21 June 04

From an LEO friend in the Midwest:

"At 4:20am on Monday morning a man attempted to sexually assault a woman in the woman's apartment. She ran out on the street. He followed and tackled her. A loud fight ensued, and a neighbor called police.

Our officer arrived minutes later. When verbal commands were ignored, she decided to use her Taser. Range was five feet, and both probes made contact. The suspect stiffened as expected, but then came at her, knocking her to the ground. The suspect then stole the officer's patrol vehicle and attempted to escape in it, but was cut off by another officer. The stolen police car ran into a tree.

A third officer arrived and approached the crashed vehicle. The suspect came flying out and struck that officer with his hands and fists, knocking her to the ground and attempting to disarm her. She elected to shoot and fired three or four rounds (G19). The suspect was hit in both thighs, a wrist, and the abdomen. The shot that struck the wrist may have been the same one that struck the abdomen. Upon being struck, the suspect jumped backwards and ran a short distance before collapsing. He is currently in "fair" condition.

Our PD has had Tasers for less than a year. In that time, we've fired it in the field twenty-one times. Three times at least one barb missed, and once the barbs didn't stick. The other eighteen times, the Taser worked as advertised, and the officer who use it in the foregoing incident had successfully used it before and had great confidence in it."

Lesson: I recommend the Taser, as I believe it to be a useful piece of police equipment, but the hype surrounding it would have us all believe that it is infallible. Like all equipment, it has weaknesses, and, even when deployed according to instructions, sometimes fails to produce the results we want and expect. We have to be careful not to become a victim of our own prejudice and always be prepared to escalate instantly and vehemently when required.

Reality always trumps expectation! Gawking is disbelief customarily ends in a fatality.

/John