Post by WaTcHeR on Feb 22, 2007 11:46:46 GMT -5
Tasers have helped Louisville Metro Police defend themselves and save the lives of people threatening suicide. But officers also have used the weapons in dozens of situations in which neither they nor others appeared to be at risk.
A Courier-Journal analysis of 344 incidents in which officers used Tasers since the department acquired them two years ago found that the weapons frequently were used against people trying to run away, often after such minor crimes as shoplifting.
The newspaper's review also found:
• Tasers were used 55 times against people for "verbal non-compliance," in which the subject showed no "active aggression" toward police.
• Only 18 people shocked were armed, and at least 35 were jolted at least three times -- despite manufacturer warnings that multiple hits can be dangerous.
• Tasers were used against 15 people who had been handcuffed, and against 11 juveniles, including a 15-year-old who was shot in the penis after he charged at police and a 12-year-old student who refused to go to the principal's office.
• Tasers were used 70 times against mentally ill people. Some were threatening suicide with knives or other weapons, but others were unarmed, and one was a brain-injured paraplegic who had fallen out of his wheelchair.
The newspaper examined police deployment of Tasers after a Sept. 5 incident in which a 52-year-old ex-Marine died minutes after an officer jolted him up to three times.
Police had found Larry Noles naked at Seventh Street and Algonquin Parkway. An officer said he used his Taser after Noles attempted to strike him. A cause of death has not been determined.
Louisville police Chief Robert White has said that if the Taser is found to have caused Noles' death, the department will re-evaluate the device's use.
About the Taser
A Taser immobilizes the body with a shock that sends 50,000 volts of electricity; it can be shot from up to 20 feet away or applied directly to the body.
Taser International, which has sold more than 130,000 devices to about 7,000 police agencies, including Louisville's, says the weapons are safe. But the National Institute of Justice is reviewing the cases of 180 people who died after law-enforcement officers used such devices to subdue them.
Lt. Col. Vince Robison, the department's spokesman on the weapon, said Tasers are effective. Injuries to subjects declined by 4 percent and to officers by 18 percent in the first full year in which they were deployed, according to the department.
Robison also said Tasers might have prevented the use of deadly force against the mentally ill and others who brandished weapons.
"How do you measure how many people didn't die because of its use?" he asked.
Metro police have fatally shot two people since they acquired Tasers two years ago. In the six years before that, police fatally shot a dozen people.
Robison noted that not a single internal-affairs complaint has been filed over the use of a Taser, and that all deployments reviewed so far by the department commanders have been deemed justified.
But Beth Wilson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, said the newspaper's findings confirm the ACLU's contention that Tasers sometimes are used inappropriately.
Jim Dailey, who heads the Kentucky chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said Taser rules need to be tightened, although he said they provide a welcome alternative to deadly force.
Robison said the department is reviewing restrictions adopted by other departments.
In Madison, Wis., for example, the department bans use of Tasers on fleeing subjects, people who argue but are nonthreatening, and those with a noticeable medical condition.
In Las Vegas, they cannot be used against a handcuffed subject. In Dallas, after four Taser-related deaths, police ordered that the weapons be used only against subjects who assault, kick, punch or throw something at officers.
The mentally ill
On Dec. 8, 2004, Louisville Metro Police Officer Kenneth Prechtel used a Taser to stop a 42-year-old woman who was threatening to cut her tongue out with a butcher knife, according to police records.
The following April, Prechtel used his Taser against a suicidal man who held a gun behind his back and refused an order to drop it. And that same month, Officer Donald Stokes shot his Taser at a 45-year-old man who had cut his wrists and was about to stab himself in the abdomen.
Those were among 34 times that officers used Tasers to subdue suicidal people, according to a department database.
"The officer's actions undoubtedly saved this man's life," a supervisor wrote of the case involving Stokes.
Yet the weapon also has been used on mentally disabled people who weren't armed or who arguably posed little threat to the officer or others.
On April 8, 2005, Officer Walter Cosby responded to a nurse's call of a home-health-care patient out of control. He used a Taser on the patient as he lay on the floor of his apartment, after he tried to knock the officer down with his arm and threatened to throw a television at the nurse, according to police records.
It turned out that the 43-year-old man had brain damage, had no use of his legs and had fallen out of his wheelchair.
Robison described the incident as "unfortunate" but said use of the Taser was appropriate because Cosby didn't know of the patient's limitations. But two nursing assistants, Tameka Wilson and Katie Bilbrey, said in interviews that they told the officer the man posed no threat.
"We kept shouting that he was mentally retarded and wasn't going to hurt anybody," Bilbrey said.
