused a death.

Taser involvement

When the Defense Department first released its study, it made no mention of who was involved in the study.

Another version obtained by The Republic shows that Taser's CEO, director of technical services, general counsel, medical director, chief instructor, electrical engineer and vice president of communications were involved in various panels over five months.

The report also shows that companies doing business with Taser, including General Dynamics, were heavily involved in the study and, along with Taser executives, sat on a final "Independent External Review Panel" to examine all the findings.

Farlow, the spokesman for the Air Force Research Laboratory, said his office, not Taser, made the decision to strike the names from the final report in order to protect the privacy of researchers and scientists.

A separate panel of medical and scientific experts that did not include Taser employees wrote the final report.

Tuttle, the Taser spokesman, said the company's involvement does not minimize the report's significance or its independence.

"This was all pre-planning stuff," he said. "We didn't do the study itself." He added that government rules require manufacturers to be involved in such reviews of their products. "If you are going to do a study of Milk Duds . . . you are going to have to talk to the (makers) of Milk Duds."

But, according to the Air Force, Taser provided most of the data used in the study, which was supposed to look at the "effectiveness" of Tasers in order to provide guidance for officials in charge of purchasing non-lethal weapons.

Information gaps

Although researchers determined the stun guns were "generally effective for their intended use," researchers found significant "data gaps" in the information Taser provided, Farlow said.

Chief among those gaps: enough information to determine whether Tasers can cause seizures or induce ventricular fibrillation, the sudden irregular heartbeat characterized by a heart attack.

In addition, Taser apparently did not provide some information about injuries involving the stun gun. For example, researchers said in the study that "no reports were identified that describe bone fractures resulting from the rapid induction of strong muscle contraction" caused by the stun gun.

At the time that Taser officials were sitting on the panel, they had already been served legal notice that a Maricopa County sheriff's deputy was going to sue the company over a fractured back that he reportedly suffered when shocked with a Taser during a training exercise.

Former Deputy Samuel Powers was the first to file a product liability lawsuit against Taser; his case is scheduled to go to trial in June. A doctor hired by Taser last year concluded that a one-second burst from a Taser was responsible for Powers' injury.

Since then, several police officers from departments across the country have come forward with allegations of bone fractures that they blame on Taser shocks.

The study concluded that Tasers may cause several unintended side effects, "albeit with estimated low probabilities of occurrence." It also said the need to "rely on a database of case reports compiled by manufacturers also generates uncertainty in the results."

Farlow pointed out that the Defense study made no conclusions about the stun gun's safety.

When asked about Taser's characterization of the research as a "major, independent safety study," Farlow said: "The simple answer is consider the source. . . . The press and public relations folks are doing their jobs."

E-mail correspondence

Despite the fact that the Air Force lab's study made no findings on safety, the government officials who commissioned the study allowed Taser to issue a news release saying that the Defense Department considered "Tasers generally safe and effective."

E-mails show that although these officials were concerned about Taser's characterization of the study, their desire to support Taser prevailed.

"I've expressed my personal view to (Taser) that the company might want to take a different approach to their (public affairs) efforts" and "i.e., tone it down," wrote Capt. Daniel McSweeney, spokesman for the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate, a Pentagon office that recommended purchasing Tasers for the armed services.

"My opinion is that they probably want to commission an independent (human effects) study, in which a variety of stakeholders participate," McSweeney said in a January e-mail from his office in Quantico, Va. "To settle this issue once and for all."

Dave DuBay, a Taser vice president, confirmed that McSweeney asked the company to temper its statements. He said McSweeney felt Taser is sometimes "too passionate in defense" of its stun guns. DuBay also confirmed that McSweeney asked Taser to commission its own independent study.

But DuBay said the government's study was independent and questioned whether the public would perceive a Taser-sponsored study to be independent.

Despite McSweeney's concerns, he still recommended backing Taser.

McSweeney's rationale

"My rationale is that Taser is, in effect, some kind of partner to us, since we purchase and field their systems," he wrote in the same e-mail. "Not supporting them can hurt us in the public's eye."

At issue in the e-mails were requests from Taser asking the government to put out a news release declaring the stun guns safe.

The e-mails were written after reports in the New York Times and other media raised questions over Taser's claims about the Defense study and if researchers actually found the stun guns safe.

In an interview this week, McSweeney confirmed that he told Taser officials they should "tone it down" and conduct their own independent study.

"I was referencing not just to the (study) but other things I have been privy to," he said, adding that Taser has been at the center of several controversial issues. "Given the ongoing questions regarding the health effects of Taser, it would behoove Taser to do an independent study."

McSweeney acknowledged that the Defense study was not comprehensive but called it an "excellent first step" and said that more studies are under way. He said that non-lethal weapons are needed in military zones and that the study served "an urgent need" by providing a foundation for the Defense Department.

Monte Kwinter on Tasers

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO
May 18, 2005

POLICE USE OF TASERS

Ms. Andrea Horwath (Hamilton East): My question is for the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services. Minister, what are the provincial standards and protocols specifically governing the use of Tasers by police in Ontario?

Hon. Monte Kwinter (Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services): The member will know, or should know, that Tasers have been authorized for specific use in Ontario for some time. The only thing that has changed recently is that there was a particular Taser, an M26, and now there is a new and better Taser, an X26, and we've approved that for use. That is something that is available to police services across Ontario. They have protocols. They themselves have those protocols as to how they are to be used, and it's effective. We are convinced that they're less than lethal, and as a result they're a good alternative to a lethal weapon.**

Ms. Horwath: In Hamilton last week, police chased down a 15-year-old boy and shot him twice with a Taser. He didn't commit any crime. In fact, he wasn't even charged by police with any crime at all. When the police use Tasers on unarmed teenagers, frightened kids, don't you think there should be some Ontario standards for the police and their use of Tasers? Why haven't you developed any province-wide?

Hon. Mr. Kwinter: I can tell you that before we authorized the use of Tasers, we made sure that they were properly tested and that the proper procedures were in place. I cannot comment on a particular incident in a particular police service. That is something you have to deal with in that particular police service. I do not monitor the police services and their operation; that is the responsibility of the chiefs and their police services boards. All I can tell you is that in our ministry we evaluated the use of the Taser and we stand by our decision that it's a far better alternative than using a lethal weapon.**

**Yeah, only the taser is not being used in Ontario as an alternative to lethal weapons!

P.S. I don't know who "properly tested" your tasers, Mr. Kwinter, but the two tasers used on my brother were shown by an international testing laboratory to be 2.5 times and 84.5 times, respectively, more powerful than the manufacturer's specifications.

