The San Francisco Police Commission recently voted 6-1 to explore the use of Taser devices among law enforcement agencies in the city. Though similar efforts to bring Taser guns to San Francisco were defeated in 2004 and 2010, the Police Commission had a change of heart, with many of its city leaders supporting the idea.
San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee went on record as supporting “researching Tasers” in an effort to “explore possible alternatives to lethal force;” however, Taser guns have not been proven to lower victim shootings, officer-related shootings, or lawsuits. In many cases, Taser guns become just another weapon used disproportionately against African Americans, having little to no impact on the incidence of abuse in our communities.
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The debate in San Francisco has grown particularly contentious as a result of several officer-involved shootings of mentally ill people, but the implications of bringing Taser use to San Francisco are much broader. Kevin Martin, the Vice President of the Police Officers Association has challenged San Francisco’s Commission on whether they would like to see “lethal force or nonlethal force…[because] they can’t have it both ways;” but for many African-American communities, Taser use and lethal force are one in the same.
According to the Stanford University Criminal Justice Center, the use of Tasers by law enforcement officers is almost entirely unregulated; however, more than 14,000 police agencies are estimated to use Tasers, despite the fact that the United Nations and Amnesty International have declared them “torture devices.” Many of the major civil rights and civil liberties organizations also oppose their use. In a recent statement, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area declared that authorizing the use of Tasers in San Francisco “will damage the Department’s relationship with communities of color, as community members are increasingly subjected to unnecessary pain, humiliation, and potentially lethal force.”
According to a study by UCSF, in the first year of Taser use, sudden deaths among people in custody rise by 544 percent. The same study found that for every three people shot by police prior to the introduction of Tasers, seven were shot in the first year of Taser use. The most recent example of this is Officer Johannes Mehserle, the infamous Bay Area Rapid Transit officer who fatally shot Oscar Grant on the platform of an Oakland train station. Throughout his defense, Mehserle claimed that he thought he was using his Taser; when in fact, he used the more lethal alternative.
In Cincinnati, an African-American marketing executive suffered from a diabetic seizure and was Tasered by a Sheriff—and act that has reportedly prompted a new lawsuit against the department. Even conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was reportedly “outraged” by the use of a Taser to subdue his nephew, who suffered a massive epileptic seizure as a result of the jolt. In short, the misuse of Taser guns, particularly against African-Americans, is widespread.
Historically, law enforcements’ arsenal of weapons has been influenced by negative social biases against African-Americans, a phenomenon which criminologist Shaun Gabbidon calls “blackaphobia,” which is documented in the volume of essays edited by Ray Kedia, Black on Black Crime: Facing Facts-Challenging Fictions [Wydham Hall Press:1994]. In the early 1900s, for example, police agencies upgraded their firearms to a .38 caliber weapon, because of a racist myth that African Americans were addicted to cocaine use and that it made their skin impervious to the .32 caliber bullets.
To this day, African-Americans are the most likely group to be shot by law enforcement and to have Taser guns used against them. A 2008 study of Taser use in Houston found that African-American and Latino residents were disproportionately impacted by the use of Tasers, and that white and Latino officers were more likely than African-American officers to use their Tasers on African-American suspects.
Tasers appear to continue — and in some ways — exacerbate the ongoing concerns in African American communities about excessive police force. We don’t want more weapons to choose from, we want changes in the practical use of force so that our communities are protected, not harmed. The real alternative to lethal force is an investment in adequate training to support objective decision-making (challenging unconscious bias) in police academies, COPS programs, and among other police training and standards commissions across the country. Rather than expanding the number and type of weapons law enforcement can use when seeking to protect our communities, policymakers should ensure that police officers know when to use (or not to use) firearms or other weapons as well as they know how to use these forces.
From San Francisco and Houston to Chicago and Florida, as municipal law enforcement agencies across the country continue to examine the effects of the controversial Taser gun, they should be honest about what happens when Tasers are introduced to law enforcement agencies and be prepared to measure the potential impact on African Americans and other people of color. Whether Tasers, batons, or firearms—a weapon by any name is designed to hurt and can potentially kill. Until Taser use is regulated and its affects fully understood by medical professionals and policymakers alike, their use should be restricted, and maybe even prohibited.