How effective are tasers?

[Wounded Ronin]

So, I've been playing a lot of SWAT 4 lately, and in that game, tasing someone once makes them totally unable to shoot you for a few seconds. Is that realistic?

I'm guessing it's probably more about "game balance". The taser in the game has got to be reloaded after every shot, or after every 2 shots for the cobra taser, and the range is very limited. It's only saving grace in game terms would be that if you manage to hit someone with it successfully you will definitely take them out of action for a little while.

However, this creates some situations that made me raise my eyebrow. For example, once when I was playing my player character had this taser drawn and was crouching in an open door. A suspect with an assault rifle was in the middle of sprinting past that open door and my player character managed to catch him in mid sprint in the ribs with the taser. But, I'd suspect that in real life if someone were sprinting laterally and were tased in mid stride I'd guess that even if his legs gave out the momentum of his body moving would probably make him fall past the door and would probably rip the hooks out. Plus, as I mentioned above, I'm not positive that just because someone is being tased they wouldn't be able to pull the trigger on their assault rifle.

Does anyone with strong taser-fu have any comments?

[Tom Kagan]

YouTube - REMIX: "Can't Tase This" UF Student Tasered

YouTube - DON'T TASE ME BRO GAME TEASER TRAILER

[rw4th]

You could go piss off some cops and get yourself tased to find out.

[Cassius]

Some cops I used to train with didn't like them very much. Said they weren't reliable against people who are spun out. I have no personal experience with them, nor do I want to have any personal experience with them.

[vinhthekid]

i've never been police tasered, but i've had a friend taser me before.

im usually not very give-up-ey in the face of pain, i have a tendency to keep pushing past the limits of intelligence, especially when i'm angry.

i still went down like a sack of potaters.

[benonmsn]

a taser (not stun gun) is very effective providing you get a secure hit. However, imediatly after a discharge, there is no more pain. When people continue to screan, yell, and cry after being tassered they are being a bitch, and are in almost no pain whatsoever except for the little prongs. But just likea 9mm, your mileage will vary when trying to subdue a highly motivated drug user.

[Lu Tze]

Wouldn't the convulsions actually make them more likely to pull the fucking trigger?

[G-Off]

On MXC they played taser tag. They worked like charms on Jason Ellis and that comedian guy. Kit Kope was a different story though. I know he's a kickboxing champ but he withstood the 25k volt model (I think that was the measure) for 12-13 seconds before saying "enough." So, someone with training and/or high pain tolerance might not be stopped by it.

[Wounded Ronin]

Wouldn't the convulsions actually make them more likely to pull the fucking trigger?

Well, the thought had crossed my mind, that tasering someone who is actually holding a firearm with the finger on the trigger might be a terrible idea...

[Tom Kagan]

Well, the thought had crossed my mind, that tasering someone who is actually holding a firearm with the finger on the trigger might be a terrible idea...

Using any form of non-lethal force when up against lethal force is stupid idea.

[benonmsn]

On MXC they played taser tag. They worked like charms on Jason Ellis and that comedian guy. Kit Kope was a different story though. I know he's a kickboxing champ but he withstood the 25k volt model (I think that was the measure) for 12-13 seconds before saying "enough." So, someone with training and/or high pain tolerance might not be stopped by it.

they were using a stun gun, not a taser. a taser shoots out pronges attatched to wires (30ft or so). It delivers a burst for a set time (10 seconds) and can give additional 10 second burts. a stun gun you have to hold or press against some one. and unless you are ontop of them, holding them down, giving them a 10 second burst is pretty impossible. a small blip from a stun gun is a small deterent, but not effective in controlling some one. Tasers are also commonly 50k volts.

[milwaukee cop]

speaking as someone who is a taser certified officer, and who has deployed it in the line of duty, I can say the Taser is a very effective tool.
I t is not to be deployed against a subject with a gun or knife, that calls for deadly force( or at least deadly force cover in the case wqih a subject with a knife)
I have not seen anyone resist the taser once both probes are deployed. The great thing about the taser is that both subject and officer are uninjured, the arrest is made without further incident( at least in my expierence.)

[Wounded Ronin]

I have found a report on the subject of taser efficacy and safety.

http://www.theiacp.org/research/Cutt...StunReport.pdf

I hope that some day I'd be able to kind of test tasers out. I could have a friend tase me and at the same time there'd be a specific objective I'd have to accomplish, to represent the goal of the aforementioned goal-orientated individual, in order to see if while being tased I could in fact not accomplish a specific goal.

[G-Off]

they were using a stun gun, not a taser. a taser shoots out pronges attatched to wires (30ft or so). It delivers a burst for a set time (10 seconds) and can give additional 10 second burts. a stun gun you have to hold or press against some one. and unless you are ontop of them, holding them down, giving them a 10 second burst is pretty impossible. a small blip from a stun gun is a small deterent, but not effective in controlling some one. Tasers are also commonly 50k volts.

On second thought, you're mostly right. I'm not sure that the first one was a stun gun though, I clearly remember Kit lasting around 12 seconds. Maybe they hit him with another once the 10 second burst was up. The prongs from a 50k volt taser did knock him down right away though, I think.

[nightowl]

Wouldn't the electric shock causing mucsle spasms be more along the lines of what stops people instead of pain?