Taser official removed as adviser on stun gun study

May 12, 2005
Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin researcher has removed Taser International's medical director as an adviser to a study of the safety of stun guns after critics said his involvement with the manufacturer tainted the research.
University of Wisconsin-Madison professor John Webster had described his two-year, $500,000 study funded by the U.S. Department of Justice as the first to look at the safety of stun guns independent of Taser, the Arizona-based company that makes the weapons.

But documents uncovered this week show Robert Stratbucker, an Omaha physician who is Taser's top medical officer, is one of four consultants to the study, which will look at how pigs' hearts react to electric shocks from the devices.

Reacting to the connection on Thursday, Webster told The Associated Press: "In view of this potential conflict of interest, I can make the statement that I have not received advice or paid Stratbucker and I will not use him in the future."

Stratbucker's studies are often cited by the company as evidence the weapons are a safe way to subdue unruly suspects. He has acknowledged receiving cash and stock options from Taser.

Tasers are used by more than 7,000 police agencies but blamed by Amnesty International in the deaths of more than 100 people in the United States and Canada since 1999.

USA TODAY first reported Stratbucker's link to Taser and the research Thursday. Stratbucker did not immediately return a phone call from the AP. (Related: Fairness of Taser study in question)

Webster said he listed the Taser official as a consultant to show he would have experts available for advice on the study, which is just getting underway.

"I'm acting independently and forming my own conclusions," said Webster, a professor emeritus of biomedical engineering.

In a statement, the Justice Department said the agency was aware of the Taser connection when granting the project. The department said Stratbucker had a small role that "would not influence the research goals, scientific measurement, data collection or conclusions."

In March, both Webster and a Taser spokesman told the AP the company had no ties to the research.

In his grant proposal, Webster proposed Stratbucker receive $18,000 in salary and travel expenses for his advice. Stratbucker's resume was included but did not mention his work for Taser, and Webster checked a box to deny any conflict of interest.

Amnesty International and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which calls the research cruel and unnecessary, called for an end to the study on Thursday.

"This is not independent and there's an appearance that there was an attempt to hide the conflict," said Edward Jackson, a spokesman for Amnesty International, which says more independent studies are needed to determine whether Tasers are safe.

Eric Sandgren, a UW-Madison professor who leads a committee overseeing animal research, had previously defended the study but said he was troubled by the revelations. He said removing Stratbucker was appropriate.

"I saw one of the strengths of this study as being that it is distanced from Taser," he said. "To the extent that this calls that into question, we have to address that as a university."

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."

N.B. police probe Taser death

May 7, 2005
CNEWS

N.B. death after taser use being probed

May 7, 2005
CP

MONCTON, N.B. -- The death of a 34-year-old New Brunswick man who collapsed after Mounties used a taser gun to subdue him is being investigated by RCMP.

Corporal Terry Kennedy, a spokesman for the RCMP, said yesterday that officers from Fredericton have taken over the investigation into the death of Kevin Geldart of Riverview.

Mr. Geldart died after Moncton RCMP officers shocked him with a taser, a high-voltage stun device, at a bar in Moncton late Thursday.

"When our members arrived, they were confronted by a man who was 6 foot 6 and about 300 pounds," Cpl. Kennedy said. "He was aggressive and violent toward the members. As a result, the taser was used to control the gentleman."

Cpl. Kennedy said officers handcuffed Mr. Geldart after he slumped to the floor. It was then that they realized he was unconscious and unresponsive.

An ambulance was called, but he was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.

Cpl. Kennedy said Mr. Geldart had been missing from a local psychiatric unit.

The RCMP investigation will include an autopsy. "Obviously, we want to find out exactly the cause of death," Cpl. Kennedy said.

The taser is becoming the subject of intense public and police scrutiny as a result of the growing number of deaths associated with its use.

At an inquest this month in London, Ont., Dr. Jim Cairns, Ontario's deputy chief coroner, said that since 2003, nine Canadians had died shortly after being shot by a police taser.

But Dr. Cairns said that experts nationwide agree the powerful stun guns didn't cause deaths. All nine people were determined to have died from the same cause: cocaine-induced excited delirium, which allows the affected person to feel no pain and exhibit superhuman strength before crashing.

"The evidence is overwhelming that [tasers have] saved many, many lives," Dr. Cairns told the Ontario inquest.

Tasers safe for police to use, coroner says

May 4, 2005
CP

London, Ont. -- Tasers are safe and should be used even more frequently by Ontario police, a provincial coroner has told the inquest into a London man's death.

Since 2003, nine Canadians have died shortly after being shot by a police taser, but Dr. Jim Cairns said yesterday that experts nationwide agree the powerful stun guns didn't cause any deaths -- including the death in May, 2004, of Peter Lamonday.

All nine people, Mr. Lamonday included, were determined to have died from the same cause: cocaine-induced excited delirium, which allows that person to feel no pain and exhibit superhuman strength before crashing.

Coroner Finds Man Didn't Die From TASER

May 3, 2005
The Globe and Mail

LONDON, ONT. - A man who died in police custody after being shot three times by a taser didn't die from the device, Ontario's deputy chief coroner told an inquest yesterday.

Had Peter Lamonday died in the parking lot where he absorbed the shots, the powerful stun gun could be considered responsible, Dr. James Cairns said.

But because the London man died some 50 minutes after taking on eight London police officers, the taser clearly didn't kill him, Dr. Cairns said on the opening day of the inquest into Mr. Lamonday's death May 14, 2004.

"This is the big question: Do tasers kill?" Dr. Cairns said of the popular weapons that temporarily stop attackers with a 50,000-volt jolt of electricity.

Last year the British Columbia Police Complaints Commissioner ordered an investigation into the case of Robert Bagnell, a Vancouver man, who died last June after being stunned by a taser.

The report has not been released and late last month Mr. Bagnell's family demanded answers. They complained they have learned nothing, including the official cause of his death.

In London, Dr. Cairns told the jury: "If you're going to die from an electric shock, you die when you get the electric shock, not minutes or hours later.

"Death cannot be attributed to the taser if there is an interval between use and death."

A postmortem has ruled that Mr. Lamonday died of cocaine-induced excited delirium -- during which a person can feel no pain and exhibit incredible strength, but eventually crash.

