Overview of Tasers

Since June 2001, more than 351 individuals in the United States have died after being shocked by police Tasers. Safety research to date has not answered the question of what role Taser shocks may be playing in these deaths. Amnesty International is concerned that these potentially dangerous weapons are being used as tools of routine force -- rather than as an alternative to firearms.

Tasers too often interfere with a basic equation of policing: that force must be proportional to the threat. Because Tasers are often seen as completely safe and non-lethal, they are often used as a weapon of first rather than last resort. They have become less an alternative to deadly force than an alternative to less-intensive policing techniques. In the more than 351 cases Amnesty International has tracked where individuals died after being shocked, in only a small fraction --about 10 percent -- of the incidents was the individual carrying any kind of weapon.

Approximately 12,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States use Tasers, with a variety of policies on their use. Some departments allow the weapons to be used in cases of “passive resistance”, including when the individual is refusing to obey a verbal command. These policies allow for the weapons to be used in situations where, in many cases, no weapon would otherwise have been used.

In Houston, for example, department policy has allowed for Tasers to be used when an officer feels he or she is going to be physically threatened -- but without an imminent danger. Houston officers have shocked more than 1400 individuals since 2004. Hundreds of those individuals were not charged with a crime. An audit found that police shootings of suspects had not decreased after the introduction of Tasers in the city -- which had been one of the primary stated goals of using the weapons.

Amnesty International has found that in most of the cases where individuals died after being shocked, they had been subjected to multiple and/or prolonged shocks (the standard shock with the most common model of the weapon is 5 seconds). The National Institute of Justice (NIJ), part of the U.S. Department of Justice, has similarly noted in its interim report on Tasers (June 2008) that many of the deaths are associated with prolonged or repeated discharges; it found research in this area to be limited, and called on law enforcement officers to exercise caution in using multiple activations.

Medical studies so far on the effects of Tasers have either been limited in scope or unduly influenced by the weapons' primary manufacturer, Taser International, Inc. No study has adequately examined the impact of Tasers on potentially at-risk individuals -- people who have medical conditions, take prescription medications, are mentally ill or are under the influence of narcotics. An oft-cited report by researchers at Wake Forest University does not examine the cases of deaths following Taser shocks, or the possible role of these risk factors. Rigorous, independent, impartial study of their use and effects is urgently needed.

Given the unresolved safety concerns, Amnesty International recommends that police departments either suspend the use of Tasers pending further safety research or limit their use to situations where officers would otherwise be justified in resorting to firearms. For departments that continue to use the weapons, they should establish policies mandating that:

*Tasers should be used only in situations where the alternative would be use of deadly force, such as armed stand-offs, instances in which a police officer faces a life-threatening attack or injury, or threat of attack with a deadly weapon, or where the target presents an immediate threat of death or serious injury to him/herself or others.

* Unarmed suspects should not be shot with a Taser for arguing or talking back, being discourteous, refusing to obey an order, resisting arrest or fleeing a minor crime scene, unless they pose an immediate threat of death or serious injury that cannot be controlled through less extreme measures.

* Tasers should not be used on the following groups, except as a last resort to avoid deadly force when no alternatives are available: pregnant women; the elderly; children; emotionally disturbed persons or people who are mentally or physically disabled; people in vulnerable positions where there is a risk of serious secondary injury (e.g. in dangerously elevated positions, or near flammable substances); people under the influence of drugs.

* The application of prolonged shocks beyond the five-second discharge cycle should be prohibited. Repeated shocks (activating additional cycles after a pause) should be avoided unless absolutely necessary to avoid serious injury or death.

Please consult Amnesty International’s full list of recommendations to law enforcement agencies on Tasers Amnesty International’s Recommendations to Law Enforcement Agencies on Tasers.