A Short Note On Taser International, A Multi Market Facing Brand

Over the last few years there has been much controversy leading up to the need for law enforcement officers to wear body cameras. This is not only for citizens but also for the officers’ protection. With so much debate regarding police brutality and excessive force body cameras are quickly on the rise. New technology is giving police on a state and federal level a new opportunity to cut back on some of the allegations and negativity we have seen in the last few years. On the other hand it is giving citizens all over the country the safety they should feel when being approached by law enforcement. Our technology has improved significantly over the years and this seems to be something that will benefit everyone.

The research topic we have chosen to research is Tasers. The use of Tasers has been a very controversial topic in the last few years. Reporters, doctors, and human rights groups have all expressed concern that police officers will use a Taser in situations when no weapon is required and concern has also been expressed over if the Taser is really a less-lethal option. No one claims the use of Tasers to be risk-free but studies have found them comparatively safe. We believe that people opposed to Tasers ignore a body of the reports showing the technology is safe and effective. The research question we hope to answer is: Is the deployment of a Taser a safe and viable

Technology used in policing enhances law enforcement organizations’ ability to function because it has improved police databases, reports, tracking, and forensics (DOJ, 2004). In addition, a less-lethal weapon is designed to disable, capture, or immobilize a suspect without killing them. However, occasionally deaths do happen as a result of less-lethal weapons which include kinetic energy, electrical, acoustic, and chemical weapons. Furthermore, violence, disease, and infected evidence are dangers that law enforcement officers face today.

First advantage in law enforcement agents wearing body cameras is to hold the officers accountable. “Holding the officers accountable, will ensure the officer adheres to policies and procedures during an encounter with victims and suspects.” Body-worn cameras are poised to help boost accountability for law enforcement and citizens and, unlike many new police technologies, the cameras share preliminary support from both law enforcement and social justice groups. Successful implementation of the cameras will require careful policies that respect and protect both the police and the public.

The Court in Bryan v. MacPherson stated that when the officer used the Taser with the probes, aluminum darts tipped with stainless tell barbs connected to the Taser insulated wires, toward the target at a rate of over 160 feet per second. MacPherson, 630 F.3d at 824. The Court noted that once a person is struck, the Taser delivers a 1200-volt into the individual’s muscles, making the impact powerful. Id. at 824. The electrical impulse instantly overrides the victim’s central nervous system paralyzing the muscles throughout the body, rendering the target limp and helpless making the person experience excruciating pain that radiates throughout the body. Id.; see Draper v. Reynolds, 369 F.3d 1270, 1273 (11th Cir. 2004); see also Lewis v. Downey, 581 F.3d 467, 475 (7th Cir. 2009). Although the uses of Tasers by law enforcement can help defuse a dangerous situation, the force must be justified by the governmental interest

Moving along, one of the biggest issues and trends facing law enforcement today and in the future is the use of technology. Today, police organizations have access to a wide range of technological tools, and they are continually advancing and improving. Some of these include records management systems, computer-aided dispatch, GPS technology, license plate readers, biometrics (facial recognition software, for example), crime mapping via geographical information systems, and less-than-lethal weapons (Tasers, beanbag rounds, tear gas,

Invented by NASA researcher, John H. Cover, in the 1960’s and 70’s, the TASER® has been widely adopted by police agencies as a non-lethal alternative to guns. While these devices have aided authorities in subduing suspects, it has also resulted in numerous unnecessary deaths. The general perception of the non-lethality of Tasers along with poor judgement on the part of law enforcement has culminated in the over use and apparent misuse of discharge against suspects when alternate options have existed. The following paper will discuss in detail the creation of Conducted Energy Weapons (CEW) and the TASER®; negative medical implications of Tasers and their current use by police enforcement groups; the laws which govern the use of

Taser International, Inc. v. Ward, Court of Appeals of Arizona, Division 1, May 13, 2010

The fast-growing use of BWC has incited a slew of research into the technology’s impact on police-citizen interactions, the potential benefits of BWC, and police views on the issue. Given the increasing number of police agencies across the country implementing BWC, there is a growing number of opportunities for evaluations. Many researchers posit that BWC will have beneficial implications for law enforcement and civilians alike.

