Taser, handheld device that incapacitates a person by transmitting a 50,000-volt electric shock. The Taser fires two small darts, connected to the device with thin wires, up to a distance of approximately 11 metres (35 feet). The darts can penetrate clothing and, once they make contact with the target, deliver the electric shock, which disrupts the target’s nervous system, resulting in temporary incapacitation. The Taser is not considered a firearm, because it uses compressed nitrogen to launch the darts. A Taser can also be used as a stun gun by pressing it directly against the target’s body, thereby administering the electric shock.
The Taser was first developed in the mid-1970s by American inventor Jack Cover. Taser is an acronym for Tom A. Swift Electric Rifle (the Tom Swift books about an inventor of amazing gadgets were a childhood favorite of Cover) and is a brand name for the device, which is manufactured by Taser International. During the 1990s, the Taser was introduced to law enforcement use as an alternative to deadly force. As of 2011, more than 15,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States used the Taser.
Since the practical recognition of civil rights by the U.S. Supreme Court concerning police abuse in the 1960s, the improper use of deadly force has become a significant problem for law enforcement agencies. The Supreme Court’s decision in Tennessee v. Garner (1985) highlighted that there were significant limits to the use of deadly force under the Bill of Rights.
The general principle of escalation of force by law enforcement consisted of the following continuum: verbal control, hand control, handcuffs, mace, batons, and finally firearms. The huge gap between the use of the baton and the use of a firearm presented problems for law enforcement. As a result, law enforcement personnel shot people who arguably should not have been shot and could have been saved if there were a less-lethal alternative.
A number of alternatives were tried. In the 1990s, the Taser became a nonlethal alternative to the use of deadly force where the baton was insufficient to control persons. However, the Taser presented its own set of problems, which resulted in lawsuits and limiting legislation.
Many law enforcement agencies reported outstanding success concerning the Taser. These agencies cited numerous examples where it prevented the use of deadly force in many situations, thereby saving lives. There is little doubt that the availability of a nonlethal tool to control people who need to be subdued is much preferable to the use of a firearm.
However, as of 2012, according to the human-rights organization Amnesty International USA, there had been at least 500 deaths as a result of Taser use by law enforcement in the United States, which belies the “nonlethal” claim concerning Taser use. Many of the deaths have been attributed to related medical conditions, such as heart disease, to illicit drug use at the time a Taser was used, and to the Tasers themselves.
There has been extensive criticism of the method and circumstances in which the Taser has been used. For example, law enforcement personnel have used the Taser on a 6-year-old boy who held a broken piece of glass, on a 12-year-old girl who was running from a law enforcement officer, on an elderly person who failed to stand up when ordered to do so, and on a person already handcuffed who subsequently died. Also, there have been numerous criticisms of the use of the Taser on people with mental illnesses. Furthermore, there have been numerous complaints of the Taser being used to torture subjects, by both multiple and extended applications of the electric shocks.
The resulting furor about the problems with Tasers has resulted in numerous lawsuits and calls for controlling legislation. In partial response to these complaints, special cameras can now be attached to Tasers whenever they are used. Although in itself the Taser is a race-neutral tool, police use of the Taser has been disproportionately directed toward minorities. Numerous newspapers and official reports address this issue. For example, from 2006 to 2007, in Sioux City, Iowa, of 70 uses of the Taser, 33 were against racial minorities. Between 2012 and 2014, police in Baltimore, Maryland, used Tasers 730 times; nearly 90 percent of the time, the suspect was African American, even though African Americans made up just 63 percent of the city’s population. In 2015, Connecticut police used Tasers 56 percent of the time against minorities, even though they constituted just 19 percent of the population, and were more likely to threaten Taser use but not actually fire against white suspects than against African American or Hispanics.
What is unique about the Taser is its ability to inflict a high degree of pain and suffering on a suspect while leaving few marks, such as those that would be left by a baton or a firearm. When Taser use results in death, there is physical evidence of its misuse, but in nonlethal cases, it is more difficult to prove misuse. As demonstrated in the case of Rodney King, without evidence such as a videotape or physical evidence, it is difficult to establish charges of police abuse through the use of Tasers.