[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS: a brief article: Valais is a canton in southern Switzerland (pop. 320,000): its parliament has just voted – by 52-51 – NOT to provide cantonal police with tasers. Opponents pointed to its potential dangers.]] Le Nouvelliste Le Parlement valaisan refuse de justesse que les policiers du canton soient équipés de pistolets à […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS: Berkeley continues to hold out against the pressure of the police to adopt tasers, agreeing to authorize a study on Tasers and whether police should be equipped with the devices. “There’s plenty of reports out there and there’s lots of credible evidence that show that Tasers are sometimes a lethal weapon,” said […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS: Berkeley and San Francisco remain the two cities in the Bay area without police tasers. When a Berkeley police-officer is attacked by an assailant, Berkeley Police Association says it’s time to introduce tasers. Nine-member Berkeley Police Commission appears divided on this issue.]] KTVU.com, by Allie Rasmus An attack that left Berkeley police […]
[[TASER International never, of course, mentions law-enforcement departments that have decided to stop using tasers. This is what has happened in five police departments in North Texas — Mansfield, Richland Hills, Crowley, Murphy and Burleson — which announced they had removed Taser guns from the list of equipment used by officers. The police won’t say […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS : San Francisco Police Department still has no Tasers. This doesn’t mean all the cops in San Francisco are not accessing them. San Francisco State University Police Department will soon arm its officers with tasers, along with other California State University campuses, saying the administration is “deeply committed to protecting the safety […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS : (This is an edited google-translation; the original Swedish text is below, in italics. The Police Union wants Swedish police officers be armed with the stun gun.) But the National Police Federation (RPS) says a straight no. This is reported in the Police Gazette. “Our goal is that always try to resolve […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENT: An important admission that the life-cycle of tasers is, according to the manufacturer, 5 years. In other words, the majority of tasers in use in North America are quite possibly past the recommended “deployment lifecycle”. The Warren Police Department recently discontinued use of the stun guns, after finding that in 23% of […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENT : A Green Party press release Paul ‘Basil’ O’Halloran MP, Greens Police spokesperson called on the Tasmaniam government not to introduce tasers guns until further research has been conducted into their potential health and injury risks, in light of the death of a civilian in New South Wales. “There is growing community […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS: Unlike most of the other states in Australia, Tasmania has not provided its police with tasers, despite the Tasmania’s Police Association’s repeated call for the weapons to be approved. “As far as we’re concerned, every other jurisdiction in Australia and the world has them,” Police Association acting president Robbie Dunn said yesterday […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS. Guernsey (and Jersey) have a special status (primarily as tax-havens) and are not members of the European Union, so the EU-wide ban on exporting “torture weapons” to countries outside the EU applied. Note, the taser is in this class of weapons. The UK government is passing new legislation to get around the […]
WBTV, by Ron Lee [[SUMMARY / COMMENTS: Tasers were withdrawn (without any known announcement ) from the Charlotte police for six months of checking, inspecting and reissuing, after the death of Lareko Williams in a sexual violence scenario: he ran away, the police tasered him, he died. The new taser X2 arsenal – a double-barreled […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS: Following two controversial taser-related deaths, the city of Rockford (pop.c.150,000) police withdrew – unannounced, of course – its use of tasers. Concern was increased by the manufacturers’s warning of cardiac arrest following use of the taser. So, nothing changed, except getting the TASER Inc. message: “”We sent some of our training staff […]
[[SUMMARY /COMMENTS : An important “No!” to tasers from Montpelier City Hall – the Vermont State capital. On 17 November 2011, Chief Anthony Facos asked to withdraw his request that the Montpelier Police Department carry tasers and asked that the City Council discontinue any additional hearings or discussion on the issue. Following a report by […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS San Francisco police officials have been pushing for officers to be equipped with Tasers, arguing that the devices would have prevented recent officer-involved shootings. But whereas there once wasn’t the political will to arm San Francisco cops with Tasers, the major obstacle now is budget cutbacks. Opponents have argued the weapons — which deliver […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS: Stallings (pop. 3200) “decides devices are too risky, but neighboring Monroe chooses to let officers use them… Citing liability concerns, Stallings abandoned the weapons early this year.” TASER Inc.’s Steve Tuttle “dismissed liability concerns: ‘That’s the last thing we have trouble with.’” A councillor points out he “had seen too many instances […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS: Stalling, North Carolina (pop. 5000) has decided to abandon the use of tasers: “Stallings police have had Tasers since 2008, but the town discontinued them in January to reduce its liability risk, Chief Michael Dummett said, declining to elaborate.” A neighboring town, Monroe has just added tasers … “‘That’s their decision,’ said […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS: A significant step by a small-town (pop.: 5,500] ]] in Southern Illinois: to effectively place a moratorium on police taser use due to lack of adequate training and TASER Inc.’s advisories on the potential cardiac problems of taser discharges. This follows a taser-abuse settlement for for $85,000 by Winnibago County, Wisconsin (pop.300,000) […]
[[GlobalShock: Appeal by a San Francisco coalition of black leaders and community activists to protest police call to bring tasers back into use, after the SF Police Commission voted 3-2 to ban them in 2010]] Pack the Police Commission hearing on Tasers: this Wednesday, Feb. 23, 5:30 p.m., in Room 400, City Hall KPFA […]
[[GlobalShock: A first-person update on the San Francisco moratorium on tasers. A Black journalist describes the hearings in San Francisco on whether to bring back the taser: “I at least felt honored to be among the crowd of doctors, lawyers, social workers, organizers and activists who came to speak against taser use. Many had so much […]
[[GlobalShock: “An Australia Capital Territory (ACT) Government standing committee recommended tasers should not be given to general duties police in a report handed down more than four years ago… CT Policing is conducting another review into the use of tasers in the territory. The review was started late last year, but will take into account […]