Fleeing subjects
In its model policy on electronic weapons, the International Association of Chiefs of Police says they may be used against fleeing suspects because flight is a form of resistance.
But the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington-based research group, says that flight "should not be the sole justification" for using a Taser and that the severity of the offense and other circumstances should be considered.
Robison said Louisville officers have the option of letting fleeing suspects go, although that runs against their instinct for enforcing the law. And he said using a Taser is often safer than trying to tackle a suspect.
The newspaper review found 53 cases in which Louisville officers shot Tasers at fleeing suspects, including many who had been stopped for traffic offenses or misdemeanors.
Officer Rhonda Pendigraph, for example, shot Jeremy King, then 30, in the back with her Taser on Nov. 5, 2005, when he fled from a Kroger store, where he was seen taking items without paying. King later pleaded guilty to theft under $300.
On the day of the 2005 Kentucky Derby, Sgt. Lawrence Glaser shot Robert J. Yancey, then 33, in the back with a Taser when he ran away after being accused of pick-pocketing in the Churchill Downs infield. Robison found that using the Taser was justified because Yancey was endangering others by knocking them down.
Neither Glaser nor the alleged victim showed up in court; charges were dismissed.
Yancey said in an interview that the incident was embarrassing and painful. "It was the worst experience of my life," he said.
Multiple shocks
In June 2005, Taser International warned against "prolonged or continuous exposure" to the Taser's electrical discharge, saying that in some circumstances, it could cause "exhaustion, stress and associated medical risks."
After that advisory, the Louisville department revised its policy to say Tasers should be used the "least number of times" and no longer than is "reasonable to accomplish the legitimate operational objective."
But according to the department's database, 89 subjects have been stunned with a Taser more than one time in a single confrontation, 35 more than two times and 13 more than three times.
On July 2, 2005, Kenny Crump III, 18, charged at police while wandering nude near Iroquois Park and was shocked 32 times by Officer James Beichler. Sgt. Todd Felty, who found Beichler's actions justified, wrote that Crump, who was high on LSD, was the "most out-of-control subject I have ever seen."
Crump's mother, Sarah, of Memphis, Ind., conceded that her son was out of control but said the Taser use was excessive. Robison said that if Crump had to be physically subdued, then both he and police likely would have been injured.
Handling juveniles
The International Association of Chiefs of Police model policy also says officers should be warned that Tasers pose a greater potential for injury to juveniles and people of small stature, regardless of age.
Louisville's policy is silent on the issue, and its records show that Tasers were deployed against 11 people younger than 18.
On Feb. 13, Officer Jeff Harris used one on a 12-year-old boy at Westport Traditional Middle School who refused to accompany an assistant principal to the office and "caused a disturbance."
The 6-foot-2, 180-pound student was charged with abuse of a teacher, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
Robison said in an interview that it's unfortunate a Taser ever has to be used on a juvenile, but he noted that some are larger than most adults and others have committed heinous crimes.
George T. Williams, director of training for Cutting Edge Training LLC of Bellingham, Wash., said that using Tasers on juveniles can be justified based on the risk of injury to the officer and subject.
"Against an 8-year old having a temper tantrum? No," Williams said.
"Against an 8-year old with a knife having a temper tantrum? Maybe."
Handcuffed subjects
Some departments bar or limit the use of Tasers on handcuffed subjects. In Phoenix, officers are prohibited from using the devices on a handcuffed suspect who resists entering a police car.
Louisville's policy initially didn't address such situations, but it was amended in September 2005 to prohibit use of Tasers against handcuffed subjects unless they are engaged in "active aggression against the officer or others."
Robison said handcuffed people can injure officers with their feet and injure themselves by banging their head against the protective shield in cruisers.
On Memorial Day last year, police used a Taser against Kendall Phelps, 33, after he had been handcuffed because he "continued to kick and resist" being placed in a police car.
According to a police report, Phelps was pulled over after he sideswiped an unmarked police car and didn't stop. He appeared to be intoxicated and officers had to force him out of his vehicle.
Officer John Green shot Phelps with a Taser from about 7 feet away, the report said.
EMS later determined that Phelps, then a Lincolnshire Police officer, was in the midst of a diabetic emergency. He was taken to the hospital and was not charged with any crime.
Robison said that insulin-shock symptoms mimic those of alcohol or drug intoxication and that the officers acted appropriately, "given what they knew."
Phelps, now the chief of the Cloverport Police Department in Breckinridge County, Ky., said he believes Tasers are useful to police.
"Anything we can get to help us, I'm all for it," he said.
