TASER Factsheet

1) TASERS KILL: Despite manufacturer's label of "non-lethal," tasers have been involved in 250+ deaths*.

2) TASERS INCREASE, not decrease, DANGER TO PUBLIC: Despite police claims that tasers reduce injuries and save lives by providing officers with an alternative to using their firearms or batons, independent studies conclude that tasers are mostly used in situations where police use of lethal force - or even batons, sprays, or hand controls - would never be justified. This means that tasers actually increase the amount of danger to the public, not decrease it. Electro-shock weapons are particularly open to abuse as they have no time/current output limits and are seemingly harmless and officers can inflict severe pain at the push of a button without leaving substantial marks. Police often subject targets to multiple taser shocks, even while in restraints and often use them against people posing no physical threat, such as against non-violent protesters or simply anyone they perceive to not be heeding a verbal command. Many localized studies have shown that suspect deaths by gun, or suspect and police injuries have not decreased, despite introduction of the weapon.

3) EVEN POLICE ARE SUING TASER: Taser International is being sued by police officers across the nation claiming they were seriously injured after being shocked with the electronic stun gun during training classes. Injuries listed included "painful, permanent and progressive" hearing and vision loss and neurological damage, multiple spinal fractures, burns, a shoulder dislocation and soft-tissue injuries. Many lawsuits, including a few class action suits, have been filed from victims and victim's families for wrongful tasering or death, although Taser, Int. has managed to get many thrown out via legal loopholes.

4) ORGS CALL FOR BAN: civil-rights organizations including Amnesty International and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and civil liberty groups including the ACLU of Texas call for moratoriums on their use until independent hard evidence is shown that they are safe, and liken the weapon to a tool of torture. Other community groups and organizations such as various ACLU affiliates promote policy restrictions through local or state legislation. Some cities/localities are curbing or restricting use on their own such as Chicago (they self-imposed limitations to 300 on the streets compared to Houston's 3,700) and some have refused to purchase them altogether for fear of liability and worsening already-negative community relations.

5) MEDICALLY AND SCIENTIFICALLY UNSOUND: There continues to be a lack of rigorous, independent testing of their medical effects, by design. A true independent inquiry must be carried out by acknowledged medical, scientific, legal and law enforcement experts who are independent of commercial and political interests in promoting such equipment. Some 'independent' studies that exonerate the weapon have direct ties to Taser, Int.. The corruption is prevalent enough for even the US Department of Justice to have launched a 2-year comprehensive study. Taser, Int. has avoided themselves and spent a lot of money preventing others conducting studies on the long-term health effects and on the populations that receive the majority of taser abuse (men of color). At the crux of this debate is the weapon sends 50,000 volts directly to the brain/central nervous system via the darts/needle delivery method vs. on the skin/across the grounded body (such as with electroshock "therapy" or electrician accidents) and there is next-to-no information available about such effects.

6) CORRUPTION: Taser, Int. stays afloat despite the dead bodies and broad criticism primarily due to taking advantage of many layers of systematic corruption in play long before Tasers. Overly strong local law enforcement associations undermining the community's ability to "police the police" have led to many conflicts of interest such as with county medical examiners who wrongfully rule deaths of persons in police custody to avoid implicating police. Many rule deaths as solely attributed to secondary factors such as drugs and even going so far to specifically exclude the taser as a possible contributing factor (30+ have, however, implicated the taser, ruling the death as a "homocide"). The new non-medically-recognized catch term, "excited delirium," is being logged as cause of death in many cases (taser and otherwise), suggesting a breach of professionalism as never before. In the courts, which rarely holds law enforcement accountable, Taser, Int. is breaking unethical ground by filing suits against those who have critical journalistic reviews or medical studies in the works. The new "TaserCam" (at $1,000/pop)-small, fitted videocameras to record each tasering-- is Taser, Int.'s newest ploy to distract the public from focusing on their corrupt practices.

*Amnesty International