Reports state that over the 4th of July weekend, celebrity Andrew Keegan was tasered by officers. News of police tasering has been quite frequent over the past few years, with the most highly publicized incident being the death of Oscar Grant, where Grant’s death supposedly resulted from a cop reaching for his taser, and accidentally grabbing his gun and killing Grant.
Officers usually use tasers on people who pose some sort of threat or harm to society, and are resilient to a police officer’s orders. Tasers provide an electric shock to a person, causing one to lose control of his or her ability to control their nerve impulses. Unfortunately, taser abuse has become very common. Many accidents have been reported where police have used tasers, despite there not being a deadly threat. In other words, police have often misused their authority by using tasers in situations where it was not necessary.
Since taser laws are new to most states, most often police are reprimanded for negligence. However, alongside being aware of taser laws, people need to understand the standard for evaluating police conduct. Generally, the standard used to determine whether or not police officers are justified in using tasers is whether or not taser use was reasonable in the situation. It is reasonable to use tasers when a person poses some sort of deathly threat to the officers, surrounding people, or society. People therefore have a right to evaluate the situation and determine whether or not it was justified for the police to use tasers.
This lack in peoples’ understanding when tasers can be used, and what their rights are, have led to the increased amount of taser abuse over the years. Perhaps then, the discussion regarding taser laws should focus on whether or not police should be given tasers in the first place. After all, police do have guns that they may use if posed with some deathly threat. The use of guns and tasers has the same standard of being used when facing some deathly threat. With this in mind, do police then really need guns and tasers?
If tasers are an absolute for police officers to have, then some sort of procedural safeguard needs to be placed. First of all, new police officers should not be given tasers right away. After evaluating an officer’s conduct over about a year or so, tasers should then be given to them. This way tasers become a protection weapon that officers need to earn via responsible conduct.
Alongside this requirement should be monthly workshops. At these workshops, officers should be educated and reminded about using tasers responsibly, taser abuse laws, etc. Such workshops will then serve as reminders for officers to be responsible when using tasers. Furthermore, officers will become aware that abusing their tasers will result in severe consequences.
Such procedural safeguards are very important. Not only will they ensure that officers use tasers responsibly, but also will restore society’s faith in the police force. With all the negative publicity police tasering has received, many people have lost trust in the police’s ability to act responsibility and protect people. Implementing such safeguards and procedural practices will kill two birds with one stone. Police will frequently be reminded of the importance in using tasers responsibly, and society’s confidence in their police officers will be restored.