The intervention being evaluated is the TASER. Police agencies have increasingly relied on the TASER to incapacitate combative or violent suspects who may be resistant to lesser degrees of force. Despite their adoption by more than 8,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States, there is little empirical research examining the use of these stun guns by police officers. Like many other innovations in policing, researchers have failed to keep pace with the diffusion of this rapidly spreading technology (p. 170). Advocates of the TASER contend that this technology has saved lives in situations where other less lethal methods are ineffective and lethal force may be justified and that their continued use is warranted (p. 171).

There has only been 26 deaths(because of tasers) from 2003 to the present in Canada. That number compared to the thousands of times that tasers have been used, means a very low death ratio. As well as the possibility of someone dying with a healthy heart from being tasered is also very low. Tasers were not made to deliberately kill someone, but to do the literal opposite.

Currently, the trend is when being approached by an officer or seeing someone being harassed the average person will pull out their cell phone to record the situation taking place. The social climate has shifted to one where much of the historic trust that has been put in police officers has become questioned following the events in Ferguson, Missouri, and Staten Island, New York (shah, 2016). For example the case of the shooting of Walter Scott. Walter Scott was pulled over for a broken tail light but ran from officer Michael Slager. The officer ran after him, and they had a small scuffle over the officer 's taser, but the victim continued to run away when the officer pulled out his gun and shot Walter Scott eight times. Once Scott was lying face down the officer called for backup and picked up an item from the ground which was found to be the taser and placed it next to Mr.Scott 's body. He planted his taser next to me.scott who was lying on the ground. The District Court for the District of Connecticut identified that the Circuit Courts of Appeals had been split as to whether or not the right to record police activity is a constitutional right that is clearly established such that it can defeat a claim of qualified immunity when an officer inhibits those actions (shah, 2016). When a video is recorded by a staff member during an active investigation that clearly shows the officer violating the victim 's

Use of fire arms as the choice weapon by police officers have been around since the late 1800s. Police departments started issuing firearms to police officers in a response to better-armed criminal populations, (Bulman, 2010). Recent studies have shown that less lethal weapons decrease the rate of police officers and suspect injuries. Because evidence supports less lethal weapons for police officer, many law enforcement agencies have agencies are stressing the use of less-lethal weapons. In the early 19th century, the less than lethal weapon of choice was the wooden club, (Bulman, 2010). Less than lethal weapons have evolved to technology such as conductive energy devices (CEDs), commonly known as the Taser.

This journal article discusses data on various types of less then lethal use of force weapon systems and the effect they have on the suspect and the officer who was forced to use it. It examines the future of police action and new advances in suspect restraint systems (Albert, 1999).

This proves that taser is an effective non-lethal weapon that can be used to subdue the criminals. Here are some possible advantages of taser guns, first, taser is a non-lethal weapon. As we may have already know, tasers are meant to take down the suspects without injuring or killing them. Also, it is safer to use in a situations where there are many bystanders in the scene, since tasers do not harm people around the intended suspects. This also leads to the second point of avoiding the usage of lethal weapons. So far, 1689 people have been killed by the police in a crime related actions (May, T. 2014). By promoting the usage of tasers, police officers around the world can lower the number of suspects being killed in the scene. Using the lethal weapon also dangers the suspects, police, and the bystanders, because firearms are a lethal weapon that can take away lives easily. Tasers also requires minimal training to use the functions, which also makes the officers and other security related people to easily use tasers in action. On the other hand, typical fire arms requires more training time to properly use them in order to avoid any accidents with it. Fourthly, by using taser, the injury rates dropped significantly. Taser have been used within law enforcement agencies from 1998, and from that time, according to the Taser International, taser helped lower injuries among officers and