| TASER electronic control devices (ECDs), manufactured by TASER International, Inc. in Scottsdale, Arizona, have become a popular tool for law enforcement. TASER International has sold more than 710,000 devices to 16,880 agencies in 107 countries. Although other manufacturers produce comparable types of electro-shock weapons, TASER products are the most commonly used in the United States and worldwide.;Unfortunately, more than 870 people worldwide have died unexpectedly following law enforcement officers' uses of TASER ECDs. Currently, there is no research definitively establishing a causal relationship between the use of an ECD and the death of a person exposed to it. However, some recent studies suggest that application of TASER technology is responsible for sudden unexpected deaths. The ever increasing number of deaths following application of TASER ECDs and the growing number of cases wherein a coroner or medical examiner attribute the use of an ECD as a cause of death or as a significant contributing factor to the death raise legitimate concerns about the safety threshold of the devices.;Researchers have proposed and tested many theories of why people die following the application of ECDs, including direct electro-stimulation of cardiac muscle, interference with breathing, and metabolic changes resulting in acidosis. Thus far, human model experiments have produced no evidence to support these theories. Another theory, which has recently appeared in the literature, has received no empirical testing-the theory of high-risk groups. High-risk group theory postulates that elderly people, young children, people with pre-existing cardiovascular disease, people with pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators, people under the influence of drugs (amphetamines, cocaine, lysergic acid diethylamide, marijuana, opiates, and/or phencyclidine) or with a history of drug abuse, people intoxicated from alcohol or with a history of chronic alcohol abuse, people under extreme psychological distress or who exhibit signs of excited delirium, people who are mentally ill or taking psychotropic medications, people subjected to repeated or multiple applications, and pregnant women are at a heightened risk of serious injury or death following application of a TASER ECD.;What the current literature fails to consider is that the same physiological attributes that are presumed to render members of high-risk groups more vulnerable to serious injury or death following application of a TASER ECD might render these same people more vulnerable to serious injury or death regardless of the tactics or weapons that officers use to subdue them. If that hypothesis is correct, the use of TASER ECDs on people in high-risk groups might be irrelevant to arrest-related sudden deaths.;The courts have forewarned that they will consider in deciding the objective reasonableness of a use of force whether an individual is emotionally disturbed, suffering from a mental illness, or suffering from diminished capacity, which can include severe intoxication, drug abuse, a discernible mental illness, or any other condition apparent to the officer that would make that use of force likely to result in significant risk to the individual's health or well-being. The results in this study indicate that the courts should consider that the use of an ECD is no more likely than other force options to result in a significantly increased risk to an individual's health or well-being. In cases of intoxication from drugs, particularly intoxication from cocaine, the use of an ECD is less likely to result in a significantly increased risk to an individual's health or well-being. On the other hand, there is an indication that the use of an ECD might result in a significantly increased risk to an individual's health or well-being if that individual is experiencing ExDS, thereby increasing potential liability exposure. (Abstract shortened by UMI.). |
