Tasers

[spenac]

Also, while I can understand certain hours in the middle of the night having a decrease in LEO availability, the concept of zero availability at any time is one I find truly disturbing.

Welcome to rural America. My community of 7000 has 3 police officers. My county of almost 6000 square miles has 4 sherifs deputies. There are a lot of hours that no one is patrolling. There is someone on call but that does not help when you get called for pneumonia an hour from town and you find someone with as we call it "traumatic" pneumonia, in other words they had the hell beat out of them. You are all alone in a dangerous situation. You always have to be prepared to defend.

[brentoli]

Why are we willing to put the thousands of dollars into training:

Taser Training

Weapon Retention

Evasive Manuvers

Hand to Hand Combat

Restraint

Liablity

Then the thousands of dollars into extra liability insurance.

Not to mention the headlines "EMT KILLS SUBJECT WITH TASER"

I know no death has been attributed soley to a taser... but the media will say other wise.

Seems like that money could be used on other things. More education, QA, better equipment. But what do I know.

EDIT: The training I listed, is the training at a minimum I would require my people to have if they carried Tasers. And I know that right there is 2 - 4 weeks at the police acadamey.

[dahlio]

We have enough weapons on us if needed as it is. Your radio, your oxygen, your trauma shears only to name a few. Adding something that is a weapon isn't in my job description. Sounds like one more thing to put on my batman belt :roll:. Wouldn't a tazer be a little more than self defense?

Sounds like a lawsuit in the making.

To really answer the question, neither service that I work for have tazors, nor have I heard one that does.

[Dustdevil]

Adding something that is a weapon isn't in my job description.

Nobody said anything about it being your job. This isn't about your job. This is about your personal safety, and some people understandably have some concerns about that, and are looking for options.

Sounds like one more thing to put on my batman belt :roll:.

So don't carry it. Nobody's even suggesting you should. :roll:

Wouldn't a tazer be a little more than self defense?

Spoken like somebody who's never had his arse kicked.

Sounds like a lawsuit in the making.

So is your radio, your oxygen, your trauma shears, your flashlight, and your boots if you use them inappropriately. Instruments are neither defensive nor offensive in nature. It's all in what you do with them.

Brent, you are right about the impracticality of the implementation. The necessary training would come close to equalling the total amount of training in EMT school itself. There's not a chance in hell that I would invest that kind of money into taser training or deployment for a workforce of three-week wonders who rarely stay on the job for more than a couple of years. But, I would not have to either. I am not issuing them. They are not part of the job requirement. They are a personal item carried by the individual according to his own threat assessment. If I as an employer establish any policy regarding proper training and such, then at that time I set myself up for liability. Ignorance is bliss.

I do, however, disagree with you regarding the agency's liability in the matter. Cops use these things for a lot more things than self-defence. They use them for restraint and apprehension, which we would not be doing. That almost entirely eliminates the liability scenario.

[dahlio]

So is your radio, your oxygen, your trauma shears, your flashlight, and your boots if you use them inappropriately. Instruments are neither defensive nor offensive in nature. It's all in what you do with them.

I understand the personal protection thing, and you're right, I havn't had my arse handing to myself on an ambulance. Tazors look like you're out to hurt someone since they aren't typically on an ambulance. The difference with your radio or your boot, is that it's typically on an ems worker, and tazors are not. Tazors serve one purpose, and radios and boots don't. They have a place in ems.

[Dustdevil]

The difference with your radio or your boot, is that it's typically on an ems worker, and tazors are not. Tazors serve one purpose, and radios and boots don't. They have a place in ems.

But that's not very progressive thinking. Defibrillators weren't typically on an EMS worker when I started in the biz. Should we always do only what we've only done? Of course not. Adapt and evolve as a profession, or stagnate and die like the dinosaurs. That means, when a need is recognised, it should be addressed specifically, not incidentally. Self defence is the very last place in life that you want to be improvising on the spot. In order to be effective, you have to have a plan, be well trained and practised in that plan, and be ready to implement it.

Richard, the concept of 'no coverage' is not altogether uncommon in rural America. I've worked where I was the only deputy in the county on an overnight shift before. If I needed backup, I just had to pray that at least one of the one-man town PDs in the county had somebody on the streets who could drive thirty minutes to help me. That was twenty years ago, and things have changed in that county, but not in a lot of South Texas counties, especially those on the border.