POLICE TASER STUDY ZAPS CLAIM THAT DEVICES CAN BE DEADLY

No Links Found Between Weapons, String Of Deaths

The Taser weapon will likely become as standard a piece of police equipment
as handcuffs and a firearm after a national study by the Canadian Police
Research centre found nothing to link police usage of the controversial
device with a string of deaths in recent years.

The results of the year-long study on the use of conducted energy devices
- -- more commonly referred to as Tasers --was announced yesterday at the
start of the three-day conference of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of
Police. The conference runs through tomorrow.

"The term safe is a misnomer," Steve Palmer, executive director of the
research centre, said yesterday in releasing the results of the study.

"It's not non-lethal ... it's of a lower lethality. And there is no
scientific evidence to show a link between a Taser and death."

The research centre study was commissioned last August after a number of
deaths were attributed to the use of Tasers by police. The goal was to gain
a national perspective on the safety and use of the device. The result was
an endorsement of Tasers for use by police.

"Where there have been deaths, a better question may be how many people
would have died if not for conducted energy devices," Cape Breton police
Chief Edgar Macleod, president of the police chiefs' association, said
yesterday.

"It is important that we employ new technology and new techniques and
(CEDs) are an option," he said.

"Police officers are out day and night in their communities and we need as
many options as possible. What we want is something which is least invasive
and something which does the least amount of harm while achieving the
desired result. The findings of this report are extremely important."

The judgment will certainly please Arizona-based Taser

International Inc., which markets its weapons as alternatives to deadly
force. The company, which says its goal is to arm every police officer in
the United States with a Taser, is a sponsor of and exhibitor at the police
chiefs' conference.

The company claims Tasers have saved more than 4,000 lives since 1999 and
represent a significant upgrade from its predecessor, the stun gun. In
1999, Taser introduced a model dubbed its Advanced M26, that is capable of
instantly incapacitating a person with a 50,000-volt charge that overrides
the central nervous system, induces muscle contraction and is virtually
impossible to shrug off.

Ottawa police have already announced plans to make the Taser more available
to front-line officers, equipping every supervisor with the device.

The research centre focused on three areas: medical safety, policy
considerations over the use of CEDs and an analysis of a medical condition
known as excited delirium, which is caused by either a level of psychosis
or a severe dug-induced high.

The researchers cited a situation in which a combative male becomes so out
of control that he seemingly becomes impervious to pain and exhibits almost
superhuman strength far beyond his normal physical capabilities. In such a
situation, police have to pick between a firearm and a Taser.

Previous studies have shown that the risk of cardiac harm from using a
Taser is minimal, but researchers also found that police need to be aware
that someone subjected to repeated use of Taser can be hurt. That alone
requires police to develop policies and procedures explicitly specifying
the kinds of situations in which a Taser can be used, the researchers said.

The researchers also urged more study of excited delirium, as well as the
need to study those deaths that occur when someone is being restrained or
while in custody.

"We must answer why people die proximate to police restraint just as much
as why some people do not die proximate to police restraint," said Dr.
Christine Hall, an emergency room physician in Calgary who prepared the report.

In the early 1980s, the Los Angeles Police Department became one of the
first police services to use the Taser as a method of restraining combative
individuals.

"The Taser has undoubtedly saved the lives of a number of people we would
have had to shoot," said deputy chief Michael Berkow, who spoke at CACP
conference. "When faced with the choice of use of a firearm or a Taser, the
use of the Taser has saved people.

"A lot of police work is ugly. But in the middle of the night, faced with
battling a combative person, an officer does not have a lot of options.
Given the option to use a Taser, it's likely the best resort."

According to the police researchers, between September 1999 and March 2004,
there has been 44 cases in the United States and Canada of death following
a police Taser strike.