Stungun Program in Miami Cuts Risk

In Miami, people shot by police with electric stun guns are being treated with sedatives and cooling solutions to prevent deaths that sometimes accompany such shootings.

The 7-month-old pilot project has been used successfully at least a dozen times to pacify and lower body temperatures of stun gun targets, says John Gardner, chief of Miami-Dade County Fire Rescue's emergency medical services. County officials and stun gun makers say it appears to be the first program of its kind.

The program could improve public confidence in stun guns and reduce police reliance on firearms to subdue people who pose possible threats, law enforcement officials say.

Stun guns are also known by the trade name Tasers.

It may represent a viable way to improve outcomes in many use-of-force incidents, whether particular less-lethal weapons are used or not, says John Morgan, assistant director for science and technology at the National Institute of Justice, the research division of the Justice Department.

Tom Smith, chairman of Taser International, called the Miami-Dade project encouraging. Anything we can do to make the product better, we're obviously in favor of, he said.

In Washington, the Justice Department is studying about 200 deaths, most in the past 10 years, that occurred after individuals were subdued by stun guns or other electroshock devices to determine whether the devices are unsafe.

Miami-Dade's Gardner says its electronic control device protocol treats the dangerous effects of drug-induced excited delirium, including very high body temperatures, which are often present in unruly citizens on whom police say they are forced to use a stun gun.

By itself, the stun gun, which emits a temporarily incapacitating electrical impulse, does not cause permanent damage, Gardner says.

People are being treated for the reasons police had to use the stun gun, not for the effects of the stun gun itself, he says.

Many people who have died after being subdued by stun guns have been found to have been using cocaine or other drugs and to have temperatures as high as 108 degrees, Gardner says.

Since October, Miami-Dade police officers have been taught to call emergency medical technicians when stun guns are used.

If stun gun victims are still unruly, technicians spray midazolam, a fast-acting sedative, in their noses. Once victims are pacified, technicians inject iced saline solution to lower body temperature and sodium bicarbonate to counteract acids released by tensed muscles.

Amnesty International, a human rights group, had asked Justice to study stun gun deaths. Dalia Hashad, director of the group's USA Program, says the Miami-Dade program shows communities are trying to find ... ways to minimize risks from stun guns.

John Timoney, the city of Miami's police chief, calls stun guns a perfect weapon because they allow police officers to subdue threatening subjects without using firearms. Miami-Dade's program could lead to wider stun gun use, Timoney says, by cutting out bad publicity when stun gun targets subsequently die.

Miami police often go more than a year without discharging firearms but use stun guns many times a month, Timoney says.

We've clearly substituted Tasers for police shootings.

John Timoney, the city of Miami's police chief, calls stun guns a perfect weapon because they allow police officers to subdue threatening subjects without using firearms. Miami-Dade's program could lead to wider stun gun use, Timoney says, by cutting out bad publicity when stun gun targets subsequently die.

Miami police often go more than a year without discharging firearms but use stun guns many times a month, Timoney says.

We've clearly substituted Tasers for police shootings.

Throw away all glocks and just provide everyone with a stun gun!!!!!

I'M SO SICK &amp TIRED OF THE MEDIA AND LEFT WING LIBERALS TRYING TO TAKE AWAY OUR TASERS. THE FACT OF THE MATTER IS NOT ONE POLICE OFFICER HAS DIED FROM THE USE OF A TASER. ALL ACROSS THIS COUNTRY, OFFICERS MUST BE TASERED IN ORDER TO BE ISSUED ONE. IT IS A GREAT ALTERNATIVE TO THE FIREARM IN MANY CASES, NOT ALL OF COURSE. THOSE TWO HUNDRED DEATHS, THOUGH TRAGIC, ARE THE RESULT OF MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES AND NOT THE TASER. THE DEATH TO TASER USE RATIO IS LESS THAN A FRACTION OF ONE PERCENT. THE TASER IS DEPLOYED THOUSANDS OF TIMES ACROSS THE COUNTRY, DAY AFTER DAY. IT'S DAMNED IF YOU DO AND DAMNED IF YOU DON'T. CRITICS WILL ALWAYS EXIST WHETHER YOU TASER THEM OR SHOOT THEM, BUT IT'S OBVIOUS THAT THE TASER HAS HAD A POSITIVE IMPACT ON LAW ENFORCEMENT.

In Miami, people shot by police with electric stun guns are being treated with sedatives and cooling solutions to prevent deaths that sometimes accompany such shootings.

The 7-month-old pilot project has been used successfully at least a dozen times to pacify and lower body temperatures of stun gun targets, says John Gardner, chief of Miami-Dade County Fire Rescue's emergency medical services. County officials and stun gun makers say it appears to be the first program of its kind.

