Oct 18, 2007 6:28 PM
We can supposedly sleep secure in our beds knowing that researchers at the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center declared Tasers to be safe and that they can be used without damage in law enforcement.
Tasers are powerful electrical weapons that are designed to incapacitate by conducting 50,000 volts of electricity into a suspect. Examining some 1,000 incidents of Taser use by law-enforcement agencies, the researchers found just three subjects requiring hospital stays. Of these, two had fallen and hit their heads after being shocked by a Taser.
Tasers made the news recently after police officers at the University of Florida used one on a boisterous student protesting the Iraq War at a public forum featuring John Kerry. Kerry, who did not object to the student’s comments, later said he agreed with the student.
Amnesty International has lobbied against the use of Tasers, which it says are dangerous and capable of causing death or serious injury.
Chronicle of Higher Education News Blog, Oct. 8