Since last November, when a video spread via YouTube featuring UCLA campus police using a Taser on an Iranian student, questions once again arose concerning whether the Tasering constituted excessive force. According to a complaint filed after the incident, witnesses contended that the student, Mostafa Tabatabainejad, was in a student library, did not supply officers with identification and was stunned with the Taser after being handcuffed.
But across the nation, Tasers are becoming more common on campuses and within police departments. Police officers claim that electroshock weapons drastically reduce firearms-related deaths. “The Taser provides our officers with the least intrusive, safest and most effective method of subduing a combative suspect,” said Cincinnati’s Chief of Police Thomas Streicher.
This sentiment is shared in police departments across the nation, including within the Eugene Police Department.
The EPD is taking the last steps of finalizing a Taser program. But first the department must conduct a four-month pilot program to determine what an efficacious and safe Taser program constitutes.
The last thing any department wants is another UCLA incident. Or worse.
According to Amnesty International, which classifies Tasers as inhumane weapons, 61 people died of Taser shocks in 2005, a 27 percent increase from the year before. Amnesty International correlates the percentage increase to the proliferation of Tasers within law enforcement.
Despite these numbers, the EPD should pursue its Taser program. Law enforcement should be given the best, most effective tools available in order to prevent shooting deaths and provide safety to officers and citizens. Tasers can be deadly, but they are less deadly than firearms, which are sometimes used in wrongful deaths by police officers, including the infamous shooting of Amadou Diallo in New York City.
By taking cautious steps toward instituting a Taser program, the EPD shows that it is committed to evaluating the pros and cons to Taser usage. We all want our citizens to remain safe. We also want our law enforcement to remain safe. And we must speak loudly and declare our insistence that the abuse of Tasers by law enforcement will not be tolerated.
Still, the EPD is taking the proper first steps and appears to recognize the concerns of opponents to Taser usage. If its program is instituted and followed properly, then citizens and students of Eugene can feel assured that a repeat of the UCLA accident will not occur.