Increased Use of Force
Critics claim that risk-averse police officers resort to using Taser in situations in which they otherwise would have used more conventional, less violent alternatives, such as trying to reason with a cornered suspect.
Current British police guidelines allow Taser to be used pre-emptively, even where the suspect has no weapon. Where originally Tasers were only used when officers or the public were being threatened with a weapon, Tasers may and are being used without warning to surprise suspects before being arrested. On 9 April 2008 on BBC 1, the program “Traffic Cops” showed police surprising a pedestrian by shooting him with a Taser without warning, before arresting him on suspicion of theft. The suspect had no weapon and was talking with a bystander and posed no threat, when officers leapt out of a car and tasered him. The suspect was later found to be an innocent pedestrian. The police maintained that it is lawful to make use of the Taser before making an arrest, in case the suspect is not cooperative.
Read more about this topic: Taser Safety Issues
Famous quotes containing the words increased and/or force:
“As liberty and intelligence have increased the people have more and more revolted against the theological dogmas that contradict common sense and wound the tenderest sensibilities of the soul.”
—Catherine E. Beecher (1800–1878)
“It is the fixed that horrifies us, the fixed that assails us with the tremendous force of mindlessness. The fixed is a Mason jar, and we can’t beat it open. ...The fixed is a world without fire--dead flint, dead tinder, and nowhere a spark. It is motion without direction, force without power, the aimless procession of caterpillars round the rim of a vase, and I hate it because at any moment I myself might step to that charmed and glistening thread.”
—Annie Dillard (b. 1945)