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Opinions on Taser use
Rack Ops
Member Posts: 18,596 ✭✭✭
This one may be controversial, I'd like to hear some opinions. This incident occured at a local hospital.
About a week ago, two nurses, who had just finished their shifts, were standing in the parking lot chatting. Two males approached them, yelling at the nurses as they moved closer. The nurses were spooked enough to run back into the hospital, with the male subjects chasing behind. To shorten the story the nurses got away and reported it to hospital security, who did manage to get the incident on video, but were unable to locate the two males...
The next day, one of the security guards sees someone who he believes is one of the males from the day before. He approaches the guy in order to find out who he is. The guy runs and the security guard gives chase....
The security guard radios that he is chasing a male across the hospital parking lot. The radio call is heard by another guard who is on a bike. As the guard on the bike catches up to the (still running) subject, the guy reaches into his jacket pocket, pulls out something, and begins to turn....
The guard, fearing for his safety, pulls out his taser and drops the guy.....Turns out the object in question was a cell phone
The cops show up and I.D. the subject.....The guy is wanted for Robbery and Burglary..........and has a couple grand worth of cocaine (in baggies) in his pockets. Off to jail he goes...
Now the rumor is that the cops are considering charging the guard with assault
Opinions?
About a week ago, two nurses, who had just finished their shifts, were standing in the parking lot chatting. Two males approached them, yelling at the nurses as they moved closer. The nurses were spooked enough to run back into the hospital, with the male subjects chasing behind. To shorten the story the nurses got away and reported it to hospital security, who did manage to get the incident on video, but were unable to locate the two males...
The next day, one of the security guards sees someone who he believes is one of the males from the day before. He approaches the guy in order to find out who he is. The guy runs and the security guard gives chase....
The security guard radios that he is chasing a male across the hospital parking lot. The radio call is heard by another guard who is on a bike. As the guard on the bike catches up to the (still running) subject, the guy reaches into his jacket pocket, pulls out something, and begins to turn....
The guard, fearing for his safety, pulls out his taser and drops the guy.....Turns out the object in question was a cell phone
The cops show up and I.D. the subject.....The guy is wanted for Robbery and Burglary..........and has a couple grand worth of cocaine (in baggies) in his pockets. Off to jail he goes...
Now the rumor is that the cops are considering charging the guard with assault
Opinions?
Comments
Why should he be charged? Looks like he did a good job to me.
According to the story I've heard, the cops are saying:
A) He had no buisness chasing the guy to begin with...
(Forgot to mention this in the story)
But as the law is not enforced by Judge Dredd, there are things called extenuating circumstances. And given the situation the night before, his actions were understandable. For all the security guards knew, this guy was looking to rape someone.
I say give him a medal and a verbal warning to be more careful in the future - it worked out for the best and people should not be punished for doing good.
No right to chase?
The fact that the subject took off running when approached by the first officer would lead a reasonable person to believe that he was committing some offense, even if it was only trespassing.
No right to detain?
In California, security officers only have the right to citizens' arrest if they witness a misdemeanor or witness or are reasonably led to believe a felony has been committed, same as any citizen.
The main limit on private security companys's behavior is the contract they have with the client, as most clients specifically restrict their guards for liability reasons. Armed guards are rare. "Observe and report" is the mantra for security officers, in other words let crimes take place right in front of you and just be a good witness.
I'm shocked that these guards were allowed to have TASERs. I worked security for a large hospital once upon a time, and we were prohibited from carrying any kind of stick, spray, or large flashlight, only the supervisors were allowed to carry handcuffs, and we were prohibited from wearing vests.
I suspect that there may be some bad blood between this guard outfit and the local police. It's hard to imagine them being charged if the two guards had been regular coworkers of the nurses.
rider
I would like to point out that the guard who tased the perp was unaware of the circumstances of the chase. He simply responded to the initial guard's call for assistance.
I'm still from the old school of thought that if you run, you are guilty of something. That is reason enough for me to assume when they turn with something in their hand, it's not going to be a bouquet of roses. Tasers are non lethal, so I would say the security guard did a good job.
Agreed.
I say use them more.
No, police shouldn't carry any sort of weapons at all, just a whistle. When someone runs or resists, the officer should blow his whistle. It's very intimidating, and works well in England.
By the way, what color is the sky on your planet?
quote:Then I guess the police should just taser everyone on initial contact, eh? After all, it's harmless. Unless, of course, you happen to have a preexisting heart condition or something... But you can't blame the taser. You were going to die some day anyway.
No, police shouldn't carry any sort of weapons at all, just a whistle. When someone runs or resists, the officer should blow his whistle. It's very intimidating, and works well in England.
By the way, what color is the sky on your planet?
[:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]
what happened to citizens arrest and probable cause? give the guard a medal. another slimeball off the streets
Citizens arrest requires the person to be in the process of committing a crime, just seeing a guy that might be the guy from before (who was not guilty of any major crime- yet- maybe disturbing the peace/harassment for yelling at the nurses), is not sufficient to effect a citizens arrest.
Some things sound suspicious - if you are running, just as someone catches up to you, why would you suddenly pull out your cell phone? but if you shot someone with a taser without cause, you can always claim "I saw him pull something out of his jacket", and then claim its a benign object if there is no weapon (and you aren't so corrupt to plant one).
Running is not sufficient to assign blame, though it sure is suspicious.
I'd let it slide in this case.
He was wanted after all, there doesn't appear to have been further abuse (like multiple taserings) and no innocents were harmed.
Cops, who are given positions of authority, I would hold to higher standards.
Different courts have different standards for what constitutes a "breach of the peace." Some will limit it to offenses included under the Disorderly Conduct statute, while others will include just about any offense, since all complaints for all offenses have to be styled, "...against the peace and dignity of the State of Texas."
Margaret Thatcher
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
Mark Twain
No, police shouldn't carry any sort of weapons at all, just a whistle. When someone runs or resists, the officer should blow his whistle. It's very intimidating, and works well in England.
Just don't blow it too loud - you might lower their self esteem or hurt their feelings[:0]
Fact is, he got a bad guy of the street.
I say, charge him with nothing, give him a verbal or written "warning" and maybe a medal or some kind of paid vaccation time or something.
Somebody got a bug up his nose about the use of the TASER, did a search, and bumped a couple of old threads.
Doing a search for all long dead threads that revolve around a particular subject - even though you never felt inspired to respond to these at the time they were current - and bumping them up to the top is odd behavior.
'Stirring' seems fairly accurate.
Unless they are for rememberance of those passed, as I've seen. Then leave it holstered.
When I saw the thread I was wondering if my acct had been hacked [:)]
BTW: To the best of my knowledge the guard was never charged.