The program could improve public confidence in stun guns and reduce police reliance on firearms to subdue people who pose possible threats, law enforcement officials say.

Stun guns are also known by the trade name Tasers.

It may represent a viable way to improve outcomes in many use-of-force incidents, whether particular less-lethal weapons are used or not, says John Morgan, assistant director for science and technology at the National Institute of Justice, the research division of the Justice Department.

Tom Smith, chairman of Taser International, called the Miami-Dade project encouraging. Anything we can do to make the product better, we're obviously in favor of, he said.

In Washington, the Justice Department is studying about 200 deaths, most in the past 10 years, that occurred after individuals were subdued by stun guns or other electroshock devices to determine whether the devices are unsafe.

Miami-Dade's Gardner says its electronic control device protocol treats the dangerous effects of drug-induced excited delirium, including very high body temperatures, which are often present in unruly citizens on whom police say they are forced to use a stun gun.

By itself, the stun gun, which emits a temporarily incapacitating electrical impulse, does not cause permanent damage, Gardner says.

People are being treated for the reasons police had to use the stun gun, not for the effects of the stun gun itself, he says.

Many people who have died after being subdued by stun guns have been found to have been using cocaine or other drugs and to have temperatures as high as 108 degrees, Gardner says.

Since October, Miami-Dade police officers have been taught to call emergency medical technicians when stun guns are used.

If stun gun victims are still unruly, technicians spray midazolam, a fast-acting sedative, in their noses. Once victims are pacified, technicians inject iced saline solution to lower body temperature and sodium bicarbonate to counteract acids released by tensed muscles.

Amnesty International, a human rights group, had asked Justice to study stun gun deaths. Dalia Hashad, director of the group's USA Program, says the Miami-Dade program shows communities are trying to find ... ways to minimize risks from stun guns.

John Timoney, the city of Miami's police chief, calls stun guns a perfect weapon because they allow police officers to subdue threatening subjects without using firearms. Miami-Dade's program could lead to wider stun gun use, Timoney says, by cutting out bad publicity when stun gun targets subsequently die.

Miami police often go more than a year without discharging firearms but use stun guns many times a month, Timoney says.

We've clearly substituted Tasers for police shootings. Chief, That is a pretty ignorant statment! For one, our society has put a man on the moon, but NEVER been able to produce the PERFECT weapon you say the Taser is. Please retract the statement as it is untrue and inaccurate. Our police department leaders are living in utopia.

[quote=USA TODAY]
John Timoney, the city of Miami's police chief, calls stun guns a perfect weapon because they allow police officers to subdue threatening subjects without using firearms. Miami-Dade's program could lead to wider stun gun use, Timoney says, by cutting out bad publicity when stun gun targets subsequently die.

Miami police often go more than a year without discharging firearms but use stun guns many times a month, Timoney says.

We've clearly substituted Tasers for police shootings.

This is the most asinine comment this drunken fool has yet made! The Taser is not a substituted for the issued side arm, it is an alternative for a situation wherein the use of a firearm may not be appropriate. However, whenever an offender's level of resistance is such that an officer reasonably believes his/her life is in imminent danger, the option is clear!

As if your job isn't perilous enough, this fool makes this comment. We pray for your safety!

[quote=USA TODAY]

Our police department leaders are living in utopia.

is that in wynwooooof?

Try to think of the taser, the glock,the PR-24, the ASP, your fists and your ability to talk people down as weapons. You use these as needed and not all are perfect. The Taser may not be the perfect weapon but in some instances it is definitely better that having to shoot someone and then having to wait and be second guessed by everyone and their mother (Its not a good feeling and neither is being sued). If we have to take a life so be it, but if we can avoid it, let us try.

Sometimes even the brass get one right, imagine that.

ALL ACROSS THIS COUNTRY, OFFICERS MUST BE TASERED IN ORDER TO BE ISSUED ONE.

They taser us before issuing our tasers. They OC us before giving us our OC spray...They beat us before issuing an ASP. God, I hope that they never figure out that they have to SHOOT us before issuing us our GLOCKS!

Thanks for the idea,,,now they will be taking it up at the next PRC committee meeting,,,,,,,,,,

i agree where is my 223

ALL ACROSS THIS COUNTRY, OFFICERS MUST BE TASERED IN ORDER TO BE ISSUED ONE.

