NSW: Government, police investigation dent taser death link

AAP General News (Australia)
12-26-2007
NSW: Government, police investigation dent taser death link

By Adam Bennett

SYDNEY, Dec 26 AAP - The NSW government and police association have reiterated their
support for taser guns in the face of an independent investigation into the electric shock
weapons.

The NSW Ombudsman has reportedly launched a inquiry into the safety of tasers following
a number of overseas deaths believed to be linked to the stun guns.

Taser guns briefly incapacitate offenders with a 50,000 volt electrical pulse, administered
over five seconds.

There are 50 of the stun guns used by NSW police, across specialist units the Public
Order and Riot Squad, the Tactical Operations Unit, and State Protection Support Unit.

The force has used them for the past year, with no fatalities recorded.

However, Amnesty International has linked the gun to 150 deaths in the past six years,
including a number in the United States.

NSW police minister David Campbell said he had full confidence in tasers.

"Police have limited tasers on issue," Mr Campbell told ABC radio.

"They use them in serious, high-risk circumstances, and they use them in accordance
with their standard operating procedures to date."

The Police Association called for the guns to be made more widely available as a non-lethal
option for controlling violent situations.

Association vice-president Scott Weber, who has himself been tasered, and described
the experience "unpleasant", said they are safer than firearms in violent situations where
offenders are armed.

"When you taser someone they are going to get up after five minutes," Mr Weber said.

"When I got tasered it was five minutes of pain, and then I got straight back up, I
had all my facilities, I was walking and talking.

"It only incapacitated me for about five seconds.

"I'd much rather be tasered than receive a bullet from a gun."

Mr Weber said there had been" no direct causal link from a taser to death," and procedures
of overseas police needed to be considered when reviewing a potential link.

"We would be using the tasers in high risk situations, where there has been sieges,
or we turn up to a domestic situation that is obviously quite heated, and there may be
alcohol involved, and all of a sudden he reaches for the kitchen knife. "Instead of
pulling out our firearm we'd use our taser and zap him instead of firing a bullet."

Mr Weber said the Association would continue lobbying for the distribution of tasers
amongst general duties police.

Their use by all operational police in Western Australia has been a success, with assaults
on police down by about 40 per cent and no fatalities recorded, he said.

"What we're looking for in the new year is to have that tactical option available to
front line police officers, because they are the ones who go to the initial sieges, that
go to the violent situations," Mr Weber said.

"If you have another piece of equipment you can use to diffuse a situation in a non-lethal
way, then we are all for it."

AAP ab/ajc/jfm

KEYWORD: TASERS

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