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June 27, 2007 TASER is set to introduce the latest addition to its range of non-lethal weapons next month. The new Extended Range Electronic Projectile (XREP) is launched from a standard 12-gauge shotgun platform and is the first wireless TASER device. Now well established in the market, TASER stun guns are widely used in law enforcement, military and more recently, consumer applications. Along the way the company has become embroiled in a string of court cases relating to injuries or deaths which were claimed to be caused by the device and has released a special white paper on the topic ahead of the XERP launch. Though we cannot think of a situation where it would not be preferable to respond with non-lethal force rather than lethal force, it seems people still wish to take on TASER legally - so far the scoreline reads 51-0. Read More
June 3, 2007 Love them or hate them, TASER stun guns have become an essential and effective part of law enforcement armory. Perhaps their main drawback has been that even the long-range wireless shotgun-mounted TASER XREP puts a police officer within 30 feet of a potentially dangerous suspect before they're in range. Now, a new partnership between TASER and iRobot will see the construction of TASER-wielding robots that can be sent in to incapacitate violent suspects without ever exposing police officers to the risk of harm. What's more, TASER has released their Remote Area Denial (TRAD) system, an unmanned device that operates in a network to identify and incapacitate intruders in secured areas. It all points towards an interesting future with embedded moral implications; how long will it be until suspects are told "you have 15 seconds to comply?" Read More
May 18, 2007 The taser: a convenient, effective non-lethal way of incapacitating a person, or a potential killer? Amidst claims of misuse, abuse and taser-related deaths, a new study has been undertaken to document the short and medium term physiological effects this painful and common law enforcement tool can have on subjects. Kudos to those who volunteered to be shocked; those five seconds would have felt like an eternity. Read More
