By ELIZABETH PEER
news@ColumbiaMissourian.com

Imagine 50,000 volts of electricity running through your body for five seconds, the standard length of each burst by a Taser gun.

Muscles contract uncontrollably, pain shoots through the body and breathing becomes labored. You drop, dazed and disoriented, to the ground.

Police departments around the globe have adopted the Taser, an electroshock weapon, as a way to subdue an attacker without resorting to force that may be more lethal.

Like other cities, states and countries, Columbia is in the middle of a debate about when and how Tasers should be used by police as a less dangerous way to handle a potentially threatening situation.

Taser is the most popular brand name for a conductive energy device that works by incapacitating the neurological system. Taser guns fire projectiles that transmit electric shocks through a thin wire, unlike stun guns, stun batons and electroshock belts that deliver shocks by direct contact.

Although the devices are used as substitutes for bullet-firing weapons, casualties from Tasers across the globe have led to accusations and lawsuits. Disputes range from allegations of racism to claims of excessive or negligent use of force by law enforcement.

Columbia’s police department began using Tasers in January 2006, and its experience mirrors the contrasting outcomes seen by municipalities throughout the world.

On July 25, 45-year-old Phillip Lee McDuffy threatened to jump from the Providence Road and Interstate 70 overpass, reportedly distraught over a recent breakup.

In a botched effort to remove and restrain McDuffy, police took two Taser shots, the second causing the man to fall from the overpass and sustain multiple injuries, including a broken jaw and two broken arms.

A little more than month later, 23-year-old Stanley James William Harlan of Moberly was killed in a Taser-related incident. The device was used after Harlan reportedly did not comply with attempts to handcuff him after he was stopped by Moberly police on suspicion of drunk driving.

Harlan became unresponsive and stopped breathing soon after, and he died approximately two hours later at Moberly Regional Medical Center. Earlier this month, the Randolph County coroner ruled Harlan’s death a homicide.

But Tasers are also credited with saving lives, Columbia police officers say.

In August, police stunned a 38-year-old man into submission after he threatened to commit suicide with a knife. In October, police used the device on a 33-year-old woman who posed the same type of risk to herself, or others.

In both cases, police determined that the Taser allowed officers to gain control over dangerous situations without causing death or serious injury.

“What it boils down to is that a Taser can be used to incapacitate someone short of a more serious form of force,” said former Los Angeles police officer David Klinger, now an associate professor in the University of Missouri-St. Louis Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice.

Ultimately, that is the rationale for using the device for protection, whether by police or citizens.

Taser International, the company that produces the device, claims “the success of Taser programs has been in reducing injuries to officers and suspects compared to traditional pain compliance tools such as fists, tackles, baton strikes, and impact weapons.”

Yet, according to Amnesty International, which seeks a moratorium on Taser use, the devices have killed 320 people in the United States since 2001. Taser International disputes that figure.

The Government Accountability Office reported in 2006 that Tasers have been used by at least 7,000 of 18,000 law enforcement agencies across the United States, including the Columbia Police Department. An additional 100,000 Tasers are in the hands of individual civilians.

A review by Mark Kroll, a biomedical engineer at the University of Minnesota, counted a total of 1.4 million Taser hits as of July 2008. Records compiled by the Columbia Police Department count 69 incidents of Taser use.

While praised as a tool that replaces deadly ammunition, the shock device has also been at the center of numerous legal disputes. More than 70 lawsuits have been filed against its manufacturer, most often after a death does, in fact, occur.

For years, Taser International executives noted that the company never technically lost a product-liability or wrongful-death lawsuit. The cases against it had been dismissed or decided in the company’s favor. In some cases, Taser International agreed to settle with plaintiffs.

Then in June, a California jury awarded $6.2 million to a family after a man high on methamphetamines became violent and was shocked multiple times with a Taser. The amount was later reduced to $150,000.

Since June, the City Council, law enforcement officials and advocacy groups have tangled over Taser safety after the Columbia Police Department announced it would add 40 Tasers to the force using grant money from the U.S. Department of Justice. The department already owned 38 Tasers, purchased since 2005.

In response to community concern, the Police Department held public information sessions on Tasers, hoping to assure residents that the devices were safe and appropriately used.

It also released a multimedia report on the McDuffy incident and issued 910 pages of incident reports that document both appropriate and improper Taser use.

Still, it appears that some critics remain unconvinced of the weapon’s safety.

Taser use in mid-Missouri this year has raised some important questions: Should Tasers be considered lethal or non-lethal weapons? When is it appropriate to use a Taser?

How should the device be regulated for law enforcement? Is it appropriate to use Tasers on the mentally ill or those under the influence of a controlled substance?

While there are no clear and obvious answers about parameters for Taser use, Columbia’s citizens are not alone as they ponder a proper course.

To provide insight and help answer the prevailing questions, a 27-member team of reporters, including six foreign journalism, worked on special assignment for the Missourian to compare Columbia’s experience with Tasers to that of other jurisdictions.

