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Taser injuries are rare, study finds
While serious injuries or deaths stemming from police use of conducted electrical weapons — commonly known as tasers — garner lots of attention from civil rights groups and related organizations, a recent study determined such incidents are exceedingly rare.
An emergency-medicine researcher at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center has published a study which found that serious injuries occurred in less than one percent of 1,201 taser uses by law enforcement officers.
Funded by the National Institute of Justice, the study includes data gathered from six law enforcement agencies across the country over a three-year period.
“These weapons appear to be very safe, especially when compared to other options police have for subduing violent or combative suspects,” said Dr. William P. Bozeman, who led the study.
“That is not to say that injuries and deaths are impossible. Police and medical personnel need to be aware of the potential for serious injury and look for evidence that a person subdued by a taser has been hurt.”
A taser works by delivering a low-intensity electrical shock through barbs fired from the weapon.
The shock disrupts a person's sensory and motor functions within the central nervous system, causing temporary muscle paralysis.
According to Warrenton Police Chief Connie Novak, supervisors in her department started carrying tasers in October 2007. They've been used twice since then.
See The Fauquier Times-Democrat for the complete story...
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