Confusion between firearms and electrical weapons as a factor in police shootings.
Forensic Sci Med Pathol
; 18(3): 280-287, 2022 09.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-35067809
ABSTRACT
Conducted electrical weapons (CEW) have risks including trauma associated with uncontrolled falls, probes penetrating the eye, and fume ignition. A lesser-known risk is weapon-confusion error with officers mistakenly discharging their firearm when they intended to deploy their electrical weapon. We searched for incidents of possible weapon confusion with the TASER® brand CEWs via open-source media, litigation filings, and a survey of CEW law enforcement master instructors. We found 19 incidents of possible CEW weapon confusion in law enforcement field uses from January 2001 to April 2021. We eliminated a case as not meeting our criteria for probable weapons confusion leaving 18 cases, thus giving a demonstrated CEW discharge risk of 3.9 per million with confidence limits (2.4-6.2 per million) by Wilson score interval. Ipsilateral carry of the weapons was historically correlated with increased risk vs. contralateral carry. Officer gender was not a predictor of weapon confusion. The psychological issues behind weapon confusion under stress are discussed. The concurrent carry of electrical weapons and firearms presents a very small but real risk of injury and death from confusion between an electrical weapon and a firearm.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Armas de Fuego
/
Policia
Tipo de estudio:
Prognostic_studies
Límite:
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Forensic Sci Med Pathol
Asunto de la revista:
JURISPRUDENCIA
/
MEDICINA
/
PATOLOGIA
Año:
2022
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Estados Unidos