Local police said the devices have protected a lot of people and kept officers from using guns that could have led to deadly situations. All interviewed said they will continue to use the devices.
An examination of Taser deployments for the past five years by the Hamilton JournalNews show the largest police jurisdictions in Butler and Warren counties fired stun guns a total of 766 times.
In those instances, two people died following the use of a Taser by police. Kevin Piskura died following an altercation in which he was shot with a Taser outside an Oxford bar by police in 2008.
The Piskura family sued TASER International and the city of Oxford in federal court.
The family dismissed the city from the lawsuit in February, but reserved the right to refile after the trial is concluded in August.
Douglas Boucher, 39, died at a local hospital after he was shot by a Taser by police following a disturbance in December 2009 at a Mason Speedway gas station. The autopsy showed the Mason’s man cause of death was a cracked skull.
The local police reports examined by this newspaper showed in most case only minor injuries, usually associated with removal of the Taser prongs, were reported. Hamilton reported in the 246 deployments by their officers, 103 suspects suffered minor injuries.
TASER International said Tasers have been used 3 million times by police officers across the United States.
The devices shoot barbs attached by wires that administer 50,000 volts that most often temporarily immobilize a person’s muscles so police can gain control of the suspect. They can be shot at a distance of 35 feet.
Mason Police Chief Ron Ferrell, who headed the Ohio Peace Officer’s Training Academy for about a year before returning to Mason, said his department isn’t going to have a “knee-jerk” reaction to Zipes’ findings, but he will continue to monitor developments regarding the devices.
“They are a valuable tool,” he said. “When I see that eight out of three million, I just think of how many deaths may have occurred in those three million had Tasers had not been there. The risk of someone getting seriously injured or possibly killed in some of those high volatile situations is always a risk.
Hamilton Police Training Officer Brian Buchanan, who maintains Tasers have probably saved countless lives, said people must consider the source of the study.
“Dr. Zipes obviously makes a great deal of money from being a hired gun for defense attorneys,” Buchanan said.
Zipes has earned more than $500,000 testifying against TASER International, according to the Scottsdale, AZ company’s Vice President of Communications Steve Tuttle. He said the doctor omitted key information in his findings, including the fact a video shows the stun probes in one of the cases never connected with the person and no charge was delivered.
“There have been 3 million uses of taser device uses worldwide, with this case series reporting eight of concern,” Tuttle said. “This article does not support a cause-effect association and fails to accurately evaluate the risks versus the benefits of the thousands of lives saved by police with taser devices.”
Zipes said TASER is incorrect when it says one of the subjects wasn’t hit with the stun gun.
“The subject is tazed and immediately drops, spins several times, actually two 360 degree turns and then has immediate loss of consciousness,” he said.
“TASER wants to say that probe missed, but the evidence would suggest otherwise.”
The doctor said TASER was correct, he charges $1,200 an hour for lawsuit work, but he estimated he has earned $240,000 over the past four or five years.
Zipes said if anything, his paper could put him out of the testifying business, if police agencies heed his warnings. In the study, he wrote that he isn’t on a crusade to ban stun guns.
“The main purpose of this paper is to make ECD users aware that cardiac arrest due to VF (ventricular fibrillation) can result from ECD shock,” he wrote. “They should be judicious on how and when to use the ECD weapon, avoid chest shocks if possible, as TASER International recommended.”
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