But he said rules on the use of the weapon need to be tightened, and said that in his case, it "was a little bit extreme."
www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070221/NEWS01/102210002/1008
A Courier-Journal analysis of 344 incidents in which officers used Tasers since the department acquired them two years ago found that the weapons frequently were used against people trying to run away, often after such minor crimes as shoplifting.
The newspaper's review also found:
• Tasers were used 55 times against people for "verbal non-compliance," in which the subject showed no "active aggression" toward police.
• Only 18 people shocked were armed, and at least 35 were jolted at least three times -- despite manufacturer warnings that multiple hits can be dangerous.
• Tasers were used against 15 people who had been handcuffed, and against 11 juveniles, including a 15-year-old who was shot in the penis after he charged at police and a 12-year-old student who refused to go to the principal's office.
• Tasers were used 70 times against mentally ill people. Some were threatening suicide with knives or other weapons, but others were unarmed, and one was a brain-injured paraplegic who had fallen out of his wheelchair.
The newspaper examined police deployment of Tasers after a Sept. 5 incident in which a 52-year-old ex-Marine died minutes after an officer jolted him up to three times.
Police had found Larry Noles naked at Seventh Street and Algonquin Parkway. An officer said he used his Taser after Noles attempted to strike him. A cause of death has not been determined.
Louisville police Chief Robert White has said that if the Taser is found to have caused Noles' death, the department will re-evaluate the device's use.
About the Taser
A Taser immobilizes the body with a shock that sends 50,000 volts of electricity; it can be shot from up to 20 feet away or applied directly to the body.
Taser International, which has sold more than 130,000 devices to about 7,000 police agencies, including Louisville's, says the weapons are safe. But the National Institute of Justice is reviewing the cases of 180 people who died after law-enforcement officers used such devices to subdue them.
Lt. Col. Vince Robison, the department's spokesman on the weapon, said Tasers are effective. Injuries to subjects declined by 4 percent and to officers by 18 percent in the first full year in which they were deployed, according to the department.
Robison also said Tasers might have prevented the use of deadly force against the mentally ill and others who brandished weapons.
"How do you measure how many people didn't die because of its use?" he asked.
Metro police have fatally shot two people since they acquired Tasers two years ago. In the six years before that, police fatally shot a dozen people.
Robison noted that not a single internal-affairs complaint has been filed over the use of a Taser, and that all deployments reviewed so far by the department commanders have been deemed justified.
But Beth Wilson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, said the newspaper's findings confirm the ACLU's contention that Tasers sometimes are used inappropriately.
Jim Dailey, who heads the Kentucky chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said Taser rules need to be tightened, although he said they provide a welcome alternative to deadly force.
Robison said the department is reviewing restrictions adopted by other departments.
In Madison, Wis., for example, the department bans use of Tasers on fleeing subjects, people who argue but are nonthreatening, and those with a noticeable medical condition.
In Las Vegas, they cannot be used against a handcuffed subject. In Dallas, after four Taser-related deaths, police ordered that the weapons be used only against subjects who assault, kick, punch or throw something at officers.
The mentally ill
On Dec. 8, 2004, Louisville Metro Police Officer Kenneth Prechtel used a Taser to stop a 42-year-old woman who was threatening to cut her tongue out with a butcher knife, according to police records.
The following April, Prechtel used his Taser against a suicidal man who held a gun behind his back and refused an order to drop it. And that same month, Officer Donald Stokes shot his Taser at a 45-year-old man who had cut his wrists and was about to stab himself in the abdomen.
Those were among 34 times that officers used Tasers to subdue suicidal people, according to a department database.
"The officer's actions undoubtedly saved this man's life," a supervisor wrote of the case involving Stokes.
Yet the weapon also has been used on mentally disabled people who weren't armed or who arguably posed little threat to the officer or others.
On April 8, 2005, Officer Walter Cosby responded to a nurse's call of a home-health-care patient out of control. He used a Taser on the patient as he lay on the floor of his apartment, after he tried to knock the officer down with his arm and threatened to throw a television at the nurse, according to police records.
It turned out that the 43-year-old man had brain damage, had no use of his legs and had fallen out of his wheelchair.
Robison described the incident as "unfortunate" but said use of the Taser was appropriate because Cosby didn't know of the patient's limitations. But two nursing assistants, Tameka Wilson and Katie Bilbrey, said in interviews that they told the officer the man posed no threat.
"We kept shouting that he was mentally retarded and wasn't going to hurt anybody," Bilbrey said.
Fleeing subjects
In its model policy on electronic weapons, the International Association of Chiefs of Police says they may be used against fleeing suspects because flight is a form of resistance.
