Spokane7
61°
October 21, 2009 in Nation/World, City
Taser issues advisory on use of stun guns
Local police have used them for years, including in cases where people died
Stun gun maker Taser International is advising police agencies across the nation to avoid aiming the devices at a suspect’s chest. The Arizona-based company says such action poses an “extremely low” risk of an “adverse cardiac event.”
The advisory, issued in an Oct. 12 training bulletin, marks the first time that Taser has suggested any risk of ill effects on the heart from the use of its 50,000-volt stun guns.
Critics of police use of Tasers on suspects called the bulletin a surprising reversal for the company.
Company officials said Wednesday that the bulletin does not state that Tasers can cause cardiac arrest and that the advisory means only that law-enforcement agencies can avoid controversy if their officers aim at areas other than the chest.
Local authorities have used Tasers for years, including in situations in which the suspect later died.
In one of the most controversial cases, Otto Zehm was shocked three times by Spokane police officers who confronted him after receiving a call about unusual activity at an ATM. Zehm was shocked at least twice in his chest during the 2006 incident, according to court documents. He was also struck with a baton and restrained in a manner police referred to in the incident report as being hogtied. His heart stopped at the scene, and he died two days later.
Officer Karl Thompson, the first officer on the scene, faces federal felony charges in the incident, and the city faces a civil lawsuit over alleged violations of Zehm’s civil rights.
In a separate case, Spokane County recently settled a lawsuit for $137,000 involving a deputy’s use of a Taser on Spirit Creager during a 2004 traffic stop. Creager was jolted twice by barbs stuck in his back.
After the Creager settlement was announced earlier this month, Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said Taser training is regularly upgraded and use of the stun guns has been greatly reduced in the past six months.
Spokane County sheriff’s deputies will receive copies of the most recent bulletin from Taser, and the recommendations will be part of annual training that all officers will undergo at the beginning of 2010, said Deputy Eric Johnson, the department’s master Taser instructor.
He said the advisory from Taser suggests that aiming for the abdomen below the navel, so that one probe goes above the belt and one below, is the most effective use of the device.
It also says damage could come from the projectile hitting the sternum rather than the electric shock, if a projectile hits the chest.
“It doesn’t say ‘never.’ It recognizes it’s more efficient above and below the belt,” said Johnson, who added training has changed greatly since he began as an instructor in 2002.
Obama honors Medal of Freedom recipients as heroes 
misjustice on October 21 at 10:16 a.m.
“Excited Delirium” is a term used by the company to account for the deaths of citizens at the hands of their product; it blames the person being shocked to death for their own death, and is an attempt to exempt both the police departments using the device and the company making it. “Excited Delirium” is brilliant, in marketing terms, and a total fabrication, conceived by the company marketing the product. There is no such medical condition as “Excited Delirium.”
SniperCraig on October 21 at 10:29 a.m.
“She said ‘no, but using it more than two or three times is concerning.’”
Spoken in a ‘Rocky Squirrel’ voice, ‘But that NEVER happens!’
lordstorm on October 21 at 10:37 a.m.
Talk about little too late..
spokanada on October 21 at 10:39 a.m.
How many shocks does the instruction booklet recommend for people armed with a pop bottle?
madscientist on October 21 at 11:05 a.m.
Don’t carry weapons or resist arrest and you won’t get tasered.
maria on October 21 at 11:12 a.m.
I’ve never heard of police hog tying people. Is this NW thing?
spokanada on October 21 at 11:24 a.m.
madscientist, in that case why not shoot the suspect? IT would be less painful.
madscientist on October 21 at 12:33 p.m.
Spokanada, I don’t understand your comment. All I said was dont resist or carry weapons and the police will have no reason to taser you.
junior1976 on October 21 at 12:50 p.m.
People seem to fail to realize that the police department works for us. They are not the gustapo. If being tazed to your “excited dilerium” death for being armed with a pop bottle and mistaken identity is justifyable, we are in far graver danger and circumstances than I thought. And if citizens defend this action as the fault of the wrongfully accused, I have got to get out of here.
spokanada on October 21 at 12:52 p.m.
First of all, what did otto do to deserve being tasered? By weapon, do you mean pop bottle?
I am saying it would be less painful to die being shot then being tasered. Both guns and tasers are lethal weapons.
madscientist on October 21 at 12:59 p.m.
Have you ever been shot? or tasered?
junior1976 on October 21 at 1:02 p.m.
Apparantly one must walk with their head down and hands displayed out in front of them so as to assure the police that you are neither armed nor resisting in order to defend or rights of free speech and right to bare arms. What a paradox. Are we supposed to be afraid of the people WE pay to keep us safe? What an oxy-MORON.
SpokaneJim on October 21 at 1:45 p.m.
Let’s just get rid of the tasers and start shooting people again. It seems obvious that most want to get rid of the things, or for the police to simply stop using them because people can get hurt, so fine. Dump the things, save some money, but buy a bit more pistol ammunition. Should help decrease the jail population, too. Win win.
misjustice on October 21 at 3:11 p.m.
Yeah, MadScientist; and don’t try running for your life from an armed, drunk, off duty, officer either, and if you get shot in the head from the back by their service revolver then you must have asked for it.
Seems like citizens are fair game for SPD…whether we are breaking the law or not…
spokaneguy09 on October 21 at 4:18 p.m.
Seems like the tasers are the polices new toys and we get to be the test subjects.
Rifleman__Dodd on October 21 at 8:47 p.m.
and what about that cow that the taser happy Sheriffs toasted with a couple hundred jolts. I said RARE, not well done.
Any time a copper tasers anyone, the device should send a jolt equal to what they are giving Back to the holder of the device.
Liberty_Bell on January 14 at 5:16 p.m.
Love that Washington Sheriff’s and Police Chief experts, shown best in the United States District Court. The Ku Klux Act of 1871, law for reform of the Democratic Party!
Also on Jan. 30, a federal jury ruled in favor of Brian Wiederspohn in his lawsuit against the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office and awarded him $500,000.
Wiederspohn sued the Sheriff’s Office in 2007 for false arrest and other allegations stemming from an incident in December 2004 when deputies Jeremy Freeman and Trevor VanderVeen arrested him on suspicion of third-degree assault and Tasered him in the process.
The jury ruled that they did not have probable cause to arrest Wiederspohn and disregarded his constitutional rights.
In most Countys the Sheriff can’t even read an arrest warrant, a requirement of the Washington Association of Sheriff’s and Chief’s a Bill Elfo Speciality!
D Statler on March 23 at 8:02 p.m.
Remember when officer Damon and his buddy Tasered the cow to death.I wonder if Taser International sent out any warnings on where to taser a cow. LOL By the way, officer Damon was recently promoted to DETECTIVE! Chief Kirkpatric offered a possible detective position to a drunken officer too. You obviously have to be a screw up to be a detective.They say that when you hold your farts in.This gas travels up your spine to your brain.This in turn causes you make “stinky” decissions. Our Sheriffs and SPD need to just relax and cut em loose! LOL