Police officers in five states sue Taser over training injuries

By Vince Mancini

Published on August 22, 2005

The suits, all filed in the past two weeks, include officers from Kansas, Missouri, Florida, New Mexico, and Ohio.

One plaintiff, a police chief from Hallsville, Missouri, claims he suffered heart damage and two strokes when he volunteered to be shocked while hooked up to a cardiac monitor as a way to demonstrate the safety of his Taser to his officers in April 2004. The man also claims progressive hearing and vision loss as well as neurological damage.

Plaintiffs in the other four suits claim to have been injured during training between August 2003 and October 2004. They allege that Taser instructors did not reveal any information suggesting that the guns could cause injuries, and that the company ignored research suggesting that the guns could be extremely dangerous, if not fatal.

The suits claim that Taser as aware of injuries to other officers but did nothing to warn police departments.

Comment on this article →