SAN ANTONIO, Texas — In the wake of a research group's recommendations on how police should use force here, Police Chief William McManus has enacted two major changes to the Police Department's policy on the use of Tasers.
Officers now are prohibited from using the weapons against anyone "known to be under the influence of drugs," and no more than one officer at a time should use a Taser against a person, according to the new policy.
The policy does not limit the number of times an officer can shock someone, although it requires that police stop using the weapon when someone is in custody.
McManus also doubled the amount of time officers must train to wield Tasers, from eight hours to 16 hours. The 141 officers who already use the weapons must return to the training academy for another eight hours of training, he said.
McManus said officers are prohibited from using Tasers – weapons that are not as lethal as guns and that deliver shocks of enough voltage to disrupt a person's neuromuscular system – if they have "firsthand knowledge" that someone is on drugs.
"You have to see them using (drugs)," McManus said.
Asked why he changed the policy, McManus mentioned excited delirium, a diagnosis described as an overdose of adrenaline to the heart. Medical examiners have cited it as a cause of death in people who were shocked with Tasers and later died, but the medical community is divided over its validity as a diagnosis.
"The research has connected excited delirium to deaths," McManus said, adding, "Excited delirium is a possibility when drugs are being used."
Experts for years have urged caution in developing policies on the use of Tasers, the conducted-energy devices most commonly used in law enforcement.
In July, the Washington-based Police Executive Research Forum released a review of the Police Department that McManus had requested. Echoing broad warnings it had published in 2005, the nonprofit group recommended that McManus restrict the number of officers who can use a Taser on a person at a time and that officers be trained on the risks of using a Taser against someone on drugs.
The recommendations were forwarded to a committee for review. McManus said the committee recently ruled on some of them, prompting the new policy. A full review has not yet been completed.
McManus issued an internal bulletin Thursday that immediately altered the Taser policy four days after the San Antonio Express-News published an investigation into how police have used the weapons since December 2006, when McManus began giving the weapons to officers.
The investigation found that police had used Tasers on 142 adults, with most shocked just once.
Officers thought at least 27 were on drugs, including one man who was shocked 17 times, and more than a dozen were jolted more than three times in the same encounter. Multiple officers shocked a person in a few incidents, including a traffic stop May 27 in which two officers jolted the driver a total of eight times after he ran.
Last year, a man high on cocaine died after an officer shocked him three times. Medical examiners were uncertain if the Taser played a role in his death and ruled he was a victim of excited delirium.
The City Council in August approved the purchase of 50 more Tasers for police. Less than two months later, McManus said he's seeking caution in how the weapons are used.
"The body's reaction to overexertion can cause deaths," McManus said. "We're trying to reduce those types of incidents."