The research demonstrates that Columbia is not the only community struggling to sort through the possible merits and drawbacks of Taser use.

How safe are electronic shock devices?

One of the primary issues surrounding Taser use is whether it is safe for use on the human body. After a Taser-related death, a number of variables may contribute to possible causes, but the impact of each one is difficult to isolate.

“People get shocked all the time,” said Greg Flaker, an electrophysiologist at University Hospital. “We don’t understand why people die under this. We are at the very beginning phase of understanding what is going on.”

The most prominent theories of death are ventricular fibrillation and excited delirium.

The electronic shock given by the Taser can cause dysrhythmia, or heartbeat irregularities such as ventricular fibrillation, which in extreme situations can lead to death.

In other cases, the shock can exacerbate the effects of substances such as drugs inside the human body, a phenomenon called excited delirium. Thus far, the American medical community has not accepted the existence of this condition, but evidence is accumulating to indicate that substances in the body may react to extreme force, such as the electronic shock from a Taser, resulting in a stopped heart.

A number of studies have tried to identify a cause-and-effect relationship between Tasers and these medical problems, but so far none have been conclusive.

Flaker is conducting an ongoing trial of the effects of Tasers on the hearts of pigs because of the physiological similarities to human hearts, but he so far has not witnessed any dysrhythmia after shocking the animals.

Studies looking at the effects of electronic shock on individuals under the influence of drugs has indicated their presence actually may increase resistance to dysrhythmia caused by electronic shock.

The National Institute of Justice has doctors reviewing 10 cases where excited delirium was seen as contributing to the cause of death. The committee will present the results next month in Washington, D.C.

Taser-related deaths prompt varied reactions

When Summit County, Ohio, medical examiner Lisa Kohler cited Tasers as a contributing factor in the deaths of three men, Taser International challenged her medical opinion in court and won.

Three Akron men died after struggles with police, and in one case prison guards, during which they were all shocked multiple times.

One man had a cut that severed an artery. Toxicology reports also showed he was high on methamphetamine and oxycodone. Drugs and alcohol also were complicating factors in the other two incidents.

The case presented by the company in four days of proceedings persuaded the judge to instruct Kohler to delete all references to Tasers and electrical pulse incapacitation in the autopsy reports and death certificates of the men.

In New York City, the police department is reviewing its policy on Tasers after a naked man fell to his death in Brooklyn in September.

An order to hit Iman Morales with the device caused the 35-year-old man to tumble 10 feet to the pavement below his apartment building.

The lieutenant who issued the order committed suicide Oct. 2.

New York police say the lieutenant’s actions deviated from official policy. Tasers are not to be used from above-ground locations without an inflatable cushion in place.

These deaths occurred shortly after a directive by the NYPD had encouraged police to use Tasers more often. The directive came after police shot a man with 50 bullets outside a New York nightclub on his wedding day.

Taser cameras permit post-incident review

Technology is now on the market that allows officials to review a situation. It can confirm that a Taser was used correctly or offer tangible evidence of debatable usage.

Video cameras attached to the Taser can now record a situation automatically from the moment the device is turned on. These Taser Cams provide a way for police and the public to settle controversy.

Steve Tuttle, vice president of Taser International, said 20,000 Taser Cams have been sold in the United States, and more than 1,800 law enforcement agencies use them.

Next year, the Taser AXON goes on the market, adding retroactive recording while a Taser is in use. AXON’s microphone and earpiece can pick up conversation on two-way radios while a camera continues to record the scene.

“It’s recording nonstop, but it’s not saving,” Tuttle said. “We don’t want to be Big Brother.”

Not every police officer has access to Tasers

Some law enforcement agencies have decided Tasers aren’t suitable in their weapons arsenal. Boston’s police department, for example, has chosen not to employ Tasers despite the fact that they are legal for law enforcement use in the state.

“My concern was some questionable incidents where people died during the use of Tasers,” Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis told the Boston Herald.

It is illegal for civilians to own them in Massachusetts and six other states. Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia are among cities that ban Tasers for private citizens.

New Jersey is the only state that prohibits Tasers for both civilians and law enforcement officers. Even though their states allow them, police departments in Jacksonville, Fla., and Birmingham, Ala., have rejected Taser use.

Some states, including Connecticut and Illinois, permit Tasers only for home protection, while Indiana requires Taser owners to have a handgun license.

Appropriate use of these weapons continues to spark debate. Whether in the hands of law enforcement or civilians, citizens are deciding it is important to address the possible effects Taser use will have both physically and psychologically upon society.

“It’s just going to take a while for people to figure out what the circumstances clearly are when it should be used,” said Klinger, the UMSL criminal justice professor.

Dan Angell, Geoff George, Stephanie Levy, Alex Lundy, Katie Micik, Ryan Owens, Will Palaszczuk, Jonathan Reinisch, Rachel Schroeder and Michael Stonacek contributed to this report.