Earlier, coroner's counsel David Carruthers told the jury that Mr. Lamonday, whose manner was described as "paranoid" by witnesses who saw him at a bar, smashed his head through the glass door of a nearby ceramics business and appeared unaffected.

The inquest, which is mandatory because Mr. Lamonday died in police custody, continues today.

Taser contributes to police families

April 24, 2005
Kevin Johnson, USA Today

"The public relations machine" at Taser is well-greased. I've never heard of such a thing." - California State Assemblyman, Mark Leno

Family complains of delay in taser-death probe

April 21, 2005
CP

Ottawa -- Robert Bagnell's family is demanding answers 10 months after the Vancouver man died in the throes of a cocaine binge after being stun-gunned by police.

"We don't even have a cause of death yet," Mr. Bagnell's sister, Patti Gillman, said in a telephone interview from Trenton, Ont. "It's been extremely frustrating."

Mr. Bagnell, 44, died on June 23 in a rooming hotel on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. The long-time drug addict stopped breathing soon after being hit with a 50,000-volt shock from a taser stun gun.

B.C.'s police complaints commissioner asked the Victoria Police Department to review how the Vancouver force handled the Bagnell case. That final report has not been released.

Taser-linked death ruled a homicide

April 13, 2005
Christina Hall, Toledo Blade (Ohio)

Firm paid Phoenix councilman to push stun guns

March 28, 2005
Robert Anglen, The Arizona Republic

A council member who pushed to make Phoenix the first major city in the country to arm all of its police officers with Tasers was paid $3,500 last year to help Taser sell stun guns to another city.

Law and Public Safety Committee Chairman Dave Siebert, who has voted to spend more than $1.2 million in taxpayer money on the electric stun guns since 2001, was hired by Taser last summer to make a sales presentation to the San Francisco Police Department.

State law prohibits city council members from receiving compensation for services rendered as a public official. The city's ethics policy warns officials "to be wary of accepting gifts or benefits from individuals doing business with the city."

Siebert said he believes in the stun gun and did everything he could to make sure his involvement with Taser was aboveboard. He got approval from the City Attorney's Office, excused himself from any future votes on Taser and declared the payment in a January financial disclosure.

"I did everything in my power, except say 'no.' If I didn't believe in the product, I wouldn't have gone there," he said. "I would like to think that it has saved lives in the city of Phoenix."

Siebert's relationship with Taser was disclosed as questions are raised in Arizona and nationally over Taser's financial influence on municipal employees who are involved with purchases of the stun guns. In Chandler and Minneapolis, police officers have been criticized for their ties to the company.

Taser spokesman Steve Tuttle said Siebert is the only council member the company has paid as a consultant.

"The city of San Francisco desired the input of a major city council member's experience with a large deployment of (Tasers)," he said.

The company has paid hundreds of police officers to be instructors and given stock options to some officers in return for their support of the gun.

Taser Chief Executive Officer Rick Smith has said that training program has been responsible for the company's success in sales to police departments.

Critics say payments to city employees have created a conflict of interest, with officers promoting the stun gun and repeating Taser's assurances of safety while minimizing risks.

The potential conflicts "have the direct consequence of shielding the company from scrutiny," said John Crew, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union in northern California who specializes in police practices.

"A major problem with these stun guns has been the exaggerated claims of safety coming from Taser . . . And they have been using police officers and other public officials to tout the safety of their stun guns."

Scottsdale-based Taser International has armed nearly a third of America's 18,000 law enforcement agencies with stun guns. For years, Taser claimed its weapon never caused a death or serious injury. But an ongoing investigation by The Arizona Republic has linked the stun gun to at least 12 deaths nationwide and to the injuries of several police officers.

Those deaths have left cities nationwide rethinking Taser purchases and deployments as police departments, city council members and state legislators raise concerns about how the gun is used and the need for independent medical information on the stun gun.

Smith maintains that Tasers have never caused a death or serious injury and cites more than 90 studies by universities, the military and police departments that he says support Taser's safety claim.

San Francisco effort

When the San Francisco Police Commission considered buying the stun guns in 2004, Siebert was hired by Taser to promote the weapon and address any concerns based on his experience with the stun guns in Phoenix.

"In the middle of last year, (Taser) asked me to tell our story to the San Francisco police," Siebert said.

He said he did not tell the commission during public meetings that he was being paid by Taser, but, "it was no secret that I was helping Taser. That was very clear."

Siebert said he made two trips to San Francisco with Taser officials that involved meeting privately with some commissioners and participating in a public sales presentation. He said he agreed to take the job only if Taser agreed to let him talk about the safeguards Phoenix put in place to control the gun's use.

"We were cautious," he said, citing the department's extensive training and review procedures. "We weren't following someone else's lead. We were the leader."

San Francisco Police Commissioner Peter Keane said Siebert and other Taser officials emphasized the stun gun's safety while minimizing deaths and injuries.

"Their position was that the device was completely safe," said Keane, a law professor and former dean at Golden Gate University. "We found it a little bit curious that a sitting city official was being brought along as part of the sales pitch."

Keane and others at the meeting said Siebert emphasized his position as a Phoenix City Council member.

San Francisco did not buy any stun guns as the result of the presentation.

Siebert said that he was paid on an hourly basis and that his financial relationship with Taser began in June and ended in October. He said he did not receive stock options and has not worked for Taser since.

Acting City Attorney Gary Verburg said Siebert's position with Taser did not violate any state statutes or city policies. "He has done everything in compliance with the statute," Verburg said. "He has declared a conflict and refused to participate in any decision involving Taser."

He said the law doesn't dictate where you can work.

The city's ethics policy cautions public officials about conflicts: "You should not be involved in any activity which might be seen as conflicting with the responsibilities of your position. The people of Phoenix have a right to expect that you act with independence and fairness toward all groups and not favor a few individuals or yourself."

The state Attorney General's Office and the Maricopa County Attorney's Office investigate allegations of conflicts, which can carry criminal penalties.

Tim Delaney, director of the non-profit Center for Leadership, Ethics and Public Service in Phoenix, said there are gray areas in the state's conflict-of-interest laws.

Delaney, who has served as Arizona solicitor general and a chief deputy attorney general, says officials have a right to make a living while in public office. But, "you don't want them to make a living off of public service," he said.

Siebert publicly disclosed his financial relationship with Taser in a January filing that requires city officials to document assets, property, business interests and any compensation over $1,000 during the previous year.

