Abstract
Despite human laboratory and field studies that have demonstrated a reasonable safety profile for TASER brand conducted electrical weapons (CEW), the results of some swine studies and arrest related deaths temporal to the use of the CEWs continue to raise questions regarding cardiac safety. TASER International, Inc., has released a new CEW, the TASER X2, touted to have a better safety profile than its long-standing predecessor, the TASER X26. We have developed a model to assess the relative cardiac safety of CEWs and used it to compare the TASER X2 and the TASER X26. This safety model was also used to assess the relative safety of an experimental probe design as compared to the standard steel probe. Our results suggest that the TASER X2 has an improved safety margin over the TASER X26. The new probe design also has promise for enhanced cardiac safety, although may have some disadvantages when compared to the existing design which would make field use impractical.
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Conflict of interest
TASER International, Inc., provided funding and material support for this study. Dr. Ho is the medical director for TASER. Dr. Dawes is a consultant to TASER. Drs. Ho and Dawes own shares of stock in the company. Drs. Moore and Miner have no conflicts to declare.
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Dawes, D.M., Ho, J.D., Moore, J.C. et al. An evaluation of two conducted electrical weapons and two probe designs using a swine comparative cardiac safety model. Forensic Sci Med Pathol 9, 333–342 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12024-013-9422-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12024-013-9422-x