Maryland cops’ Taser use mostly unnecessary: Research
A new study shows police in the US State of Maryland regularly ignore safety guidelines and use Tasers in non-threatening situations.
According to a Baltimore Sun database of reported Taser use by Maryland police from 2012 to 2014, state officers used Taser guns in nearly 3,000 incidents during the period.
The research shows almost 60 percent of tased victims were described as noncompliant and non-threatening. More than two-thirds of them were African-Americans.
The study said only 20 percent of suspects who were tased were armed with a weapon and only two percent were in possession of a gun.
Police fired the weapon for longer than 15 seconds in one out of every ten incidents.
Officers shot Tasers at the chest of victims in 119 incidents in 2014, although the weapon has been known to cause cardiac arrest in such cases.
Reports say Tasers or similar stun guns have resulted in more than 400 deaths in the US since 2009.
California has the highest number of fatalities at 60, while Maryland ranks in the top 15 with 11 deaths; five of which were as a result of Tasers being used for longer than recommended.
Police brutality has become a major concern across the nation in recent years.
The US Justice Department is under intense pressure to review the use of brutal force by law enforcement officers.
A recent study has found that almost half of the people who die at the hands of the US police have some kind of mental or physical disability. The findings also reveal that most of the victims have been killed in situations where lethal force was not needed.
Police in the United States killed over 1,150 people in 2015, with the largest police departments disproportionately killing at least 321 African Americans, according to data compiled by an activist group that runs the Mapping Police Violence project.
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