Siebert, 43, was elected to the City Council in 1995 and represents District 1, which includes most of northwest Phoenix.

Siebert's long-time support of Taser is a matter of public record. He took credit for bringing the stun gun to Phoenix in a 2003 newsletter to constituents: "At my request, the Police Department introduced the (Taser) in a pilot program as a less-lethal weapon. During a nine-month period, when the Taser was used, the number of officers and suspects injured from use of force decreased dramatically."

Siebert's newsletter borrowed language verbatim from Taser's sales brochures and described the stun gun as "a non-injury-causing weapon."

At the time, Siebert was running for re-election and Taser executives and their spouses contributed at least $1,750 to his campaign, according to campaignreports for 2003.

Public records show that Siebert first asked the Police Department to look into Tasers in 2001. Ultimately, the city purchased 1,348 stun guns, making Phoenix the nation's largest police department to arm all of its officers with the gun.

Taser officials have highlighted Phoenix as a role model for other departments considering purchasing the stun gun. They point to Phoenix in sales presentations, press releases and interviews, citing the reduction in police shootings and officer and suspect injuries after the Taser deployment.

Taser's defense

Taser defends its payment to Siebert and police officers across the country. Active duty officers are often paid to act as trainers for companies that sell weapons to police departments.

"It is an industry standard and an officer safety issue that police equipment providers utilize active duty police trainers as consultants to provide training," Tuttle said, adding that such trainers "do not attempt to sell or market the stun gun."

The officers, called "master instructors," are paid as much as $450 to host a two-day training session for other law enforcement agencies. In some cases, those master instructors have been given stock options.

In December, Minneapolis Sgt. Ron Bellendier quit his department after questions were raised about his role in Taser purchases while moonlighting as one of Taser's master instructors. The police chief said Bellendier, now a sales manager for Taser in the Midwest, did not have permission to work for Taser.

In Arizona, a former Chandler police officer was the subject of a conflict-of-interest investigation after the City Council spent $193,000 on Tasers based on his recommendation two years ago.

The officer, Jim Halsted, now is a regional sales manager for Taser. Minutes from the March 27, 2003, Chandler City Council meeting show that Halsted made a presentation and urged purchase of the stun guns.

"Sergeant Halsted also commented on the medical safety aspects of the equipment and reported that the Tasers will not result in any physical injury . . . (Halsted) reported that not one death has been attributed to the use of this equipment."

Halsted received stock options, payments and a trip to Hawaii from Taser. The city's investigation cleared him of any wrongdoing.

Siebert said he did not know about the Chandler or Minneapolis cases. But he said his situation is different.

He said he has no doubts that Tasers have been involved in deaths and injuries and thinks Taser should make all of that public. He also said the police have benefited from the stun gun and his job as a councilman is to protect the public and officers. "It is good and healthy to have a debate. I still believe, with the proper training . . . it is an effective tool."

Stun Gun Maker Gave Stock Options to Active-Duty Cops Moonlighting As Master Trainers

March 18, 2005
Beth DeFalco, Associated Press

By Beth DeFalco, AP

CHANDLER, Ariz. - Taser International Inc. openly credits its use of active-duty police officers as trainers as a major ingredient in the company's meteoric rise to become the No. 1 seller of stun guns.

And like a lot of other cash-strapped startups, early on Taser offered some of those officers stock options as an incentive.

But with the Scottsdale-based company now under state and federal investigation over safety claims and accounting issues, questions have arisen about whether the officers' moonlighting represented a conflict of interest, particularly when their own departments were buying stun guns.

Jim Halsted is one example.

Halsted was a police sergeant in this town southeast of Phoenix when the police chief tapped him to make a presentation to the city council on March 27, 2003.

During the meeting, and as Taser's president looked on, Halsted touted the benefits of arming Chandler's entire patrol squad with Taser stun guns.

"No deaths are attributed to the (Taser model) M26 at all. That's absolutely incredible," Halsted is seen saying in a video of the presentation. "We put a Band-Aid on that person. There is no injury."

The council approved the $193,000 purchase of an additional 300 Taser guns and related equipment that same day, adding to a small number of stun guns it had already bought.

At the time, Halsted was one of four active-duty police officers granted stock options for serving on Taser's Master Instructor Board, which oversees Taser training programs.

In May, after 17 1/2 years with the Chandler police, Halsted quit to become Taser's Southwest regional sales manager.

A city councilwoman who set in motion a conflict-of-interest investigation the day after Halsted's sales pitch said it wasn't clear to her from the presentation that he got a paycheck from the company. And Halsted never mentioned the stock options to the acting police chief or when he went before the council.

The inquiry ultimately found that Halsted hadn't violated any conflict of interest laws. But just because no laws were broken doesn't mean Halsted acted ethically, said Marianne Jennings, a business ethics professor at Arizona State University.

Chandler's City Council should have known about the stock options, she said. "They might have made the same decision anyway, but they deserved to know."

Halsted told The Associated Press that he wasn't trying to hide anything: "They knew I was compensated as a trainer," he said of the City Council. "I clearly stated it (during the meeting) because I didn't want there to be any controversy or question. The extent of the compensation was irrelevant."

The investigation looked into Halsted's holdings and found that at the time of the presentation, his wife and children owned 462 shares of Taser stock. After three stock splits, those shares are now worth more than $70,000.

Halsted had also personally been granted options for 750 shares of Taser stock. After the splits, that stock would have been worth about $300,000 when Taser shares were trading at their 52-week high of $33.45 on Dec. 30. The stock now trades around $13 a share.

Taser had also given Halsted a five-day trip for two to Hawaii valued at $3,770 as a reward for training more officers to become Taser instructors than anyone else in 2001.

Taser defends the use of off-duty police officers as trainers, noting that police are allowed to moonlight for security companies and other private corporations as long as they follow their department's disclosure rules.

"Utilizing off-duty law enforcement officers to train other officers is standard industry practice," said Taser spokesman Steve Tuttle. He mentioned Armor Holdings _ which makes police batons and body armor _ as a company that also uses off-duty police as trainers.

But Taser is unique in that it pretty much has a lock on the stun gun market.

Since Taser began marketing police stun guns in 1998 as a way to subdue combative people in high-risk situations, more than 7,000 law enforcement agencies worldwide as well as the U.S. military have bought them.

