Word: tasers
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Still, critics argue that Tasers have been adopted too hastily by police. Taser International, the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based maker of the device, began offering the weapon to law enforcement agencies in 1998. Since then, more than 12,000 departments have adopted it. Yet critics say that more studies need to be done to determine the safety of the "less-than-lethal" device. Last month researchers at Wake Forest University released the first large, independent study of injuries associated with Tasers, finding that they are relatively harmless and pose minimal risk of injury. In a review of nearly 1,000 cases...
Questions about the device's safety linger at least partly because there are no official standards for its use. Because it isn't classified as a firearm by the Department of Justice's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Taser is exempt from federal firearms requirements and regulations. And while the Consumer Product Safety Commission has jurisdiction over the models sold to consumers, it has done no investigations of its safety...
...Taser used by police occupies a shifty place on what is known as the "use-of-force" spectrum, a guide that determines which weapon a police officer should use in any given situation. Yet these standards vary from city to city, and no universal code applies to the country's law enforcement force as a whole. "If a guy has a stick, you don't pull a shotgun out," says John Ryan, a former CIA agent and assistant director of the special investigations group of the Government Accountability Office, who oversaw a 2005 study on the use-of-force policies...
Rather than regulate the Taser's use, some government officials hope to replace the controversial device altogether. The Department of Homeland Security is funding the creation of a new non-lethal weapon called the LED Incapacitator, a flashlight-like device that uses high-intensity LEDs, pulsating at varying rates, to render a suspect temporarily blind and dizzy...
...however, the only organization that regulates or tracks the use of Tasers is the company that makes the device. With civilian models (Tasers were first sold to the public in 1993 out of Sharper Image catalogs), consumers must register their products with the company, says Steve Tuttle, vice president of communications for Taser International. Another feature, known as the "anti-felon identification," or AFID, system, enables the Taser to disperse confetti tagged with serial numbers when it is fired, linking a specific Taser to the scene where it is used. But these systems are available only on devices sold...