Anyone who uses a spread like that in class is a kittenhole. Just my opinion.
Yeah, there is the fun factor, but it gives the trainee a warped sense of how well the Taser works in real life. Find me one field case where that kind of spread was achieved and I will shut my pie hole.
The instructor demonstrated spreads from just an arm or leg all the way up to my "full Monty" to show the varying levels of incapacitation (or lack thereof).
I volunteered to take the full spread for the full 5 seconds.
"For a moment he felt good about this. A moment or two later he felt bad about feeling good about it. Then he felt good about feeling bad about feeling good about it and, satisfied, drove on into the night."
-- Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy --
I'm not a Taser instructor, but my understanding is that taping or alligator clipping the leads in training is not a recommended practice.
I had an ER nurse in a class. I noticed she kept taking all head shots. Her response when asked why, "'I've seen too many people who have been shot in the chest putting up a fight in the ER." Point taken.
Thus far I've been able to avoid having to get shocked...our policy makes it optional so I've opted out.
Guy on my shift tasered a guy 2 weeks ago. Spread wasn't that great but in the process a vehicle drove between LE and the suspect...breaking the taser wire. Dude takes off again. We found with one of our K-9's 20 minutes later hiding in a dumpster. He still had the probes in his side...they were about 6 inches apart.Originally Posted by Chuck Haggard
I've never seen a big spread on any of our Tasers that have been used in the field. Honestly, we have had as many failures as successes...mostly because of bad hits or one prong hitting and the other missing...which is a training issue (don't get me started down that rabbit hole...).
Jody,
Did you purposefully try to remain quiet, or is that just the way it played out? I only ask because in the majority of training videos I've seen, the participants grunt/groan/scream/etc (as seen in jlw's video).
Not that it makes a lick of difference in regards to the efficacy of the Taser, but I'm just curious whether you made a conscious effort to stay quiet.
Not recommended because it's too "ideal" and doesn't reflect usage in reality, or not recommended because it causes some other problem?
Regarding spread, I assume that the general rule is that "more=better"? I.E. more distance between the probes = more of the body through which the electrical current must flow?
Is there any trade-off to this? I.E. that the current is slightly less powerful if it has to cover more body mass?
That's potentially a very stupid question, but it's been forever since I did any reading on electricity.
"If you run into an a**hole in the morning, you ran into an a**hole. If you run into a**holes all day, you're the a**hole." - Raylan Givens
Yes, the more spread the greater the effect. My personal experience with hits, both giving them and taking them, is if you cross two major muscle groups you'll likely get a good effect.
The shot I took with one dart to the lower right glute and the other dart to the top of my right lat would be an example. I locked up pretty hard when both of those muscles fired at the same time. I have seen a number of field failures because one dart was in the abs or rib cage, not enough muscle mass involved to cause the bad guy to lock up. This is outside of the number of clothing disconnects I have seen. I would bet our observed failure rate with Taser shots is somewhere around 50%
My understanding is that it is due to burns caused by such a practice.
I had an ER nurse in a class. I noticed she kept taking all head shots. Her response when asked why, "'I've seen too many people who have been shot in the chest putting up a fight in the ER." Point taken.
I guess I'm so used to biting down on my mouth guard and controlling my breathing when things get bad in mma/boxing that that's what I defaulted to.
Everybody else made noises.
"For a moment he felt good about this. A moment or two later he felt bad about feeling good about it. Then he felt good about feeling bad about feeling good about it and, satisfied, drove on into the night."
-- Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy --
FYI: the guy administering the shocks is a Taser master instructor.
"For a moment he felt good about this. A moment or two later he felt bad about feeling good about it. Then he felt good about feeling bad about feeling good about it and, satisfied, drove on into the night."
-- Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy --
We did on on an Occupy protester. He was laying on his stomach in the street, with his arms under his chest and holding onto a drainage grate. He wouldn't move out of the street and his response to everything we said to him was "F*** you." We tried dragging him out of the street and he wouldn't budge. He's given one more warning and doesn't comply. I put flex cuffs on his ankles and hold his feet down. The Sgt gets out his Taser, deploys it into the protesters shoulder and then drives stuns the protesters calf with the cartridge still attached. In the middle of the fourth or fifth ride the protester figures out that we're not going stop any time soon and quickly explains that he can't get up because he let his buddies zip tie his arms to the drainage grate.
That's a special case, it was using a Taser to achieve pain compliance and not a realistic spread that could achieved on a combative subject. I certainly never seen that kind of spread from probes fired from a cartridge.
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