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TASER Conducted Electrical Weapons: Physiology, Pathology, and Law

2009; Wiley; Volume: 16; Issue: 12 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1553-2712.2009.00576.x

1553-2712

James R. Roberts,

Restraint-Related Deaths

TASER Conducted Electrical Weapons: Physiology, Pathology, and Law . Edited by Kroll, Mark W. and Ho, Jeffrey D. . New York : Springer Science and Business Media, LLC , 2009 ; 457 pp; $119.00. (hardcover) This 457-page book, edited by Mark Kroll, a biomedical engineer, and Jeffrey Ho, an emergency physician, is a unique and rather fascinating compendium of science, clinical medicine, and electrophysiology. It is peppered with editorial comment, personal experience, and historical data from law enforcement personnel from New York City and Los Angeles. It is also a primer on the law related to conducted electrical weapons (CEWs). The prototype CEW is the TASER. This device is universally embraced by law enforcement; remains hated, feared, and loathed by the general public; serves as the source of infinite curiosity for the legal system; and spawns prolific fodder for YouTube that simultaneously entertains the voyeur, tweaks the corda tendinae of the American Civil Liberties Union, and definitely flummoxes the lay press. The text is authored by over 50 contributors, including pathologists, toxicologists, veterans of law enforcement, emergency physicians, and engineers. Kroll and Ho have assembled more erudite snippets than one can likely absorb on the first reading. The TASER has become the standard nonlethal use-of-force tool for the majority of law enforcement agencies throughout the world, but euphemistically, it has been the source of much controversy. The authors generally succeed in demystifying the TASER with detailed scientific data and a believable rationale for its deployment and longevity that is supported by cogent interpretations of current studies and accepted physiology, all this with the aid of some basic science that remains inscrutable to most clinicians. As an actively practicing emergency physician, I particularly appreciate, and echo, the introduction where the editors lucidly state the obvious: the public is essentially clueless with regard to the challenges faced by law enforcement officers, prehospital medical personnel, and emergency physicians who must protect and serve the general public in the hostile milieu of excited delirium. The danger to everyone from the onslaught of a gargantuanly strong 400-pound hapless raging lunatic in the ED is difficult and scary enough with grams of IV benzodiazepines in hand. Although empathetic, I am thankful not to be a police officer faced with such dangers on the street without a TASER. When your life is on the line, it does take some restraint to reach for the electric gun rather than one’s trusty Glock. Although not an outright sycophant, this book does foster a generally positive tone, and some contributors are acknowledged consultants to TASER International, Inc. It includes the historical background of CEWs, as well as an overview of the forceful techniques and less reasonable alternatives often required by law enforcement officers to subdue violent and dangerous individuals as safely and quickly as possible. The potential adverse or untoward effects of CEWs are nicely examined via animal experiments and historical case reports, but despite the TASER’s omnipresence, there is a paucity of human studies. It appears, however, that both the infamous Rodney King and this book’s editors have been recipients of the TASER’s output. The text explores cellular and cardiac physiology, contains a number of chapters on the toxicology of stimulants, and offers the pathologist’s view of excited delirium. It would behoove all medical examiners to peruse this work prior to promulgating reports implicating law enforcement officers and CEWs as a direct cause of death in the scenario of excited delirium. All authors have their e-mail address listed, and I posit they are provided for ready communication. Contributors Jeffrey Ho, Theodore Chan, Robert Reardon, Donald Dawes, and Gary Vilke are no strangers to the emergency medicine literature, and their prior work with CEWs can be termed pioneering. The chapter on stimulant abuse and sudden cardiac death by Steven Karch, a well-known expert in this field, is brief but to the point and is nicely supplemented by a plethora of additional chapters on these topics. For the engineers in the audience, a variety of inscrutable electrical diagrams and charts are included but, sadly, electricity still befuddles me. I particularly enjoyed the chapters by Samuel Stratton and Charles Wetli on sudden unexpected death in custody and Michael Brave on the legal basics for the CEW. John Peters, founder for the Institute for the Prevention of In Custody Deaths, Inc., penned the aptly titled “Science and Logic Meet the Law.” Michael White and Justin Ready relay the New York City/NYPD’s many years of experience with the TASER. This book is a gem; you will not find such an in-depth treatise in any other source. It is a cornucopia of information, data, personal vignettes, and streetwise common sense. I suspect the most avid readers will be law enforcement personnel, toxicologists, emergency physicians, medical examiners, and of course, lawyers. One might intuit from this review that I really like this book.