NJ may get the Taser…
Feb 19th, 2008 | By Michael L. Saile, Jr., Esq. | Category: Blogs, New Jersey Injury Information, Pennsylvania Injury InformationA current NJ Bill is seeking to get Tasers into NJ police officers’ hands without first getting the NJ Attorney General’s approval. We have mentioned the risks of the Taser on this blog already.
Most states have already put the Taser into use. Pennsylvania police use the Taser.
Today, I was representing a client at a Preliminary Hearing in Pennsylvania for a PA DUI-DWI-DAI drunk driving charge. I was speaking to the police officers and they informed me that the Taser even has a laser sight pointer.
It seems that there will be no stopping the Taser until many people are fatally injured. I wonder what are the instructions give to police officers as to when they should or should not use the Taser?
The author of this Blog, Philadelphia car accident lawyer, Michael L. Saile, Jr., Esq. of Saile & Saile LLP, Attorneys-at-Law focuses his practice on fighting for plaintiffs’ personal injury and car accident victim’s rights in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey. We handle all serious injury cases including, car accidents (both limited and full tort), wrongful death, slip & fall downs, construction accidents, Septa, NJ Transit, and other cases other cases. We are located just outside of Philadelphia in lower Bucks County. We also handle Philadelphia plaintiffs’ personal injury and car accident cases. Please visit our personal injury only website at www.pa-nj-injurylawyer.com for more injury information.
A would like to see that all instructions for use given to the police in their training be made available by manual to the general public, so we all can read the exact slide presentation for its use.
Not only for the taser but for all police training.
From the use of firearms, to anyhting they were trained on.
This should be public information.
The manuals/ leaflet booklets, folders, pages of slide sh/w presentations, for any training recieved by police in a town should be made avaialable to the public for review in a town hall setting, where anyone can go, pick up a manual from a shelf, and read through it at a table for public review.
But back to the taser…
I am afraid that a lot of police will misuse the taser in fits of rage and anger, and maybe even just for the fun of hurting suspects.
If the training was open to public review, then we would know exactly what the training ewntailed and know if a taser was misused at any time of incident.
let me ask a question…
have you seen the movie meet the fockers?
in that movie a local town police officer tasers a guy at a traffic stop for arguing about a speeding ticket, then tasers a retired cia agent who showed the officer his badge.
i think we know in real life that no local police officer would taser an indentified cia agent , retired or not. no police officer is that stupid, are they?
however, my question is, was the representation of the officers use of the taser on the person he pulled over for speeding within protocols for use of the taser?
i guess i’d like to start there and have a cyes or no answer, then try to draw the line above or below that for proper use,… because this is my only visual reference for the tasers use.
then we can start to look at individual cases in the news and try to set a line in the sand.
then if somehow we can get a hold of the training police recieved, see how close we came to the real line.
And when the Police are called to your home and a situation arises when you would like for them to use the taser, I hope they take the same amount of time and read through their policy manual and consult their city solicitor and be sure that their actions will meet the satisfaction of everyone who wants to read and review the policy manual with a cup of coffee in the library… It’s assinine, it would be much easier for the police officer to refrain from taking any action and this is the type of response that is being created. If a police officer is going to misuse the taser, he is the same police officer that is prone to misuse mace, his gun, his nightstick etc… And there are also policies and procedures in place to deal with that. This is written by a police officer who takes pride in his profession and just loves when at 3 am I have to wrestle with drug crazed idiots while the town sleeps but in the morning, after everyone is showered and had their first cup of coffee, they find the time to judge what I found necessary to do to be able to go home to my family. Mark my word, there are already alot of police officers who are reluctant to use force because of the concern of the ridiculous lawsuits and so forth. I pray for those guys because statistically, they’re the ones who get hurt. Try supporting your police for a change. If there’s one or two that are consistently using excessive force, we don’t want them either and the system does a great job of weeding the bad ones out (moreso than any other profession).
Sean thank you for your insight.
I see two issues here. The first is whether police (in general) should be using the Taser, as opposed to other types of non-lethal force.
The second issue is whether the individual officer used the Taser improperly.
I beleive they are both important issues. Personally, I am more concerned about the innocent person getting killed by a Taser shock. If individuals want to engage in criminal behavior they obviosly run the risk of being shot by a bullet. But the innocent person getting Tasered is alarming.
Can you share with us the proper police protocal or instructions on whether or not a law enforcement officer should use the Taser as opposed to the bullet?
First off, I belive all police are bad people, evil people, and outlaws!
Nothing you say or do can make me change my mind.
Michael, obviously, each Department will have their own specific policies regarding the use of the Tasers. Some Departments issue them to a supervisor only and ca be ‘called for’ when needed. Most Departments that decide to implement the use of the Taser issue them to each Officer once that Officer is trained and certified with it. Interestingly, each Officer in all Agencies that I am aware of that uses the Taser has had to take a ‘hit’ from the Taser prior to being certified to use it.
My agency does not use the Taser. Agencies that I am aware of that do use it normally have a policy or protocol for its use. This is what we refer to as a force continuum. The lowest amount of force that an officer will use is a verbal command (ie “stop” , “show me your hands” etc) The next level of force can differ from agency to agency but can range from mace to “hands on” or the Taser. Mace has always been a hit or miss and can run the risk of disabling an Officer as well. I personally prefer to control someone physically over the use of a Taser (when possible) but I’ve been bitten twice. I’m sure my family would rather I use the taser…And we’ve seen in the past how a physical altercation looks when cameras are rolling… Also alot depends on the physical abilities and capabilities of the Officer. There is a wealth of information on the internet to be found by Googling ‘use of force continuum’ and ‘taser’. Like this article..
http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/cra/docs/CRA_TaserRecommendations.pdf
Hope this helps..
Taxpayers pay the police their salary, The taxpayers have a right to know what and how the police are trained on, including the use of force continum.
To suggest that this information be kept secret from the people paying the salaries is wrong.
Tasers kill! How do I know for sure, because my nephew died do to being hit with a taser from a police officer. My nephew had no weapons, had no shoes on his feet and his hands were handcuffed. He stupidly decided to run, he got approx. 15 feet away when the police officer came around front of him and discharged the taser and hit him in the chest. My nephew was 20 years old and not on any drugs nor was he drinking. The moment he was hit he went into cardiac arrest. Luckily there was someone there who immidiatly started CPR. The officer had no idea that my nephews heart had stopped. He spent 3 weeks in a coma and now suffers from heart damage. Can you still say honestly that tasers are safe. If that officer was not equipped with a taser, the law would have prevevted him from using his gun. He instead would have only had to tackle my nephew and restrain him. I hope that anyone who supports the use of tasers never has this happen to one of their loved ones, that would be a hard lesson to have to learn.