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Taser Usage With Law Officers

Taser Usage with Law Officers Responding to a Disturbance Call

Imagine if someone gets into an argument with someone else and the police are called. When the police arrive the person’s adrenaline is pumping and on top of that they are angry. At the same time they are trying to talk to the officer; the officer keeps telling them to calm down which they are trying to do. All of a sudden the officer shocks them with his taser. They become stiff has a board and fall forward. Now was it really necessary for the officer to use his taser? The taser gun causes no long term health damages, but that should not be taken as a green light for police to use them without an adequate reason.
A taser gun is a weapon that has two probes that penetrate into the skin and delivering a 50,000 volt shock to the body for five seconds. The shocks send electricity into your muscles causing them to pulsate 19 times harder per second. The current from a taser shock is dispersed through the body rather than running into the heart (Berenson 1). During these five seconds, you are unable to move and become “stiff as a board” and fall either forwards or backwards. Within a minute your body should be back to normal without any long lasting side effects. Critics say the weapon is ripe for abuse because the shock leaves no obvious mark, other than a small dot that looks like a bee sting.
Being shocked by a Taser gun is definitely better than being killed but tasers are not necessarily an acceptable replacement when being used aggressively. There have been many cases and stories reported where people are shocked by a taser gun multiple times. It is completely unnecessary to be shocked multiple times. According to Officer McClelland, from the Waterloo Police Department, it all goes back to the training each officer receives. Each department should have very strict and clear guidelines on when a tasers gun should be used. If adequately trained, an...

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