But the safety of the weapons, which shoot darts 25 feet that deliver 50,000-volt jolts for about 5 seconds, has increasingly been questioned. According to Amnesty International, some 93 people have died after being shocked with the weapons, which can also be used like cattle prods.

In recent weeks, after several deaths that followed Taser shocks, some police departments have suspended Taser use to re-examine guidelines on their handling and/or await better data on health risks.

Tuttle says the company has roughly 300 "Master Instructors" worldwide who train other officers to become instructors and who conduct demonstrations at interested police departments. He said Taser pays about 35 of them on a per-session basis.

Tuttle said the company has not granted stock options to training board members since 2003. Citing privacy concerns, Taser declined to identify the other active-duty officers who were granted stock options.

Halsted isn't the only master instructor to leave his department and join Taser after accusations of a possible conflict of interest.

Sgt. Ron Bellendier quit the Minneapolis police department _ he's now Midwest regional sales manager for Taser _ in December after questions surfaced about his relationship to Taser.

Bellendier was the point man on Tasers for his department, which said he was involved in stun gun purchasing decisions even as he worked for Taser as a master instructor.

Bellendier told the AP that his decision to leave the department had nothing to do with the Taser flap, and that he submitted retirement paperwork before the controversy.

"I was only being paid when I instructed other officers," Bellendier told The AP. "It wouldn't have mattered if the department bought 5,000 Tasers, I wouldn't have gotten anything out of it."

Other master instructors, including several who served on the training board, have gone on to work for Taser in officer training and sales positions.

Taser has said that a total of 11 "consultants," which include master instructors and members of the training board, were granted stock options as part of their compensation package.

In addition to Halsted and Bellendier, former Sacramento police SWAT team member Sgt. Rick Guilbault went to work as Taser's director of training.

Guilbault served on the master instructor board with Halsted, although it is unclear whether he also received stock options. He did not return calls seeking comment and Taser would not disclose whether he was offered the options.

Louie Marquez, a retired Austin, Texas, police officer is a master instructor. Marquez said he still serves on the board but declined to answer questions about stock options.

Scrutiny mounting on Taser use

Expert says stun gun can kill hours later; firm calls claim 'ludicrous'

Robert Anglen
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 5, 2005 12:00 AM

A growing number of deaths involving Tasers is fueling a debate among law enforcement officers, legislators, and state and federal regulators, who are asking if the electric stun gun is as safe as they were led to believe.

Now, a forensic engineer who has written safety standards for the most respected electrical laboratories and commissions in the world is warning police departments that shocks from Tasers could cause a delayed cardiac arrest and that injuries to officers and suspects who are zapped could be going undetected.

"Police should be informed that the Taser can kill," James Ruggieri told the American Academy of Forensic Examiners last week at its annual meeting. "The Taser can serve a useful role in law enforcement. However, it should not be touted as a harmless device."

Taser officials call Ruggieri's warning "ludicrous" and say their safety record is bolstered by the number of departments, including every major police agency in the Valley, that still use the stun gun.

Law enforcement agencies in California, Georgia, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Florida and North Carolina have backed off Taser deployments, citing safety concerns. Agencies also have expressed concern about officers shocking children as young as 6 and senior citizens as old as 82 over incidents such as refusing to pay for a salad at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant.

"Those administrations who have transitioned to Tasers feel more caught in the middle," said Fort Wayne, Ind., Police Chief Rusty York, who vetoed the planned purchase of 83 stun guns last month.

"I am a little skeptical about the assertion that no one has been killed or injured by Tasers," he said. "But (other) police departments were taking the advice from Taser and running with it. I agree that the stun gun is a useful tool, but until we can have more objective information about Tasers . . . I'm not going (forward)."

Conflicting studies

Ruggieri, who has served as a forensic investigator for the Fairfax County Police Department in Virginia and has consulted with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board on electrical accidents, said his research cuts to the heart of Taser's safety claims and represents one of the first scientific and medical reviews that is critical of the stun gun.

His recommendation: Police should stop shocking officers during training exercises and use the stun gun on suspects only when no other non-lethal option is available.

Rick Smith, chief executive officer of Scottsdale-based Taser International, maintains that Tasers have never caused a death or serious injury, and he cites more than 90 studies by universities, the military and police departments that support Taser's safety claim. He challenged Ruggieri's presentation to the forensic academy and questioned his ability to cite medical findings because Ruggieri is not a doctor.

"His misapplication of the safety standards, coupled with the misstatement of Taser incidents . . . make us question his motivation," Smith said. "He has never touched a Taser, never seen a Taser, never used a Taser. . . . How can he make scientific judgments on the technology?"

Ruggieri said that his findings come from research of medical data and that he has never claimed to be a doctor. He said he has extensive knowledge of stun guns and has handled dozens of them, including Taser's signature weapon, the M26. He owns two stun guns, made by different manufacturers.

A Taser looks and operates like a plastic gun. It fires two steel barbs up to 21 feet and delivers a 50,000-volt burst of electricity that causes involuntary muscle contractions. It works by momentarily incapacitating suspects, who usually recover once the power is cut. Taser officials say the gun cannot cause heart attacks.

More than 7,000 of the nation's 18,000 law enforcement agencies have armed officers with Tasers. Police credit Tasers with reducing injuries to officers and suspects, lowering the number of police shootings and shrinking the number of liability claims. They say the stun gun is an invaluable tool.

Taser stock prices dropped this year after revelations that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Arizona attorney general had launched inquiries into the company's claims of safety and into an end-of-year sale that helped the company meet annual projections.

An ongoing investigation by The Arizona Republic has found that 101 people have died in the United States and Canada following police Taser strikes since 1999. Medical examiners have cited the Taser in 12 of those deaths, calling it a cause of death in three cases and a contributing factor in six others. In three other cases, examiners said they were unable to rule it out as a cause of death.

Deaths and safety concerns have prompted the International Association of Chiefs of Police to call for every police department to conduct a review of its Taser policies. And a California legislator last week introduced a bill that would require every department in the state to track each time an officer drew a Taser, so the data could be analyzed by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Wisconsin's attorney general said concerns about the way police use stun guns led her to call for a statewide standard. However, the Madison Police Department has praised the stun gun.

"The Taser is extraordinarily effective in controlling resistive subjects, while also being extraordinarily safe," the department reported last month. "There is no question that both the number and severity of injuries (to both officers and suspects) would have been far higher but for the Taser."

Other law enforcement agencies aren't so sure.

