Category Archives: Taser

Tampa Police Releases Body Cam Videos

The Tampa Police Department produced this short video of incidents from their recent body camera pilot program.  The video shows a bit of what we experience out on the street. Thank you, TPD. Randall

Posted in Legal, Media, Taser | 1 Comment

Police Body Cameras Gaining Ground

From the recent TASER International Axon body camera sales I have attached below, you can deduce that the new fiscal year has begun and that many agencies are following through with police body cam purchases.  While some local, state, and federal jurisdictions are wrestling with the seemingly mutually exclusive issues of police transparency and citizens’ privacy rights, other departments are moving forward, no doubt some under urgent public pressure. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office’s request appears to make it the largest Florida department to pen a substantial purchase order.  As for other major agencies, where cost can be a prohibitive factor, Miami-Dade Police have $5 million earmarked for future body … Continue reading

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TASER-proof Clothing Project

Hackaday.com has webbed up a “TASER-proof” clothing project.  The suggested mod is to use carbon-fiber strips in garments to make them “100% taserproof.”  By inserting iron-on CF tape strips between layers of cloth, the space-aged material will allegedly conduct electrical energy from a TASER or stun gun away from the clothing’s wearer and into the  CF strips to be dispersed without result.  Skin penetration by the probes is supposedly rendered ineffective as well. Gee, it is too bad that modern law enforcement officers do not train to transition to other less lethal options when their CEW’s are ineffective.  Oh, wait a minute…  We do!  This geek-inspired Hackaday Internet invention is … Continue reading

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Karbon Arms Shorts Out, Concedes to TASER

The U.S. District Court, District of Delaware has awarded TASER International $2.38 million in damages from patent infringements by Tampa, FL manufacturer Karbon Arms, LLC.  Karbon Arms was also permanently restrained and enjoined from making, using, or selling any MPID or MPID-C, or any “substantial components” of their conducted electrical weapons thereof. TASER International filed its civil action against Karbon Arms in May of 2011.  TASER claimed that Karbon Arms infringed on two (later three) patents held by TASER.  In December of 2013, District Court Judge Richard Andrews cleared the way for a trial by ruling that Karbon Arms had infringed on TASER’s U.S. Patent 7,800,885.  A trial date was … Continue reading

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TASER International Introduces New X26P

A TASER International press release announced the introduction of their latest Conducted Electrical Weapon, the new X26P. The X26P uses the company’s latest technological advances and design combined with familiar ergonomics from its popular predecessor, the X26. New electronic architecture takes the X26P out of the analog era and into the digital one, like its sibling the X2. The old X26 used a gas tube spark gap and a fixed energy discharge, while the latest version moves to a solid state arc controller that measures and adjusts the electrical output. Other improvements include extended battery life, increased logging of usage data, and an IPX2 rating for weatherproofing against rain and … Continue reading

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Easy on the Less Lethal…

I just got back from an armed barricaded suspect call.  Why do they always come out right at the end of shift?  I was a little taken aback when I saw that the three officers at the door to the knife-wielding suspect’s room were armed with either TASERs or a less lethal beanbag shotgun.  I made some adjustments to the personnel configuration and brought a handgun up to the door. We practice to have lethal cover with a less lethal option available when practical.  But the lethal cover should be up front, not from the guy way at the back of the stack.  When another sergeant and I did the … Continue reading

Posted in Officer Safety, Street, Tactics, Taser | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Police Technology. Meh.

There have been many technological changes in the last quarter century that have made the copper’s job…different.  Not always better, but certainly not the same. When I started out, our duty belts held a .38 cal. revolver (S&W M64), 2 HKS speedloaders, large Motorola MT500 portable radio, handcuffs, and rings for a full-length Monadnock PR-24 sidehandle baton and Mag-Lite.  My agency made the switch to Smith & Wesson 669 9mm semi-automatics pistols in 1987. The firepower on a patrolman’s belt has definitely increased.  We got hi-cap magazines for the S&W autoloader that topped off at 15 rounds.  Forty-six rounds of 9mm sure beat 18 slow-to-reload wheelgun shots.  My issued handgun … Continue reading

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Evolution of the Police TASER

There is no doubt that one of the most significant technological advances in law enforcement over the last twenty years has been the development and deployment of Electronic Control Devices (EDC’s) for less lethal suspect management. The father of the modern EDC was the late Dr. John “Jack” Higson Cover, Jr., a nuclear physicist and NASA scientist.  He envisioned an electric weapon that could immobilize a person without the harm of a firearm.  In 1974, Cover patented an ECD named after the 1911 novel Tom Swift and his Electric Rifle—hence the name TASER. Cover’s original TASER Systems TF-1 was classified as an NFA Title II weapon by the BATF based … Continue reading

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New Report by American Heart Association Zaps TASER International

A new report released on-line by the American Heart Association magazine Circulation associates sudden cardiac arrest and death with the application of an electronic control device (ECD), more specifically a TASER International model X26. Dr. Douglas P. Zipes, a cardiologist at the Indiana School of Medicine, conducted the study, which was peer reviewed for publication.  Zipes, coincidently has been paid over a half million dollars to testify as an expert witness against the police and TASER, according to TASER International.  Zipes has conceded he is paid $1200.00 per hour to testify as a witness against ECD’s, but he said that gave him no incentive to do the research. Zipes studied … Continue reading

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Karbon Arms Touts Court Victory over Taser

In a press release on 1/30/2012, Karbon Arms, a Tampa, FL based manufacturer of electronic control devices (ECD), sent out a press release detailing what they described as a victory over Taser International’s “unethical behavior.”  Read the details below. Karbon Arms, a leader in electronic immobilization technology prevailed in the U.S. District Court. In the court filing, Taser International (NASDAQ: TASR) falsely accused Karbon Arms of violating a court ordered injunction. Karbon was vindicated of the baseless allegation by Rick Smith, Taser’s CEO, that Karbon is “seeking to evade the Court’s injunction through subversive means.” In the hearing to determine whether Karbon Arms is selling an infringing version of the … Continue reading

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