Sorrell on tasers: "The police blew it."

by: JDRyan

Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 11:48:17 AM EDT

A few months ago, two incidents involving the inappropriate use of tasers by law enforcement came home to Vermont, when police tasered two non-violent protesters in Brattleboro and a teenager at Brattleboro Retreat. These incidents prompted an outcry that prompted A.G. Bill Sorrell to conduct an investigation into the incidents. He released a statement today, as reported in today's Times Argus:

"I'm sorry to report that the Brattleboro police blew it in both cases," Sorrell said during a press conference in Montpelier Monday.

Sorrell said the protesters, Jonathan Crowell and Samantha Kilmurray, posed no threat to either the officers or the public and that police failed to exhaust alternate options for de-escalating the situation.

"They should not have Tased the two protesters even one time, let alone multiple times," Sorrel said.

He went on to also say that tasers are still a valuable tool for law enforcement, and refused to comment on the medical/health risk elements of tasering, and also suggested that law enforcement agencies should have written policies in regards to taser use. This does not go far enough, according to the VT ACLU:

The executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont, Alan Gilbert, applauded Sorrell's call for use-of-force policies governing the use of Tasers but said the attorney general should have been more forceful in his recommendations. "The report says law-enforcement agencies are advised to have written protocols governing Taser use. We feel really strongly that the protocols should be required," Gilbert said.

Gilbert also advocated for a statewide Taser-use policy to be used by all police departments. That very idea was in fact put forward by Sorrell at the outset of his investigation. However Sorrell said that upon review, Taser policies are best left to the communities in which they are used.

Regardless of Sorrell's reluctance to make policies compulsory, the silver lining in all of this is that due to the heavy-handed inappropriate actions of the Brattleboro police, and the ensuing negative publicity, hopefully these kinds of actions will not be so prevalent in the future. Or one can hope, at least.