They taser us before issuing our tasers. They OC us before giving us our OC spray...They beat us before issuing an ASP. God, I hope that they never figure out that they have to SHOOT us before issuing us our GLOCKS!

does this mean they are having the squad waiting next to us when we zap ourselves with the taser so we can use it ? And if you refuse to get zapped, they taking the glock away? Can we take the sedative before getting zapped? Do we give the citizen the sedative before zapping them? Not so many senerios when you use a 12 ga. boom, send me the world, I just shot someone. But Johnny won't get his name in the papers that way. Does Johnny carry a taser? And the DC, he carry one? Good for the goose, good for the gander. You never know when a secretary will go postal on the 4th floor.

DEFECTIVE IMIDEITLAY, I WANT EVRYBODY SHOT! I WAS UNAWEAR THAT TRAININ WAS NOT CONDUKTING THIS METHOD FOR ICHUEING CLOCKS. BY THE WAY, THE TRANING STAPH IS FIRED !

I'M SO SICK &amp TIRED OF THE MEDIA AND LEFT WING LIBERALS TRYING TO TAKE AWAY OUR TASERS. THE FACT OF THE MATTER IS NOT ONE POLICE OFFICER HAS DIED FROM THE USE OF A TASER. ALL ACROSS THIS COUNTRY, OFFICERS MUST BE TASERED IN ORDER TO BE ISSUED ONE. IT IS A GREAT ALTERNATIVE TO THE FIREARM IN MANY CASES, NOT ALL OF COURSE. THOSE TWO HUNDRED DEATHS, THOUGH TRAGIC, ARE THE RESULT OF MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES AND NOT THE TASER. THE DEATH TO TASER USE RATIO IS LESS THAN A FRACTION OF ONE PERCENT. THE TASER IS DEPLOYED THOUSANDS OF TIMES ACROSS THE COUNTRY, DAY AFTER DAY. IT'S DAMNED IF YOU DO AND DAMNED IF YOU DON'T. CRITICS WILL ALWAYS EXIST WHETHER YOU TASER THEM OR SHOOT THEM, BUT IT'S OBVIOUS THAT THE TASER HAS HAD A POSITIVE IMPACT ON LAW ENFORCEMENT.

Listen fool, the voltage hits you in the right sequence of your heart beat, you better hope someone uses it to restart your heart. It doesn't happen often, but is can happen. So taser your ass all you want and hope it isn't you who gets the funeral with all the honors. there is enough risk in law enforcement without adding another one. But I bet you have diamonds or Oak leaves on your collor and want stars there.

Once and for all, let us dispense with the misinformation concerning tasers. The fact is that the 50,000 volts of electricity that will traverse your muscular-skeletal tissues will not kill you. Most of the reported deaths associated with taser discharges have had an exacerbating factor associated with them . . . massive cocaine consumption!

It is not the voltage that will kill you, is the amperage. A Taser emits a mere 0.004 of an amp per discharge. A lot less than a heart defibrillator!

Once and for all, let us dispense with the misinformation concerning tasers. The fact is that the 50,000 volts of electricity that will traverse your muscular-skeletal tissues will not kill you. Most of the reported deaths associated with taser discharges have had an exacerbating factor associated with them . . . massive cocaine consumption!

It is not the voltage that will kill you, is the amperage. A Taser emits a mere 0.004 of an amp per discharge. A lot less than a heart defibrillator!OK Sgt. Gentry, we hear you.

on cable TV yesterday they had a rerun of COPS. In this one San Bernandino P D tasered a man who then turned around and charged at the taser operator, knocking the taser out of his hand and then 3 other cops had to jump the A-hole and take him to the ground. The taser operator grabbed the taser and was shocking the hell of the A-hole while the 3 cops tried very hard to handcuff the citizen. So much for your taser and muscle- skeletel thinga a ma jig working so great. And how do tasers work with pace makers?

WOW ! This is an old post!

Tasers...what's that...??...last time I checked with quartermaster for one they laughed at me....I think the same happened when I asked for an MDC....and flex-cuff....and, well, you get the pic...oh, well, I guess I'll have to use my good'ole Glock....

Tasers...what's that...??...last time I checked with quartermaster for one they laughed at me....I think the same happened when I asked for an MDC....and flex-cuff....and, well, you get the pic...oh, well, I guess I'll have to use my good'ole Glock....

Don't worry about it, AC Roy Brown is on the trail of the 700 missing Tasers and as one poster noted, "we are doing fine under Orosa . . . "so far". :evil:

Did you folks get the memo from the Taser people "recommending" we aim for arms and legs instead of center mass? It came out the last year of Timoney's "rule" and T$ being PAID by Taser to be their shill, I doubt you folks got to see it. And what the hell do you think the Irish 35 is going to say when he is get MONEY to sell the thing? But when they say they have use the Glock on us, it's when I tell them to take badge and shove it.