if you're touching someone who gets tasered

The officer asked Betts to get out of his truck and Betts complied for a moment. The officer stopped Timothy Betts for speeding 13 mph over the speed limit. If you want a second view, a security camera outside the building where the stop took place also captured the incident.ĭid you watch the body camera video recording? Would you have used a TASER device? The incident resulted in a lawsuit against the officer: How would you defend the officer (or yourself if you were sued after a similar incident)? The trial judge said Betts’ resistance was “at most passive.” Do you agree? An understanding of the background, as recited in the court record, can help us answer these questions. Instead, watch the first few minutes of this Axon® video recording. A traffic stop with a non-compliant subject quickly turned into a use of force incident-and there’s clear video evidence to review. This case provides an unusual opportunity for you to decide what should happen.

In addition, spinal compression fracture or other soft tissue injury from forceful muscle contractions or fall with blunt trauma occurs rarely, 0.5% in real world use.Įmergency Department Evaluation After Conducted Energy Weapon Use: Review of the Literature for the Clinician. The probe may cause eye injury, vascular puncture, or nerve injury. What about when the probe is fired at a patient (“probe mode”)? This is where most of the problems arise. So, the answer is no.Īnything to be done with a shock in “drive stun” or touch stun mode (directly applied to person)? No, it may cause minor skin irritation or small burns at the contact sites that do not require intervention. Some have found clinically insignificant elevations of lactate and CK. What about checking other labs? There have been no studies that found electrolyte abnormalities. This was a review of the literature on conducted energy weapons to answer these questions.ĭo these patients need cardiac monitoring, ECG, or troponin measurement after a shock under 15 seconds? If a patient is awake, alert, and had a <15 second shock, there is no indication for ECG, prolonged cardiac monitoring, or measurement of troponin. The question is, do we need to do a medical workup after a weapon like this has been used on a patient? If none, no ECG, monitoring, or lab evaluation is indicated.Ĭonducted energy weapons, such as TASERs, give a jolt of 50,000 volts.

TASER) need a careful exam to rule out injury from the electrical probe and to screen for trauma from muscular contraction, fall, etc. Patients who have been shocked with a conducted energy device (i.e.

If you're touching someone who gets tasered