A pair of House lawmakers have introduced legislation seeking a statewide Taser training and use policy, a move sparked partly by the death last summer of Macadam Mason, who died after he was tased by a Vermont State Police trooper.
“To reiterate the central point of our bill, it is essential that all law enforcement officers, or anyone who is carrying a Taser, has comprehensive training both on the operation of the Taser, and when and when not to use it,” said Rep. Jim Masland, D-Thetford, a lead sponsor.
Masland who lived next door to Mason described his death as “completely unnecessary.”
The bill, H.225, aims to standardize Taser training across local and state police bodies, which now oversee their own Taser training for officers. It also calls for a statewide policy on how Tasers are to be used, which requires that Tasers can’t be used to subdue, coerce, or punish subjects.
Both the training and deployment policy are to be handled chiefly by the Vermont Criminal Justice Training Council, an arm of the Vermont Police Academy, though training is supposed to be co-ordinated with the Department of Mental Health as well.
Rick Gauthier, the director of the Vermont Criminal Justice Training Council, said that developing a mandatory training program has been discussed at the academy for several months following Mason’s death.
“We don’t offer any training in Tasers at this point,” said Gauthier. “Generally what happens is that [police] agencies get their own trainers. … Typically most of the traininig has been provided by the manufacturer.”
Gauthier welcomes the legislative push. “Personally I’m a fan of standardized training, and I certainly don’t have a problem putting together a Taser certification course,” Gauthier said. “When you’re talking about use of force issues, I think you always try to establish a best practice. The academy’s in a very good position to do that.”
The police academy already has training courses for pepper spray and firearm use. Taser training hasn’t been tailored yet because local police departments have generally relied on the training automatically given as part of a purchase from stun gun makers like Taser International, Gauthier said.
Gauthier doesn’t know if current stun gun training is adequate, because it’s very “individualized with agencies.”
Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell also welcomed the push for training standards. “There should be statewide minimum standards, for sure,” he said in an interview.
Sorrell is skeptical about whether already established Taser training is inadequate. All police departments require training, he said, and also have a written policies on appropriate use.
“Hopefully there’ll be some evidence established to warrant whether this is just sort of an added insurance, or whether it’s a reaction to a bad situation that currently exists,” said Sorrell.
A 2008 report issued by Sorrell’s office recommended written protocols for Taser use, appropriate training, and Taser deployment records.
The report says that Tasers shouldn’t be used against passively resisting individuals, a point Sorrell reiterated. “I don’t think you should be using a Taser as essentially a cattle prod or a form of punishment,” Sorrell said. “It’s to try to get control of a situation where there’s a risk of injury or death.”
The legislation would go beyond recommendations and create a uniform statewide standard that police departments would be required to follow.
Masland blamed Mason’s death on inadequate police protocols. “If the protocols that were in place that day were followed, they were clearly the wrong protocols. If there’d been a mental health counselor there, accompanying the police that day, this terrible tragedy never would have unfolded the way it did.”
Sorrell recently ruled state Trooper David Shaffer’s Taser use against Mason was reasonable; he concluded that no criminal charges should be filed against Shaffer in the death, which was ruled a “medical homicide” by the New Hampshire Department of Justice.
Masland expressed disappointment with Sorrell’s verdict. Shaffer’s actions, he said, were at the very least “terribly misguided,” and that the criminality of his actions seemed too narrow a focus.
Lead co-sponsor Rep. Anne Donahue, R-Northfield, said the Taser protocols are especially urgent, because while weapons like pepper spray have been around for a while, Tasers are “new,” and “people don’t often know the effects and the risks.”
In 2011, Donahue introduced legislation that mandated basic mental health training for officers, before they could carry Tasers, but the legislation died in committee, partly because Taser use received little attention before Mason’s death.
It’s unclear exactly when Tasers were introduced to the state’s police force, but Allen Gilbert, a civil rights advocate with the Vermont chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, believes they arrived in 2005. As of April 2008, there were about 28 police agencies using a total of 220 Tasers: Sorrell doesn’t have an updated figure.
Gilbert urged lawmakers to pass the bill quickly, arguing: “It’s really hard to see how any person can oppose the provisions of this bill.” The bill has tripartisan support and 30 co-sponsors.
