Philly tasered 17year old

Bones no hard feelings here I am not wishing to change peoples opinions but more so to maybe explain why some things police do are looked at as excessive.

Best way I can explain this personally is this....I have been shot at on a traffic stop and I have personally seen officers killed also upon approach of a vehicle stopped in traffic. Not so long ago I stopped a 52 year old grandfather on his way to the hospital to see his wife. Now I did not know his business when I stopped him and all I knew is that he was running 75 in a 35 mph zone and ran 3 red lights.

He was a local professor and had never had any issues with police in his life. When I activated my lights he slammed on his brakes and to my suprise opened his door to step out of the car. Yes I drew my weapon and pointed it right at him while screaming "turn around and place both hands on your vehicle"

He was trying to explain his situation however all I knew was at that point he was considered a threat....and yes I was thinking of all the videos I had watched of officers being killed while on traffic stops. I waited for a back up unit before I approached further and once we checked both him and his vehicle I allowed him to explain his actions.

Well I checked his story out and with no NCIC record I let him off with a warning and even escorted him safely to the hospital to see his wife who was in critical condition......guess what....the following day I had to give a statement on an official complaint where the man filed a complaint on me. He said I pointed a weapon at him for "no reason" Sometimes we simply can not win as I was nice to this man and explained my actions on scene were based on me not knowing his intentions and past experiences.

Well the complaint was thrown out as unfounded and I am sure to this day that man speaks very poorly of any police he may see. I am also sure he looks at any police action as excessive. My point is that any reasonable officer who knows the real danger will react the same. These reactions are often not understood by those who are not in the field and while we do understand this it still frustrates us to see so many claiming police are just power hungry fools who enjoy hurting innocent people for no reason.

The truth is that with todays technology police can not do anything at all without being heard or seen. I have full time audio and video running 24-7 both in my patrol car as well as my body microphone. I am attached to a GPS real time tracker and even have audio and video attached to my taser. These systems have no manual dis-connect and are reviewed daily by an entire team of people who do nothing more than check our daily work.

Every violent incident is recorded and even routine conversations between citizens. Believe me when I say that we are under a microscope much more than any civilian and when taking any action it better be correct or we will be quickly terminated. The system has really actually helped with complaints as when many file an excessive force comlaint it is usually not found to be excessive....maybe to the average citizen yes however fully within policy.

I was so proud to get my badge and wore that uniform with pride for many years. I still do have pride however have grown bitter from years of learning just how society, and the news media, often portray police in a negative light. Yes we must have a system of checks and balances as I do understand many officers would abuse their power if left unchecked. As in any profession that percentage is very small however most professions will not get you killed if you hesitate out of fear of what others will think of your actions.

Enjoyed the read here and again no ill feelings for I will continue to patrol every night and hope for the best...

 

My concern with the use of tasers is that some police/security officers seem to consider them non-lethal rather then less then lethal weapons.

As I'm not a law enforcement officer, and as mentioned above, they are under a great deal of scrutiny. I will let the sections of law enforcement who have both the responsibility and the experience to determine if use of force was excessive do so.

99.9% of the cops I've met have been good people just trying to keep people safe. Thank you for your service.

 

Leadgolem you are very welcome and thank you for supporting your local officers...

Taser Inc. has an entire team of people who defend officers every year on incidents involving tasers. There is not one single case (that I know of) where it has been proven the taser was the single cause of death. I was personally involved in a case where a man died from a taser activation.

The man was nude walking down the street and was 6'2 and 345 lbs...he was later found to have high doses of meth in his system as well as various other drugs. When myself and my trainee approached he was sweating like crazy and breathing very hard. He tried to grab a female medic and while doing so grabbed her scissors she had in her coat pocket. When he stabbed the medic I had to react and just began swinging like crazy as I was already way too close to him anyway.

Now I am a pretty big dude and this man was slinging me around like a rag doll. My partner tasered the man and he went down however his wrists were too big for my cuffs. The taser shot lasts for 5 seconds and after that you must reload . My partner did just that and shot him a second time as he was still fighting after the first shot.

He went down and stayed down and the medics were already on scene however he died about 5 minutes later. There was a huge investigation and it was shown the suspect had an already enlarged heart....several blocked arteries...huge amounts of narcotics in his system...and was suffering from a heat stroke as well. It was said that he would have most likely died as a result of any physical effort and the taser did not cause the death.

I have about 900 officers in my Dept. and yes we all had to get shot with the taser before we could carry it on duty. I took two 5 second rides and man it was not fun at all. Myself nor any of my co-workers had any ill effects and they come in all shapes and sizes as well as various stages of health. The taser works and is proven to be less harmful than baton strikes. It works so well they are now offering several different types of delivery system such as a shotgun round taser and even a taser net for large crowd control.

If it were dangerous it would never be allowed in todays over sensitive society. It looks painful and sounds worse to see it deployed however since its introduction officer, and suspect, injuries have dropped by huge numbers.

 

x2........I consider those the same as soldiers overseas fighting to protect our country, just on a local level. The overall job being done far outweighs any negative a few misguided or overzealous ones can ever stir up. Thank you for your service.

 

Leave a name w/ the gray, pussy. You know who you are.

 

Gray is neutral from new members Matt, it's all they can leave.

 

Yeah, but when the message is "suck up," I tend to think it's not a well-wishing noob.

 

Grey is also neg rep from anyone. Lets knock the rep chat off and get back to the topic??

 

Unless I'm behind on the news, I think that the LEO was cleared by his superior, and the kid apologized..."case" closed.

 

Good.

 

He deserved to get tasered. I was at the game and the kid was running around for quite a while. Stupid kids need to learn lessons the hard way. For people who say that it was too violent or too agressive for the fans, the kids loved it more than the home runs. There was a family behind me with three little kids that all loved it.