Taser precision / Houston police have a hard job, but stun guns may make it easier at some citizens' expense.

STAFF Sun 08/24/2008 Houston Chronicle, Section Outlook, Page 2, 3 STAR Edition

THE Houston Police Department, over the course of four years of Taser use, has investigated 69 cases in which a complaint was made about how an officer discharged the stun device. The fact that only five of those complaints were sustained gives less comfort than might be apparent at first glance.

According to reporting by Houston Chronicle writer Roma Khanna, police found no wrongdoing in some 1,700 incidences between December 2004 and May 2008 in which an officer intentionally fired a Taser. Among the incidents that came under scrutiny but went unpunished was a case in which a cop shocked his own stepson, and one in which the officer discharged his stun gun on a 59-year-old woman during a police call over a dry-cleaning dispute.

Only five officers have ever been disciplined for Taser misuse - though not once for using the device on a person.

The officers who were disciplined had threatened people with their Tasers or repeatedly discharged them while off duty. One officer brandished her Taser at a woman in her school carpool line.

The low number of disciplinary actions when examined against the case histories could lead the public to mistrust how police internal affairs investigators are judging whether their fellow officers are misusing the device. HPD must be diligent in upholding public confidence in its self-policing.

Tasers were sold to Houstonians as an alternative to deadly force, but it is hard to fathom that police typically use their Tasers instead of shooting a suspect or subduing him with a service baton. The stun guns are used most frequently on unarmed people who come into police contact because of traffic violations, nuisance calls or reports of suspicious people.

In fact, a Chronicle investigation published in January 2007 showed that to that point, HPD officers had shot, wounded and killed just as many people as before they widely adopted Tasers.

What's more, those who have been shocked by police often are never charged with any crime, or prosecutors drop the charges against them or grand jurors decline to indict.

Police officers have a dangerous job and should have every reasonable tool to help them perform effectively and maintain their own safety. Tasers can be part of that arsenal, but only if HPD fully recognizes its responsibility not to utilize the guns as a shortcut they can take at the citizens' expense.

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