About twice a month since April last year a Vermonter has been shot with a 50,000 volt taser by State Police. That is, according to a lengthy article at VtDigger.com by reporter Taylor Dobbs, who has analyzed records of Vermont State Police taser use. He reports that since all troopers were issued tasers in April 2011 they have been fired 33 times in those fifteen months.
According to 81 “use of force” reports released by the Vermont State Police earlier this month, 25 percent of officers have unholstered their Tasers in the line of duty. [How does this compare to frequency of an officer unholstering a firearm?] Since the uniform division of the state police was equipped with Tasers in April 2011, bringing the force total to 207, 53 officers have either deployed their Tasers or displayed them (unholstered their Taser, but did not deploy it in the incident). In all, 154 officers have never reached for a Taser.
The reports don’t make clear how many times the incident involved an individual with a mental health issue.
Below the fold: link to Google interactive Vermont taser-use cluster map!
These details are of particular interest given recent calls for a moratorium on VSP taser use since the death of Macadam Mason, following a State police officer’s taser deployment to his chest. The use-of force reports showed that the trooper who fired his stun gun at Mason had displayed (un-holstered) but not deployed (fired) his taser more than any other officer in the uniformed state police.
While the majority of officers who have drawn Tasers have only done so once over the 15 months since most were equipped, eight officers have had two incidents involving a Taser, one has had three, four have had four, and one – David Shaffer – has had five.
Col. Thomas L’Esperance, the top officer in the Vermont State Police, says it’s a matter of chance. Some officers happen to respond to a higher frequency of violent situations, he said.
VtDigger also has an interactive Google map here showing clusters of taser use. The map shows the incident location, date and officer involved.
A geographical analysis of state police Taser incidents shows distinct patterns. Predictably, there were relatively tighter groupings of use around the state’s largest concentrations of population in Rutland and Chittenden counties.
An analysis across the 12 state police barracks showed a cluster in a rural community. There were seven incidents at the Bradford barracks (five of which involved Shaffer). Based on the combined population of all towns within each barracks’ coverage area, Bradford had more than four times more Taser incidents per capita than the state average.
Clusters of taser use are found around major population areas but also several rural areas including around the Bradford barracks.
Vermont Department of Public Safety Commissioner Keith Flynn wished for better compliance from subjects when asked to comment on the number of taserings that take place in the state:
“I don’t think I could say that I’m happy with any deployments, because in a perfect world there wouldn’t be any deployments,” he said. If all subjects were compliant, he said, Tasers would be unnecessary.
Yes sir, if all subjects were properly compliant it would be easy, say the people holding 50,000 volt Tasers.
Reminds me of the NRA thread. If all people were peaceful, we could all carry assault weapons and explosives!
That was a pretty tone deaf statement for Commissioner Flynn to make.
All “subjects” were not compliant before Tasers became available. Are we to believe that, prior to the issuance of Tasers, those same non-compliants were all subdued with more harmful weapons, ie. guns? I don’t think so!
about the use of tasers by uniformed officers not employed by the State Police?
Blaming the victim for the abuse:
“If you would learn to just keep your mouth shut, I wouldn’t have to hit you.”
It’s a classic response on the part of an abusive person. If he really thinks that way, I hope Mr. Flynn is not married and has no children.
There have been several different questions going around within my mind since MacAdam Mason’s death on June 20th. Now it has been over six weeks with no details concerning the autopsy and a cause of death forthcoming as of yet, these include as follows:
Since to my knowledge it seems to not have been made clear by certain authorities yet, once the autopsy results are finalized and the medical examiner’s ruling on a cause of MacAdam Mason’s death is determined, will these in fact be released to members of the press and the public thereafter or, whether due to citing pending litigation in the case or for other excuses er, reasons (including ones not given: e.g., politics), will this have to wait until these as well as results of the internal investigation done by the Vermont State Police (VSP) are submitted to the Vermont Attorney General (VT AG) as well as the Orange County State Attorney (OCSA) and they finally issue their reports?
Whatever the answer is to the above question, at this rate, once the autopsy results and the medical examiner’s ruling on a cause of death are forthcoming and then submitted along with the results of the internal investigation done by VSP to both the VT AG’s office as well as the OCSA’s office as had been previously reported would be the case, it is highly doubtful there will be any reports issued by until sometime after the November general election either.
In addition, considering that it seems Taser International might have already taken some form of an interest in this particular case earlier on or so it is my understanding, and given how it appears they typically do whenever such deaths occur after someone is Tasered by police and they are contacted by members of the press (or such incidents are otherwise reported on by news media outlets as well as via social media tools [e.g., Facebook, Twitter and Google+] and posted about on blogs and they pick up on it through those means):
These matters also bring to mind about how I have previously come across news articles and other information concerning how they also seem to get heavily involved in a variety of other different ways in terms of the autopsy results and causes of death ruled on by medical examiners across the nation, including by providing what they term as educational materials and information to medical examiners and the like (usually concerning what is termed as being “excited delirium”, which is not without its own controversy) as well as, when that has failed to bring satisfactory results, also challenging medical examiners when Tasers have been implicated as a contributing cause of death. Below are links to certain articles and related information found online of some examples of such.
Therefore, what would also be of interest is whether Taser International has been in contact with the New Hampshire medical examiner, among others they might attempt to heavily influence to their way of thinking and reasoning, relating to this particular case (i.e., the death of MacAdam Mason) or not?
It would not surprise me one bit if they have already done so and, if so, one wonders whether this is somehow part of why the autopsy results and a finding of a cause of death could be taking so long?
~~~fyi:
Judge rules for Taser in cause-of-death decisions (via Arizona Republic; May. 2, 2008), here:
Ohio Court of Appeals Affirms Trial Court Order Removing TASER Device Reference From Three Death Certificates in Akron
(click above embedded link in order to read)
Summit County Medical Examiner Must Change Autopsy Findings to Remove All References to TASER Electronic Control Device as a Contributing Cause of Death in the Death of Three Men
via GlobeNewswire
Source: TASER International, Inc.
Date: April 02, 2009 07:30 ET
Taser-related cases complex for medical examiners (via WCPO; 6/7/2012), here:
The Trouble with Tasers (via Fort Worth Weekly; 5/16/2012), here:
Taser Shooting A Tragedy (via ACLU-VT blog; 6/21/2012), here:
Taser stun guns were once marketed as both nonlethal as well as safe, then “less-than-lethal” and now they are termed as being a “less lethal” weapon.
The problem with this tortuous logic and its convenient rationalizations is when death occurs after someone has been hit by a Taser, the person is not any “less dead.”