Meet the New Shock Jocks:

The Taser has made a stunning impact but how safe is it? 

DAVID TEATHER / Guardian Weekly (UK) 19aug2005

[More on Tasers]

NEW YORK — Tom Smith, the president and co-founder of Taser, was woken at his Arizona home at 1am by a phone call from Britain last month. The first of the alleged would-be London suicide bombers had been apprehended in Birmingham by police using one of the firm's weapons, a handgun that delivers a debilitating electrical charge. The incident was thrown into sharp relief by the lethal force that had earlier been used on an innocent Brazilian. At last there was some positive publicity for Taser after months of negative headlines, particularly in the US, about the safety and alleged misuse of the devices.

"I couldn't get back to sleep for a couple of hours," Smith said. "We were really proud of that. We had employees crying." The jubilation didn't last long. Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan police chief, questioned whether using the Taser had been a good idea. If a suspect were wired with explosives, the electrical charge could set them off, he said. Smith isn't so sure: "The reality is when you are dealing with explosives it's risky no matter what you do." Taser claims that in tests on commercially made explosives the weapon did not trigger an explosion. But Smith concedes that further studies are needed on home-made bombs.

The Taser looks like a pistol. It fires two darts attached by wires to the gun over a distance of up to 11m. Multiple 50,000-volt shocks can be delivered by pulling the trigger. Smith, who says he has been shot with the gun many times, likens it to being hit on the funny bone, but the feeling extends throughout your whole body and is 20 times more intense.

He founded the company in 1993 with his brother Rick, like him a biology graduate with an MBA, after two childhood friends were killed in a road-rage incident. They wanted to develop a device that people could use to defend themselves against attackers. They approached Jack Cover, an inventor in his 70s. He had built a device called a Taser but it had not been widely used.

They refined the device and began selling it to the American public — 98% of firearms in the US are sold to civilians — but struggled until 2000, when the Sacramento police department placed an order for a new model. "We would go in and shoot officer after officer, and these guys had fought through pepper spray, fought through baton strikes, but when we hit them with this we were knocking them on their butts," Smith says.

Today the weapon is used in 43 countries, including almost 8,000 police forces in the US, where 150,000 officers carry it. They are also being used by the military in Iraq and Afghanistan. Tasers were authorised last year for use in Britain by special weapons units after a 12-month trial by five forces. About 100,000 have been sold to US consumers, the company says.

The guns appeared to be a resounding success. In Miami in 2003 there were no police shootings, fatal or otherwise, for the first time in 14 years; in Seattle no one was shot and killed by police in 2003 for the first time in more than 15 years. The company quickly became a stock market darling. Its share price rose 100-fold in two years and the Smith brothers became multimillionaires.

But Taser's fortunes soured just as quickly this year as human rights groups, scientists and politicians began questioning the weapons' safety and use. Police in Chicago, where 200 of the guns are already deployed, delayed plans to distribute a further 100 in February after a

14-year-old boy suffered cardiac arrest and a 54-year-old man died. Both were unarmed.

The backlash has been rapid. In about 20 American states there have been attempts at introducing laws and restrictions on the weapon, which is unregulated at the federal level. Proposals range from outright bans to background checks on users, something that Taser already does when it sells to consumers.

Sales have plummeted. In the first quarter Taser revenue fell to $10m, compared with $19m in the last three months of 2004. The securities and exchange commission, the US financial watchdog, has launched an investigation into its safety claims. Shares, which peaked at more than $30, are trading at little more than $9.

Amnesty International, the human rights group, says more than 130 people have died after being hit with the guns, and that in 17 cases medical examiners said the shock could have been a contributing factor.

"We are not opposed to police using a less lethal form of firearm," says an Amnesty spokesman, Steve Ballinger. "What we want is rigorous, independent medical trials on the effectiveness and safety of the weapons by people who have no financial or political interest in their being deployed. We are simply saying let's test this and make sure it's not lethal."

Amnesty is also worried about the potential for misuse by over zealous police officers. Tasers were used on a six-year-old boy in Miami, an eight-month pregnant woman and a 13-year-old girl in Arizona who threw a book in a public library.

The weapons leave no obvious marks, which Amnesty says adds to the potential for abuse. "We are worried that it is the start of a slippery slope when Tasers become standard for policing," Ballinger says. "At the touch of a button it causes intolerable pain and it is being used against unruly schoolchildren, old ladies and people already handcuffed."

Taser says many of those who have died had taken lethal doses of drugs. Smith accuses Amnesty of doing little more than ripping torrid headlines from newspapers. "All they do is clip newspapers and compile a body count. The frustrating thing is that I thought I would have Amnesty right behind me because of the number of lives saved and injuries reduced," he says. "It far outweighs the risks.

"The question is, if you have to use force and you don't want to use the Taser, then what? You hit them with a baton? You want to shoot them? I can't tell you Tasers are 100% safe. Nothing in this world is risk-free. These are being used in confrontational situations. Amnesty throws out the 130 figure, but in most of those cases we have been cleared medically. Let's talk about the 15 or 20 cases where there is scientific debate — we're not saying there isn't. But that also has to be taken in context. We have 20,000 people die of drug overdoses every year here in the US. How many people die of firearms? How many people die because Taser isn't there? Let's work together to get good policies, good training and good procedures for the use of this life-saving technology.

"I am not saying we don't need to do additional testing. But let's be 'real world' instead of contributing to the hype . . . This is the safest use of force compared to other options available today. Not risk-free."

The six-year-old was cutting himself and was about to shove a shard of glass into his eye, Smith says. "The 13-year-old was beating the crap out of a cop. She weighed 250lbs [113kg]. This was not your typical frail 13-year-old."

Independent studies by the department of defence and the University of California have played down risks but called for further study. In the UK the Police Scientific Development Branch assessed the weapon before clearing it for use. The Police Federation in Britain backs the deployment of the Taser to every bobby on the beat. At a recent conference a show of hands suggested that about 80% of the rank and file was in favour. In May the Association of Chief Police Officers said it had put the Home Office "on notice" that it wanted more officers trained to fire Tasers.

Smith remains confident that the bad publicity will blow over. The company hopes to develop a Star Trek-style phaser that would not use wires and could stun people over a greater distance. It is also working with General Dynamics to develop non-lethal landmines. "We have revolutionised law enforcement for ever and we are here to stay," Smith says.

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianweekly/story/0,12674,1550690,00.html 21aug2005