By Jody Lawrence
The Spokesman Review
SPOKANE COUNTY, Wash. — Based on the opinion of the Spokane County Medical Examiner, Spokane’s law enforcement leaders are instructing deputies and officers to limit the number of times a Taser is used on a person.
“I asked Dr. (Sally) Aiken if it (the use) should be stopped,” said Spokane Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick. “She said ‘no, but using it more than two or three times is concerning.’
“At this point, I’m going to take my direction from the medical examiner,” Kirkpatrick said Tuesday.
The conversation about Taser use arose with the medical examiner when the Spokane Police and Spokane County Sheriff’s Office began receiving training on “excited delirium,” which is described as a mix of extreme mental and physical excitement, often fueled by drugs or alcohol, that can trigger a medical emergency.
Kirkpatrick and Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich consulted the medical examiner about Tasers and hobbling - a restraint technique in which a person’s arms and legs are tied together behind the back.
“Our message to her: If we are doing anything wrong, we will stop or change it,” Kirkpatrick said.
While the sheriff’s office hasn’t officially changed its Taser use policy, Knezovich said the message being given to deputies is “if the Taser isn’t working after two or three times, you need to use something else.”
Kirkpatrick discussed her conversations with Aiken at the Spokane City Council’s Public Safety Committee meeting on Monday.
Councilman Bob Apple, a member of the three-member committee, asked Kirkpatrick to give a presentation on Taser use.
“While we may understand why they are a good tool for law enforcement,” Apple said. “I think it’s important for the public to know.”
The topic came up because of a Taser’s use on July 26 in an attempt to detain a suicidal man after a 20-hour standoff on the Monroe Street Bridge. The 28-year-old man, who had been recently released from a state hospital, agreed to come off the ledge. Officers attempted to Taser him, but only one probe made contact, according to previous news accounts. He got back on the railing and jumped to his death.
Apple said he understood Spokane Police used the Taser because of an officer safety issue.
The councilman, a harsh critic of police use of force, said “rather than grabbing the person, rather than shooting someone, the Taser is a good option.
“It has its purpose,” Apple said.
While Tasers are often a controversial subject, Kirkpatrick said, in her experience, it wasn’t too long ago that people were insisting law enforcement use less-than-lethal tools, and at the time it was the Taser.
Residents in the Puget Sound area communities were upset after Seattle police shot and killed a mentally ill man in April 2000.
The insistence of a less-than-lethal option was at a peak in 2001, when Kirkpatrick was interviewing for the chief’s position at the Federal Way Police Department. Tasers were a hot issue, she said.
When Kirkpatrick was hired as chief, she immediately started working to get the force equipped, she said.
But as the controversy over Tasers has gone up, Taser usage in Spokane has gone down.
For the Spokane Police Department, Taser use has decreased every year for the last five years.
Out of nearly 114,000 calls for police service in 2006, the Taser was used 44 times, which included 32 touch stuns and 12 probe deployments. In 2005, the Taser was used 85 times.
So far in 2007, it has been used 18 times, which includes eight probe deployments.
TOUCH STUN VS. PROBE
Drive or touch stun: The Taser is held against the target with the cartridge removed. This causes significant localized pain in the area but does not have a significant effect on the central nervous system and may assist in taking a subject into custody.
Probe: The Taser’s cartridge is fired, and the probes/darts make direct contact with the subject. Proper application will result in temporary immobilization of the subject and provide the officer a “window of opportunity” in which to take the subject safely into custody.
Copyright 2007 The Spokesman Review