But the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington-based research group, says that flight "should not be the sole justification" for using a Taser and that the severity of the offense and other circumstances should be considered.
Robison said Louisville officers have the option of letting fleeing suspects go, although that runs against their instinct for enforcing the law. And he said using a Taser is often safer than trying to tackle a suspect.
The newspaper review found 53 cases in which Louisville officers shot Tasers at fleeing suspects, including many who had been stopped for traffic offenses or misdemeanors.
Officer Rhonda Pendigraph, for example, shot Jeremy King, then 30, in the back with her Taser on Nov. 5, 2005, when he fled from a Kroger store, where he was seen taking items without paying. King later pleaded guilty to theft under $300.
On the day of the 2005 Kentucky Derby, Sgt. Lawrence Glaser shot Robert J. Yancey, then 33, in the back with a Taser when he ran away after being accused of pick-pocketing in the Churchill Downs infield. Robison found that using the Taser was justified because Yancey was endangering others by knocking them down.
Neither Glaser nor the alleged victim showed up in court; charges were dismissed.
Yancey said in an interview that the incident was embarrassing and painful. "It was the worst experience of my life," he said.
Multiple shocks
In June 2005, Taser International warned against "prolonged or continuous exposure" to the Taser's electrical discharge, saying that in some circumstances, it could cause "exhaustion, stress and associated medical risks."
After that advisory, the Louisville department revised its policy to say Tasers should be used the "least number of times" and no longer than is "reasonable to accomplish the legitimate operational objective."
But according to the department's database, 89 subjects have been stunned with a Taser more than one time in a single confrontation, 35 more than two times and 13 more than three times.
On July 2, 2005, Kenny Crump III, 18, charged at police while wandering nude near Iroquois Park and was shocked 32 times by Officer James Beichler. Sgt. Todd Felty, who found Beichler's actions justified, wrote that Crump, who was high on LSD, was the "most out-of-control subject I have ever seen."
Crump's mother, Sarah, of Memphis, Ind., conceded that her son was out of control but said the Taser use was excessive. Robison said that if Crump had to be physically subdued, then both he and police likely would have been injured.
Handling juveniles
The International Association of Chiefs of Police model policy also says officers should be warned that Tasers pose a greater potential for injury to juveniles and people of small stature, regardless of age.
Louisville's policy is silent on the issue, and its records show that Tasers were deployed against 11 people younger than 18.
On Feb. 13, Officer Jeff Harris used one on a 12-year-old boy at Westport Traditional Middle School who refused to accompany an assistant principal to the office and "caused a disturbance."
The 6-foot-2, 180-pound student was charged with abuse of a teacher, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
Robison said in an interview that it's unfortunate a Taser ever has to be used on a juvenile, but he noted that some are larger than most adults and others have committed heinous crimes.
George T. Williams, director of training for Cutting Edge Training LLC of Bellingham, Wash., said that using Tasers on juveniles can be justified based on the risk of injury to the officer and subject.
"Against an 8-year old having a temper tantrum? No," Williams said.
"Against an 8-year old with a knife having a temper tantrum? Maybe."
Handcuffed subjects
Some departments bar or limit the use of Tasers on handcuffed subjects. In Phoenix, officers are prohibited from using the devices on a handcuffed suspect who resists entering a police car.
Louisville's policy initially didn't address such situations, but it was amended in September 2005 to prohibit use of Tasers against handcuffed subjects unless they are engaged in "active aggression against the officer or others."
Robison said handcuffed people can injure officers with their feet and injure themselves by banging their head against the protective shield in cruisers.
On Memorial Day last year, police used a Taser against Kendall Phelps, 33, after he had been handcuffed because he "continued to kick and resist" being placed in a police car.
According to a police report, Phelps was pulled over after he sideswiped an unmarked police car and didn't stop. He appeared to be intoxicated and officers had to force him out of his vehicle.
Officer John Green shot Phelps with a Taser from about 7 feet away, the report said.
EMS later determined that Phelps, then a Lincolnshire Police officer, was in the midst of a diabetic emergency. He was taken to the hospital and was not charged with any crime.
Robison said that insulin-shock symptoms mimic those of alcohol or drug intoxication and that the officers acted appropriately, "given what they knew."
Phelps, now the chief of the Cloverport Police Department in Breckinridge County, Ky., said he believes Tasers are useful to police.
"Anything we can get to help us, I'm all for it," he said.
But he said rules on the use of the weapon need to be tightened, and said that in his case, it "was a little bit extreme."
www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070221/NEWS01/102210002/1008
