[Baltimore Citizen’s Academy] — Tasers
Tasers are less lethal options than handguns. I am going to start this post with body worn camera footage of two situations that involved combative people being arrested.
This individual was on LSD, but was non-compliant. If the police had shot him, it would probably be one of many situations where the police probably used too much force, but where they were found to be reasonable.
Fortunately for this student, the police went to their taser first.
This second video is also of a person that was on drugs and was driving back from the airport with his parents. The parents called the cops when they became concerned about his behavior.
Chase Sherman was tased 15 times, and ended up dying. He was on a synthetic drug, was combative and tried to take an officer’s taser. The officers failed to follow policies about the use of force and medical response procedures and it ended up with Sherman dying.
The Baltimore Police Policy 1115 on Use of Force discusses conducted electrical weapons (CEW), also known as stun guns or Tasers, but does not restrict the level of use. In our discussion with Lieutenant Sean Brown, he said that they were not allowed to use the taser for more than five seconds per use, and they can only use it three times in an encounter before they have to resort to other methods. However, I was not able to find that anywhere in the Use of Force policy, or any other written policy.
The generally accepted use of force requirements accepted in the US say that stun guns or CEWs should only be used for people that are actively resisting or using aggrevated resistance, but BPD policy only increases the level of reporting depending on how much the CEW is used. If it is pointed at an individual, that is considered level 1; if it is used 1–3 times, that is considered to be a level 2 incident; if it is used 3 or more times, or if there is a death, then it is considered to be a level 3 incident. The levels of reporting are described in policy 1115, but we aren’t able to see bad cops shut down after use of force reports like the ones the Sun profiled.
Lieutenant Brown outlined many great times that a taser should not be used, including on the elderly, children, pregnant women, people who are driving, or people who are in an elevated position who might fall. But none of this is in any policy that I could find.
These kinds of policies are important, because many of the people that police encounter that are aggressive, such as the two videos that were featured, are with people who are on drugs or having a mental health issue. Jumping on a person in that state only excites them more, and puts the officer in danger, as the person can reach for their gun or taser, as happened in the second video.
Its known as excited delirium, and can cause individuals to feel hot and start taking their clothes off. They can have unexpected strength, and be a real threat to the police, as they have no fear. The video to the left shows a man with scrapes all over his body, before he punches through a fence and then attacks an officer.
This, like any individual in crisis, is a serious situation, and we should not discount the risk that officers go through. However, the practice of closing in, trying to overpower, and repeatedly tasing does not end up with good results, as shown with Mr Sherman. A person should not need to consider if they should call the cops for someone that is in crisis.
In July 2016, Commissioner Kevin Davis instituted a policy where tasers could only be used on someone who is displaying active aggression. Prior to that, if someone was passively resisting, such as keeping their hands in their pockets or acting as dead weight when being arrested, they could be tased to gain compliance. That cut the number of tasing incidents from 347 in 2015 to 181 in 2016. As of October 2017 when this discussion happened, there had only been 22 uses of the taser. Lt Brown was asked about his opinion of the change, and he preferred not to comment. But his body language indicated that he was not a fan of the change.
And an officer is not going to be able to get away with using a taser and not reporting it. Whenever it is deployed, either in ‘drive’ mode, where it is applied directly to the body, or by shooting the prongs, the number of uses and the length of use is recorded. When the prongs are shot, there are also tiny pieces of identifiable confetti that are shot out that assist with investigations, to show where the shot happened and with which cartridge.
Tasers are often looked at as a silver bullet that allows officers to deal with a situation, and not use their handgun. However, tasers should be treated as a deadly tool, and should be a tool used after de-escalation. They can still take a person’s life, and can escalate a situation unnecessarily if improperly used.
