Tasers really are safe

Well, for those of you who did not read the news article on the front page of the site, it seems like there is fairly conclusive proof that Tasers are safe. The NIJ funded a study of 1000 deployments in several departments and found only 3 injuries that required hospitalization. Two of those were head injuries from falling after the Taser was used. One was a person who went to the hospital two days after the Taser and the medical problem could not be shown to be related to the Taser. One death that the autopsy says was not related to the Taser. Story was also published in peer reviewed medical journals.

I am willing to bet there will still be some people who think Tasers kill. They will claim the study had a problem in the methodology or something. They will claim that the death might have been related and the ME bought into the phantom disease known as excited delirium.

But to me, the only thing I see unanswered in this survey has nothing to do with the injury rate. I am still concerned with the overuse of the Taser by poorly trained officers who do not know how to use force properly. And that is not the fault of the Taser.

Story at: 

http://www.policemag.com/News/2007/10/10/Nationwide-Independent-Taser-Study-Results-Suggest-Devices-are-Safe.aspx