"The policy right now is that Tasers are not to be used in this building," said Rick Keller, administrator of the Lucas County Corrections Center in Toledo, Ohio, where an inmate died Jan. 31, moments after being shocked multiple times by deputies.

Not only have Tasers been suspended inside the jail, but any suspect who has been shocked by police before being booked will now be taken directly to the hospital for a medical examination.

"I don't think there is a good answer," Keller said. "If you have someone die, and it comes back that Tasers contributed to (the death), that is not good. But you have to do something to restrain him."

Keller said officers are concerned about the stun gun being taken away. But he said the Sheriff's Office, which runs the jail, wants to determine if Tasers are safe before allowing them back into circulation.

Taser expansion was halted in Chicago after police, in two separate incidents last month, shocked a 54-year-old man who later died and a 14-year-old boy who went into cardiac arrest.

"We have taken a very deliberate approach to these weapons," said Dave Bayless, a Chicago police spokesman. "We have had one death, and that has prompted us to slow down deployment."

Although the department did not recall existing Tasers, Bayless said, officials want to study the safety of the stun gun before deploying it in multiple police districts. Chicago police acknowledge concerns about the stun gun, but officials also say there are plenty of success stories.

"It is a good debate to have," Bayless said. "It holds police accountable. It also gives us an opportunity to explain to the public the very real dangers that police face every day."

David Murphy, criminal-justice assistant professor at Weber State University in Utah, has been contacted by several agencies about conducting a safety study of the weapon.

Some Utah police agencies have bought Tasers but not put them on the street for fear that the stun guns might not be as safe as the manufacturer claims.

Looking for a trend

The foundation of Taser safety is based on the assertion that shocks from Tasers cannot induce heart attacks. Taser officials insist that if Tasers were able to cause a heart attack, it would occur immediately upon being shocked.

Ruggieri said evidence shows that heart damage and fatal heart rhythms can develop hours after electrical shock occurs. He said suspects and police officers, who are routinely subjected to Taser shocks during training, "may have unknowingly incurred permanent heart damage."

Smith said that if Ruggieri was right, there would be hundreds, if not thousands, of cases in which Tasers would have caused either heart attacks or injured internal organs.

"Out of 200,000 (people) who have been shocked, we would have seen credible evidence of that," he said.

For years, Taser has encouraged officers to experience shocks during training. The company claims that more than 100,000 officers have been shocked during training without incident.

Last year, however, The Republic found that several officers have suffered career-ending injuries that they attribute to Taser shocks, including cardiac problems.

In one case, a doctor hired by Taser concluded that a one-second burst from a Taser was responsible for fracturing the back of a former Maricopa County sheriff's deputy. The deputy, Sam Powers, has filed the first private liability lawsuit against Taser. His case is expected to go to court in June.

Taser has blamed Powers' injuries on pre-existing conditions, including osteoporosis.

Phoenix lawyer John Dillingham, who represents Powers, said Ruggieri's presentation should be an alarm bell for police.

"We totally agree that law enforcement should never willingly be subjected to a shock," he said.

Medical examiners, who are at the forefront of the Taser debate and make rulings in cases of deaths following Taser strikes, said Ruggieri's presentation will induce further debate and more research.

"There hasn't been any real medical evidence on either side," said Lake County, Ind., Forensic Pathologist John Cavanough, who added that Ruggieri raised relevant issues, particularly in regards to the delayed cardiac arrest.

"It is a real phenomenon," Cavanough said. "As a matter of fact, that (the warning about delayed cardiac arrest) was his strongest point."

Ruggieri, whose presentation will go through a peer-review process before being published in the Journal of Forensic Science, said his findings could lead medical examiners to re-examine past cases of death following a Taser shock.

Thomas Parsons, a medical examiner from Daytona Beach, Fla., said that he believes Tasers are an important tool for police and that many deaths were likely not the fault of Taser.

"Tasers are an excellent less-than-lethal option for police who are properly trained to use them," he said, adding that many of the deaths following Taser shocks would have occurred with or without the stun gun.

"(Ruggieri's) research ideas were controversial, but his recommendations were reasonable," Parsons added.

Taser officials say they remain steadfast behind Taser technology. Smith said Tasers have strong support from law enforcement and the public.

"We have been taking a beating in the press," he said. "But at its core, our product is as safe as ever."

Electrical standards

March 4, 2005
Robert Anglen, Arizona Republic

The issue: Electrical standards

RUGGIERI: Electrical standards and codes misapplied

Ruggieri says Taser has misapplied electrical codes and standards to suggest the Taser is safer than it really is. He says Taser uses a graphic chart to suggest that Underwriters Laboratories, a non-profit agency that certifies products for electrical safety, has certified Taser. Taser claims the graph shows the stun gun is far below the threshold of ventricular fibrillation.

He points out that a Consumer Product Safety Commission in 1976 studied a much weaker version of the stun gun than police use today and found that the threshold of ventricular fibrillation lowers with repeating pulses of electricity used by the stun gun.

Ruggieri says he was unable to replicate Taser's findings using any of the standards that Taser cites. Ruggieri says that rather than rely on the wrong standards, he has relied on scientific and medical research.

TASER'S POSITION: Expert's findings are "ludicrous"

Taser says Ruggieri's findings are "ludicrous," maintaining that there would be thousands of cases of ventricular fibrillation if his findings were accurate. Officials accuse Ruggieri of misapplying the electrical standards.

Taser points to the graph, saying the Taser pulse is 10 times below the threshold for ventricular fibrillation set by UL and by the Electro-technical Commission standards. The graph was developed by a private research firm and has been touted in Taser marketing material.

Taser says Ruggieri erred in considering the power of the stun gun, making it seem more powerful than it actually is.

Taser officials also say Ruggieri intentionally applied the wrong IEC standard to increase the negative findings against Taser.

INDEPENDENT ANALYSIS: Lab: Taser used wrong study

Underwriters Laboratories, which has certified billions of consumer goods for electrical safety, says the graph that Taser is using does not reflect any study of the stun gun's safety.

UL spokesman Paul Baker says the graph is supposed to apply to an electric fence. "We take issue with that data in relation to Taser," he said. "Underwriters Lab does not agree with Taser."

The graph is based on a decades-old study that measured how much current passing through an electric fence it would take to induce ventricular fibrillation.

Baker said he is surprised that Taser is still using the graph since the lab publicly stated last month that it has no bearing on the stun gun.

