Tasers are designed to stun their victims, but they can shock observers, too. Two graphic episodes -- recorded on video and posted online -- have generated great controversy in the past year, first at the University of California at Los Angeles and more recently at the University of Florida. Student protesters and others argue that the high-voltage devices should be banned from college campuses.
But police officers now commonly wield the futuristic weapons. According to a study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office in 2005, about 40 percent of the country’s 18,000 law-enforcement agencies use Tasers. No such statistics exist for college police departments, but they are largely keeping up with their municipal counterparts, says Steven J. Healy, the police chief at Princeton University and a former president of the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators.
When Tasers are used appropriately, officers say, they are a safe, effective means of subduing instigators. What constitutes an appropriate use, though, is a matter of debate. Use-of-force policies differ from institution to institution, and their application can be hazy. When does a student deserve to be tased?
In the recent Florida incident, Andrew Meyer, a senior, cut into a line of students waiting to ask questions of Sen. John F. Kerry, who was speaking at a public forum on the campus. Mr. Meyer aggressively questioned the senator about why he had not contested the 2004 presidential election.
When police officers tried to haul Mr. Meyer out, he thrashed his arms and tried to break free. Six officers pinned him to the floor of the auditorium, but he continued to resist, appealing to the crowd. After a warning, an officer zapped him with a Taser (The Chronicle, September 18).
Many officers see Tasers as a good middle option on the so-called continuum of force: tougher than a firm grasp, less harmful than a firearm. The devices work in “drive stun” mode (in direct contact with a subject’s body, as in the Florida case) and can also shoot darts from a distance of 20 feet.
But even officers who like Tasers say they should be used judiciously: when a person is threatening himself, police officers, or others and physical restraint is not an effective option.
Amnesty International has expressed concerns about the weapons, which have been associated with at least 70 deaths in the United States and Canada since 2001 and may increase the risk of heart failure, the organization said in a report.
Officers at Florida might have resolved the situation differently, some experts say. The Chronicle talked to several law-enforcement authorities to break down the latest high-profile tasing.
The Disruption
In one of several videos available online, Mr. Meyer begins to speak at a microphone while police officers lurk behind him (image below). At one point, a female officer approaches him, then quickly retreats.
Following a detailed policy on how to handle disruptions to public events can be very helpful, says Mr. Healy. “At Princeton we have a very methodical process that we employ,” he says. The first intervention is always by a student-affairs administrator, who tries to reason with the student. If that doesn’t work, police officers get involved -- gradually. By jumping in too quickly, officers can unnecessarily escalate the situation, Mr. Healy says.
If a student continues to carry on, the Princeton officers shout verbal commands, he says. Next they resort to physical force, like a hasty escort out of the building.
“There needs to be a policy,” says Mr. Healy. “It needs to be well thought out, and it needs to be an approach that everyone agrees to.”
The Strategy
The video shows that as officers try to escort Mr. Meyer out of the auditorium, they pass a side door (below). Fountain L. Walker, chief of police at Davidson College, wonders why they didn’t use it.
Mr. Meyer seemed to want an audience, Mr. Walker says. Getting the student out of the room as quickly as possible may have defused the situation. “You have a discussion with the officers present,” Mr. Walker says, something like: “We’re going to walk up to him. There’s a side exit. You grab one arm and I grab the other, and we get him out that side door, and then we talk to him there.”
The most important thing, Mr. Walker says, is to “have a plan before you act.”
Officers at Davidson do not have Tasers, nor do those at Rice University. There they rely on verbal and physical control, or if necessary, batons. “There’s quite a variety of less-than-lethal compliance techniques,” says Bill Taylor, chief of police at Rice.
What about pepper spray? Officers often carry it, but several police chiefs agreed that a crowded auditorium would not be the place to use it. The Florida video shows at least six officers present, and in that case, the experts’ consensus was to use “hard hand” techniques, like arm holds and pressure points.
With those tactics, says Ralph Robinson, assistant chief of police at the University of Washington, “I can probably bring you to your toes, and you will more than likely come with me.”
To Tase or Not to Tase
Toward the end of the tussle, officers pin Mr. Meyer to the floor, but he wriggles around, and they cannot cuff him (below).
Mr. Robinson recommends a technique called “weight of numbers” here. “You basically put weight on a person and overwhelm them with a number of bodies,” he says. “We want to apply the proper amount of force that will control this person, and not overdo it, not take it beyond what is necessary.”
Officers are well aware that adrenaline can have an impact on their handling of a situation. Mr. Meyer seemed like he was trying to get the officers to use the Taser, says Mr. Taylor, of Rice. “He kept baiting them.”
In that kind of situation, Mr. Healy wants his officers to be able to check themselves. Princeton uses simulation exercises, he says, so that “they realize what they need to do to balance the adrenaline with sound decision making.”
Still, there is an advantage to using a Taser in this case: ending the confrontation and avoiding injuries from a physical struggle. “A Taser will bring that person down quickly, and then you can handcuff that person, and the situation is over with,” says Raymond H. Thrower, director of public safety and security at Gustavus Adolphus College and president of the law-enforcement administrators’ association.
Mr. Walker, of Davidson, doesn’t like the idea of using Tasers on campuses at all. “I think that sometimes the Taser handicaps the officer because sometimes it causes them not to use their brain, not to problem solve,” he says. “It almost makes you lazy -- that’s how I look at it.”
Campus police officers should interact more with students, rather than just patrol and respond, he says. Any use of force, he says, can have long-term damage on the relationship between the two groups.
Even when proposing alternatives, police chiefs were reluctant to judge Florida’s handling of the situation. “What the officers are experiencing at the time is different from what you see on a two-minute clip of someone’s video cellphone,” says Mr. Healy.
Still, all the police chiefs had watched the videos.
“Every time we have a situation like this,” Mr. Healy says, “we learn a little bit more, we improve policies, we improve procedures, we improve training.”
Screen Shots: Kyle Mitchell, The Gainesville Sun
Background articles from The Chronicle:
