That’s interesting. How did you feel about that? My son is a state trooper and they had to use it…and everyone in the class got hit with it as well.
I guess it was akin to going into the gas chamber in basic training?
I got shocked. I didn’t have a choice. I went through the training in ‘04 or ‘05, when they weren’t widely used or issued the way they are now. At the time, the only unit that had them was SWAT and I was going through the units training class. But, we didn’t get shot with it either. Too time consuming and costly.
When they went mainstream in my old department, I was already gone, doing other stuff. I was shocked to learn that they gave officers a choice. But, then again, if they shock someone and he/she has a heart condition and they have a heart attack or worse, that’s a helluva lawsuit, I guess.
You can use the probes as long as there are fresh batteries in the taser. They had a once fired one and placed the probes where they wanted. And then 5 seconds of 50,000 volts. Costly and time consuming, especially if the probes got under your skin with the barbs.
Hats off to your sons agency for doing that. I’m sure that was a good time, shooting your buddies with one. I’m sure the training staff made the decision to have each trooper fire it, although it is not required.
But, agencies will follow the recommendations of the manufacturer, as they usually already have a lesson plan developed. That way, if/when something happens or a lawsuit is filed, as long as the LEO followed the training, the company lawyers will help defend in court.
But, we all got trained in how to use the ASP. We didn’t hit each other with expandable, metal batons.