Heart fears as Taser police told: Don't aim for chest

Published on Thursday 22 October 2009 22:15

TASER stun guns should not be fired into suspects' chests, the makers of the controversial devices have said.

Manufacturer Taser International, which supplies the weapons used by police forces in Scotland, has started telling officers to avoid firing Tasers in the chest area, saying there was an "extremely low" risk of ill-effects on the heart.

They also said that doing so could cause problems if forces have to defend legal action.

Use of the devices in the UK has proved controversial, with campaigners warning about the health risks linked to Tasers.

Amnesty International said more than 350 people in the United States – where use is common – had died after they were shocked with Tasers. In 50 of those cases, they said medical examiners cited a link between Taser shocks and death.

In Scotland, Taser use has been limited. In Strathclyde, the weapons were used only three times in 2008-9 and most other forces did not discharge the devices at all while having them at their disposal.

Taser International, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, made the new recommendations in its revised training manual for the devices.

They said the change "has less to do with safety, more with effective risk-management".

The manual includes a lengthy explanation on deaths from sudden cardiac arrest.

"Should sudden cardiac arrest occur in a scenario involving a Taser discharge to the chest area, it would place the law-enforcement agency, the officer and Taser International in the difficult situation of trying to ascertain what role, if any, (the device] could have played," according to the manual.

The manual includes a graphic displaying the human body and "preferred target areas."

The company recommends firing Tasers anywhere except at the head, neck and chest.

The manual says to avoid chest shots "when possible" and "unless legally justified".

Taser officials said the new recommendation was designed only to "avoid any potential controversy on this topic."

"There is no significant shift," Taser spokesman Steve Tuttle said. "Just a slight change by literally a few inches when intentionally targeting the preferred target zone … medical and field studies continue to demonstrate that the Taser carries a lower risk than traditional force options, leading to lower officer injury rates and safer communities."

Oliver Sprague, Amnesty International's UK arms programme director, said: "As Taser themselves have pointed out, a Taser is not risk-free. This is why Amnesty insists caution must be applied when police officers are using them."

A spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (Acpos) said: "At present, Taser is an option available only to authorised firearms officers throughout Scotland deployed to firearms incidents where criteria for issue are met. Its use must be justifiable and necessary.

"Ordinarily, Taser should be aimed to strike the body-mass below the neck.

"Because of specific risks, Taser should not be aimed so as to strike the head or neck of a subject unless this is wholly unavoidable."

He added: "Acpos recognises the value of Taser as a useful tool to resolve potentially violent situations swiftly and effectively and make our communities safer places."

CONTROVERSY

ALTHOUGH the Taser only reached the UK's public consciousness during the 1990s, it was developed in 1969 by Nasa researcher Jack Cover.

The device's name is an acronym taken from a fictional weapon – Thomas A Swift's Electric Rifle – and was first deployed in the US in 1974.

The weapons were not issued in the UK until 2001 and even then limited to firearms officers, and not deployed in Scotland until 2006. Since then, in England, use of Tasers has been extended to specialist non-firearm officers.

The Home Office recently set up a fund for up to 10,000 additional Tasers to be made available for individual chief officers. Use of the weapon has proved to be highly controversial, with instances where the weapon has caused serious injury and, in some instances, death.

The United Nations and human rights body Amnesty International have voiced concerns that use of Tasers may amount to torture. Amnesty claims that, globally, there have been more than 245 Taser-related deaths.