As for the IEC standards, Ruggieri sits on the committee charged with developing and maintaining those standards. He has also helped write standards for Underwriters Laboratories. He said the standards Taser cites do not address repeating pulses used by the stun gun.

Human Effectiveness and Risk Characterization of the Electromuscular Incapacitation Device - A Limited Analysis of the Taser

March 1, 2005

AKA the famous HECOE Report, which came to the conclusion that experimental data were too limited to evaluate probabilities for susceptible populations or for alternative patterns of exposure. Several data gaps were identified in the data evaluation. Limitations in the exposure and incidents data for some infrequent events and the need to rely on a database of case reports compiled by Taser International generate uncertainty in the results. Overall the results support the conclusion that Tasers are generally effective for their intended use. However, they may cause several unintended effects, albeit with estimated low probabilities of occurrence.

Not a fun read for anyone who thinks that pigs have feelings too.

Taser Ruled Partial Cause of Ohio Man's Death

February 23, 2005
AP News

The medical examiner in Akron has ruled that the police use of a Taser electronic restraint contributed to the death of a drug-using man who struggled with officers in a home invasion. The ruling came yesterday in the January 5th death of 30-year-old Dennis Hyde of Hartville.

In a separate ruling, the prosecutor said the use of the Taser against Hyde was justified.

The medical examiner says other factors in the man's death include his use of methamphetamine and the loss of blood from a cut suffered from a home break-in. When police arrived, Hyde said he was the devil and threatened to kill the officers and the homeowner.

Tasers fire metal barbs attached by a wire that deliver 50,000 volts of electrical charge for five seconds. The idea is to temporarily immobilize suspects so that officers can gain control.

Tasers have also been in the news in Lucas County. Sheriff James Telb suspended his department's use of Tasers, just weeks after a man was shocked nine times by authorities and died within minutes of the final jolt. Jeffrey Turner, 41, of Toledo, died Jan. 31 after he was shocked five times by Toledo police and four times a few hours later by sheriff's correction officers at the jail.

Lucas County Sheriff James Telb said that he also wants a policy requiring any suspect shocked by a Taser to pass a medical examination at a hospital before being booked into the county jail.

"Many times we do that now," said Richard Keller of the Lucas County Sheriff's Department. "If an inmate is injured when they come in here prior to booking we have our nurses look at them and if it's a medical decision, we still have the arresting officer take that person to a medical facility. But I think that's the direction, way we're gonna go."

Telb said the device will not be used until he receives more results from safety studies. He said his officers have used Tasers about a dozen times since they went into service last year.

Telb said no policy violations were committed in Turner's death and no administrative or criminal charges would be filed by his office. The Lucas County coroner's office said the cause of death remains inconclusive pending the results of toxicology tests and further investigation.

The family of Jeffery Turner reacted strongly about the new procedures in Lucas County concerning Tasers. Turner's brother Shawn Turner said the new policy is a step in the right direction but it's two weeks too late and more can be done. "I think [Sheriff Telb] should have pulled those Tasers immediately instead of waiting two more weeks," said Shawn.

Shawn told News 11 he's done research on Taser-related deaths around the country and in the world. He says he's done some math about his brother being hit nine times at 50,000 volts a pop. "When I see that, that's over the limit, that's extreme. That's excessive, that's ridiculous," he told us.

Shawn likens the sheriff's new policy on Tasers to recalls on bad cars. "Now it's a problem, so they bring it to the public and recall the car. Just like these people, these people are dying, too many people dying in a short amount of time. I think we have a problem now we should look into it," he said.

Meanwhile, the Toledo Police Department will continue using Tasers at least for the time being. Police Chief Mike Navarre tells us he has sent two letters out, one to the president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, and the other to the attorney general. Both letters ask for an independent study into the safety of Tasers. The department has used Tasers at least 225 times to subdue suspects in Toledo.

Amnesty International said in a report last November that at least 74 people have died in the United States and Canada in the past four years after being shocked with Tasers. The manufacturer, Scottsdale, Arizona-based Taser International Inc., has said the device is among the safest ways to subdue a violent person.

Taser International, Inc. has said all along it has done extensive research, its products are safe and have never been the sole reason someone has died.

Stun-gun maker hires police to tout weapon

February 21, 2005
Alan Gathright, San Francisco Chronicle

The maker of a police stun gun associated with the deaths of 93 people, including several in Northern California, has hired hundreds of officers to peddle the electroshock device to law enforcement agencies in the Bay Area and across the nation.

Critics question whether Taser International's 263 police consultants, dubbed "master instructors,'' are making it clear to law enforcement agencies that they are working for the stun-gun maker or giving the impression that they represent their departments. Two months ago, a Minnesota officer quit after superiors found he had been moonlighting for Taser without their approval.

"When a police department contacts one of these master instructors for information or a demonstration, do they identify themselves as someone who's been paid by Taser International?" asked John Crew, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California. "The potential conflict of interest is huge.''

The Arizona-based stun-gun maker has been promoting Taser as a lifesaving device despite a growing concern among law enforcement officials and calls from human rights groups for a stun-gun moratorium. The International Association of Chiefs of Police plans to call for a review of Taser-related deaths and to advise its members to examine how stun guns are used. Tasers fire metal barbs that emit a five-second, 50,000-volt charge into the suspect.

Taser acknowledges using active-duty officers to promote its stun guns, a practice it says has helped drive sales.

The company noted in its latest annual report that the master instructors' "training sessions have led directly to the sale of Tasers to a number of police departments.''

Taser also has signed up about 1,000 police officers to provide a one- hour in-home training course to people who purchase a civilian stun-gun model, which the firm began marketing last fall.

Since it began marketing the police stun gun in 1999, Taser has sold the devices to more than 6,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide, including about 80 percent of California's 636 agencies.

More than a dozen Bay Area law enforcement agencies use Tasers, including those in San Jose, Fremont and Vallejo, and others are weighing purchases.

The San Francisco, Newark and Palo Alto agencies are holding off on their use until independent research resolves safety concerns.

Since August, six people have died in Northern California after being jolted by police stun guns. The victims include an emotionally disturbed Pacifica man whose family said he was shocked repeatedly and an unarmed Vallejo car-theft suspect zapped as he climbed a fence.

Taser and law enforcement officials say businesses often hire officers with special training skills to give demonstrations for everything from pepper spray to riot shields. But most police departments require officers to gain approval for outside jobs and consult on their own time, out of uniform, and without claiming that their agency endorses a product.

