QUICK FACTS: TASERS

The Ombudsman, Bruce Barbour has released his report into how Tasers are used by police in NSW and the picture isn’t pretty.

He reviewed 556 incidents between June 2010 and November 2010, and found the Taser was used inappropriately on 80 occasions. On 27 of those occasions, the police were not under threat and shouldn’t have used the Taser at all. Indeed, people were tasered when they were fleeing from police or handcuffed.

About a third of the people  had been suffering or had suffered from mental illness and more than half had been affected by alcohol or drugs at the time.

In three-quarters of cases, the people were not carrying a weapon.

The report said that public concern about Tasers and their inappropriate use was justified, although the Police Commissioner, Andrew Scipione, defended police use of Tasers, saying it was appropriate in most cases.

The report comes as the NSW Coroner, Marry Jerram winds up her examination of the death of Roberto Laudisio Curti, a 21 year old Brazilian man who died in March after 11 police, who were trying to arrest him, tasered him 14 times.

Curti was, at the time, under the influence of a small amount of LSD and in a psychotic state; he had stolen a few packets of biscuits from a convenience store when the police were called.

Among the issues examined in this inquiry was the use of Tasers in “drive stun” mode – when the Taser is used directly on the skin.

Coroner Mary Jerram will hand down her findings on November 14^th but she’s been told by medical experts giving evidence to the inquiry that there is no way of proving that the use of the Taser killed the young student.

The great benefit of the inquiry though has been to shed some light on the way in which police are now using Tasers, in New South Wales at least. In fact, counsel assisting the Coroner, Jeremy Gormly SC said: “To Taser somebody who is on the ground, who was surrounded by other officers … was a thuggish act”.

Peter Hamill SC, who represented Curti’s family, said he wanted the young man’s death recorded as “misadventure with precise medical cause unknown at the hands of members of the NSW Police Force”.

The NSW Police are reviewing the current rules which guide the way police use Tasers. And changes to operating procedures are a distinct possibility.

Change is sorely needed.

Although Tasers are rarely listed as a cause of death, there have been several Taser “related” deaths in Australia.

So, what are stun guns, who makes them and what does the rest of the world think about them?

• Taser International is the sole manufacturer of the Taser. The company has grown into a global and highly profitable concern by selling its many varieties of Taser stun guns to police agencies around the world. They are standard issue to most police forces in Australia.
• Tasers are categorized as a less than lethal weapon and deliver a 50,000 volt electrical current to cause neuromuscular incapacitation.
•  A person who receives this electroshock will experience involuntary muscle contractions because their sensory and motor nerves have been stimulated. They are meant to be used to subdue suspects who are fleeing or who are belligerent and are said to be more effective at incapacitating than capsicum spray.
• Exact numbers are hard to come by but it is estimated that there are around 600,000 Tasers in use by 16,300 law enforcement agencies in 107 countries.
• It’s big business. In 2001, the weapons accounted for more than three quarters of this multi national company’s revenue. A new ‘trade-in’ policy allowing police agencies to upgrade the weapon is said to account for a 120% increase in revenue in the last quarter alone.
• In response to the number of controversial incidents, worldwide, the company now also manufactures a video surveillance system that records how police use the Taser.
• In Australia, Tasers can be used in ‘drive stun’ mode, where the weapon is pressed directly on to the skin to cause pain rather than electric shock. This delivers what is known as ‘pain compliance’.
• Taser International says the weapon has saved 75,000 lives and according to a 2009 Police Executive Research Forum study in the US, injuries to police officers drops by 76% when a Taser is used for protection.