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It was supposed to be a fun-filled weekend for Mark England, his last before heading off on his second deployment to Iraq.
But England, 38, who got into a dispute with airport security personnel, ended up on the floor of McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas last March,
jolted with a police Taser at least three times and battered with a club, leaving fractured ribs and a head injury that have kept him from returning to war.
"It was like touching an electric fence they use to keep cattle in, but instead of just where the initial shock goes in, the electricity goes through your entire body. It feels like every nerve cell is on fire," said England, a 14-year military veteran now serving as a medic in the California National Guard.
England, who has filed a lawsuit against the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, is one of a growing number of people across the country who claim police used Taser guns on them repeatedly without adequate provocation.
Another recent incident involving a university student who was shot with a Taser at a campus forum has brought renewed attention to the use of the stun guns.
In other cases, authorities defended the Tasering of an autistic California teenager who had been seen running in traffic, while in Ohio, a woman was Tasered while struggling in a police car after she was handcuffed.
Although human-rights groups such as Amnesty International have called for a moratorium on the weapons, which release 50,000 volts in a single shot, police departments across the country are adding Tasers to their arsenals.
In the past five years, the number of law-enforcement agencies deploying Tasers has increased from about 2,000 in 2002 to more than 11,500, according to Steve Tuttle, a spokesman for Taser International.
That represents about 70 per cent of law-enforcement agencies in the United States.
"The Taser is not a magic bullet, but it seems to have been the missing tool in the toolbox for law enforcement," says Tuttle. "There is nothing as effective in the police arsenal today as the 94 per cent incapacitation rate of a Taser."
While critics point out that in the past five years about 270 people have died after being shot with a Taser, law-enforcement officials have argued that Tasers are still the safest tool they have for bringing suspects under control and for preventing injuries to police officers. "It's a lot more humane than the old nightstick used to be," says Dennis Wise, president of the American Federation of Police and Concerned Citizens.
"Police officers aren't paid to be punching bags. When you hit someone with a Taser, it automatically shuts everything down and they have no desire to fight. It sends an electrical shock to the brain that it's not used to."
Still, several high-profile cases involving Tasers have threatened to turn public opinion against the device, and many police departments are trying to find ways to make their use of Tasers more transparent.
One of the most popular methods is the Taser cam, a tiny attached camera that activates when the weapon turns on. Authorities say the cameras allow them to document each case for possible evidence to be used in a court case and provide officers with a valuable training tool.
The Taser cam records audio and video from the time the Taser is turned on until it is turned off, said Tuttle, even if the weapon isn't fired.
The cameras are a good start, says Gary Peck, Nevada chapter executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, but they do not go far enough. One of the biggest problems, he and other critics say, is that cameras would not capture all the events leading to a Taser incident, so it still would be difficult to determine whether Taser use was justified.
"Cameras are fine, but we want to know what happened before the Taser was turned on," says Peck, whose group has a lawsuit pending against Las Vegas police and Taser International. "Video is only helpful if all the footage will be public record and not released on a discretionary basis."
While Amnesty International has been a vocal critic of Taser-related deaths at the hands of police, the group supports non-lethal weapons where appropriate, according to Midwest regional director Dori Dinsmore. She wants more study to determine under which circumstances Tasers are safe.
The group has documented more than 270 deaths in the US following use of Tasers since 2001. There is no documentation that the deaths were caused by the Taser, and Taser International disputes any link.
Amnesty said it would like to see a federal investigation into the issue. "Clearly Tasers have been used thousands of times without incident, but 270 is a significant number.
"There is something about those individuals that make them susceptible when shocked with these weapons, but no one can say what," says Dinsmore.
- NZPA