ACLU of Connecticut Pushes for Regulated Police Taser Use

By Feroze Dhanoa

Police brutality and inconsistency in handling of complaints by police about alleged misconduct have been at the top of American Civil Liberties Union’s legislative agenda in Connecticut.

Fourteen people have died in Connecticut since 2005 as a result of being tasered by police. In the case of these Taser deaths, no investigations were launched into whether police used deadly force, according to records obtained from the Division of Criminal Justice by the New Haven Register.

A 2012 study published in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation found that Tasers can cause “ventricular arrhythmias, sudden cardiac arrest and even death.” In 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice warned that many deaths after Taser exposure were “associated with continuous or repeated shocks.” The same report recommended against administering shocks to people who are handcuffed or otherwise restrained, and warned of particular risk in relation to “[a]bnormal mental status in a combative or resistive subject.“

However, unless the medical examiner determines that an officer’s actions were a direct cause of death, no investigation is launched and, in a majority of cases, the cause of death is ruled as “excited delirium.” The condition is not recognized by the American Medical Association or the American Psychological Association but is accepted by the National Association of Medical Examiners and the American College of Emergency Physicians.

Indiana University cardiologist Dr. Douglas Zipes told the Miami Herald the diagnosis is used “as a catch-all to explain in-custody deaths.”

Less than a month after the latest Taser death of 22-year-old Jose Maldonado in May, Public-Act 14-149 passed the State Legislature and was signed into law by Gov. Daniel P. Malloy on June 6, coming into effect in January 2015.

Malloy has spoken out against the police use of Tasers, most recently in the case of a Hartford teen, calling the Taser use “inappropriate.”

The law, which is the first of its kind in the nation, requires every department that uses stun guns to file a report every time an officer uses his Taser. The report has to include the race and gender of the person hit by the Taser, the extent of any injuries caused by the device, the number of times it was used and the mode to which it was set.

On June 11, the governor signed yet another bill into law. Public-Act-14-166 requires police departments to adopt new standards for accepting complaints of misconduct. The law addresses issues raised in the 2012 ACLU report Protect, Serve and Listen: Accepting Civilian Complaints at Connecticut Police Departments about flaws in the handling of alleged misconduct complaints by police. In a recent case in Enfield, the state agreed to quietly drop charges against a man who accused police of using brutality.

Executive Director of the ACLU of Connecticut Andrew Schneider said the laws represent important advances in the transparency and accountability of law enforcement in the state, serving the interests of both justice and public safety.

Patch File photo