Amnesty International: US Taser Deaths Up

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Amnesty International: US Taser Deaths Up

Amnesty International: 156 Deaths in U.S. After Taser Use by Police

 

By MARK SHERMAN

 

WASHINGTON Mar 28, 2006 (AP)— The number of people who have died in

the U.S. after being shocked by police stun guns is growing rapidly,

Amnesty International says in a report that catalogs 156 in the past

five years.

 

Deaths after the use of Taser stun guns have risen from three in 2001

to 61 last year, the international human rights group said. Fourteen

have died so far this year, it said, citing police and autopsy reports

as well as press accounts.

 

The rise in deaths accompanies a marked increase in the number of U.S.

law enforcement agencies employing devices made by Taser International

of Scottsdale, Ariz. About 1,000 of the nation's 18,000 police

agencies used Tasers in 2001; more than 7,000 departments had them

last year, according to a government study.

 

Police had used Tasers more than 70,000 times as of last year,

Congress' Government Accountability Office said.

 

Amnesty urged police departments to suspend the use of Tasers pending

more study. The group said there has been insufficient independent

research on safety issues, an assertion the company disputes.

 

Taser did not immediately comment on the report. But it has called

similar studies flawed because they link deaths to Taser use when

there has been no such official conclusion. To the contrary, Taser has

said that more than 9,000 lives have been saved because police

officers have been able to use stun guns instead of bullets. Tasers

deliver a 50,000-volt jolt through two barbed darts that can penetrate

clothing.

 

The Amnesty report is the latest study that raises concerns that Taser

use intended as a nonlethal alternative to a gun can be fatal in

certain circumstances, most often when the victim is using illegal drugs.

 

Police officers should use Tasers " only in circumstances where

potentially lethal force is justified, " said William F. Schulz,

executive director of Amnesty International USA. Schulz acknowledged

that stun guns could be an effective part of a police arsenal,

preferable in some cases to a nightstick or a gun.

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