Controversy erupted in late December when the Minneapolis Police Department's top Taser trainer quit while being investigated for his work for Taser without the required departmental approval.

Sgt. Ron Bellendier, who had touted Taser's safety while demonstrating the weapon on national television a month earlier, quickly had a new job: Midwest regional manager for Taser International, which called the ex-officer a man of high integrity and "a real straight shooter,'' according to Minneapolis TV station WCCO.

In the Bay Area, Sacramento police SWAT team member Sgt. Rick Guilbault began moonlighting for Taser in 2002 after developing his department's stun- gun training program. Guilbault said he did off-duty training for the San Francisco Sheriff's Department and Rohnert Park Police Department, among others, and taught regional seminars to training officers from Bay Area departments.

Guilbault, who said his department approved of his work for Taser, also served on Taser's police training board for a year before leaving the Sacramento agency last April to become the firm's full-time director of training.

The training board drew headlines last month when Taser President Tom Smith disclosed that four active-duty police officers on the panel received lucrative stock options.

Taser refuses to identify paid police consultants or the agencies where they work, citing their privacy rights.

"We do require that our consultant instructors notify their respective agencies and ensure that they comply with any department policies regarding off-duty work,'' said Steve Tuttle, a spokesman for Taser.

Guilbault declined to say if he obtained Taser stock options.

Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, recently sent a letter to Taser Chief Executive Officer Rick Smith demanding that the firm identify police consultants and disclose whether they are working for California law enforcement agencies or marketing stun guns to departments here.

"I believe that any and all potential conflicts of interest that might impact consideration of Taser International's weapons in California should be fully and immediately disclosed, not withheld,'' wrote Leno, chair of the Assembly Public Safety Committee.

Taser officials maintain that their stun gun lives up to the company motto -- "Saving Lives Every Day" -- by preventing attacks on police officers and incapacitating dangerous suspects without the need to use deadly force.

Although Amnesty International and other groups point to at least a dozen deaths in which coroners cited the Taser as a contributing cause, the company maintains that drug intoxication, heart disease or psychosis often kills suspects involved in altercations with police.

Many police officers and chiefs across the country credit the Taser with quickly subduing violent individuals while reducing injuries to officers, suspects and bystanders.

"I get a lot of calls from cops every day saying how this thing saved them or saved someone else from being hurt on the street," said Guilbault, now Taser's training chief.

Guilbault said he always disclosed to other police agencies that he was working for the company and wore a shirt emblazoned with Taser International, "because I'm there as a representative of Taser International, not my department.''

Robert Castelli, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said moonlighting police consultants have benefits and drawbacks.

"There is an upside to having an active police trainer doing this, because you want the best people to train other police officers to do what they have to do to save their lives,'' said Castelli, a former New York State Police training supervisor who now teaches police use of force. "Where I kind of cringe is the idea that the officers are operating on a contract basis for a private company.''

Newark Police Chief Ray Samuels said he didn't care that a Portland police training officer was working for Taser when he gave a stun-gun demonstration to the Newark agency in September. "I presumed that there was a financial relationship" between the officer and Taser, Samuels said.

"I appreciated that he was a working police officer who could answer questions, not as a salesman but as someone who has practical experience in the deployment of the device,'' Samuels said.

Yet Samuels said he decided not to buy Tasers, because there is not enough independent research to ease his concerns about whether stun guns can accidentally kill.

"I'm not willing to run the risk of an unintended death under any circumstances," he said.

"At this point, I don't feel we have enough impartial and scientific information.''


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SHOCKING FORCE
Taser International Inc. has sold its Taser stun guns to more than 6,000 police agencies amid growing concern about the safety of the weapon and whether it is proper for the company to hire officers to promote the device to other law enforcement agencies..

A Taser’s electrical current overrides the target’s central nervous system for five seconds, temporarily paralyzing him

- Probes hook wires to target’s skin or clothing

- Dataport stores date and time of Taser firing

- ID tags ejected like confetti when fired; printed with the serial number

- Insulated wires transmit 50,000 volts of electricity through up to two inches of clothing

- Disposable cartridge uses compressed nitrogen to launch probes up to 21 feet.

- Batteries – older models use eight AA batteries, newer models are rechargeable Sources: Amnesty International; Taser International Associated Press

Amnesty International USA Welcomes IACP and DOJ Investigation as First Step in Evaluating Risks and Potential Merits of TASERs

February 16, 2005
Amnesty International

Suspect dies after being hit by taser 9 times

February 2, 2005
Christina Hall, Toledo Blade (Ohio)

Taser shares rise on news of safety study

January 14, 2005
LOUIS UCHITELLE, The New York Times

The news release issued by Taser quoted directly from the study but did not list the four authors, two of whom are Taser executives ... While the company's news release made no mention of the study's four authors, Taser posted the full four-page study on its Web site. The study noted that two of the four authors were Robert A. Stratbucker and Max Nerheim, who were identified as Taser employees. Mr. Stratbucker is the medical director and Mr. Nerheim is the vice president for engineering, the company said.

Asked whether the company had played any role in the conduct of the study, a Taser spokesman, Steve Tuttle, replied in an e-mail message: "Pacing and Clinical Electrophysiology (PACE) is the foremost peer-reviewed journal in the field of pacing and implantable cardioversion defibrillation. The published results of the cardiac safety study of Taser technology speaks for itself."

The release also said that the study was published in a prestigious peer-reviewed journal, Pacing and Clinical Electrophysiology. But the study is scheduled to appear instead in a supplement to the journal, not the journal itself.

Autopsy Links Taser To Death In Mesa

January 14, 2005
Arizona Republic

Tasers pose potentially lethal danger to heart, doctor warns

January 10, 2005

Dr. Zian Tseng, a cardiologist at the University of California, believes Tasers are potentially dangerous because a jolt of electricity, at just the right moment in the heartbeat cycle, can trigger ventricular fibrillation.

SEC begins 'informal' investigation of Taser

January 7, 2005
The Business Journal of Phoenix

"The company said it is now putting information together for federal regulators regarding company statements about the safety of its products, and a $1.5 million order received from Davidson's Inc., a Prescott firearms dealer, to determine if it was made in late 2004 in order to meet fourth quarter revenue guidance. Taser says it is cooperating fully with the SEC and is confident the issue will end up in their favor. "We are confident our statements are supported by the safety studies of our products," said Rick Smith, Taser's chief executive.