Taser and the force continuum

Ed Sanow

Officer injuries are down by 80%. Suspect injuries down by 67%. Use of lethal force down by 78%. A 94% effectiveness in immediately stopping aggressive behavior. Immediate recovery of the suspect. Millions of dollars saved in liability claims. Yet the police use of Taser has become intensely controversial in the past few months.

How about a little street reality? First, any use of force - OC spray, bean bags, wrestling the suspect to the ground - is stressful and may produce death. Second, the allegations of 80 deaths are just that, allegations by anti-police groups. To date, none have been medically validated. Wait for the official report. If the Taser actually causes the death, it happens immediately. If not, it was some other factor . . . like the suspect's actions.

Regardless, the controversy is real. And the real problem is where this less-lethal device is placed on the force continuum. Taser makes no official recommendations. Like most less-lethal options, that is left up to the individual departments. Taser can provide a long list of departments using the device and where on the force continuum those individual departments place the Taser. The IACP has just released a nine-step strategy for the use of these devices.

Ultimately, however, it will still be up to the chiefs and sheriffs. Placement too low on the force continuum, not the use of Taser, per se, is the entire problem. The higher up the force continuum, the easier it is to articulate a defense when things go badly. At the extreme end, it is pretty easy to say that his actions justified lethal force, and a less-lethal option was tried first. If the Taser was not used, a much more drastic use of force would have been.

Much like the officer's use of a knife for defense, what is now legally permissible and acceptable according to policy may not be politically acceptable in your jurisdiction. With this political aspect in mind, perhaps some agencies have the Taser too low on the force continuum.

On the other hand, if you place it higher on the force continuum, more officers will get hurt engaging suspects, and more suspects will get hurt as other means of force are used. Now, one level below lethal force probably places the Taser too high, preventing its use in many situations where its use will result in no injury whatsoever to officer or suspect.

The training needs to reflect situations on the street. Should officers "taze" an 80-year-old guy? Maybe, depends on the situation. 16-year-old kid? Maybe, depends on the situation. That is what the force continuum is all about - responding to the subject's behavior and degree of threat or compliance, not age or gender. That's why we teach the force continuum.

Chiefs, do not rely on common sense from your patrol officers on this. Give them Tasers. Give them training. Set precise force continuum policies. Have your sergeants rigidly enforce that policy . . . just like every other aspect of use-of-force . . . the Taser is no different.

Sanow, Ed. "Taser and the force continuum." LAW and ORDER Magazine. May 2005.