Editing Taser (section)

== Drive Stun capability <span class="anchor" id="Drive Stun"></span> ==
Some Taser device models, particularly those used by [[police department]]s, also have a "Drive Stun" capability, where the Taser device is held against the target without firing the projectiles, and is intended to cause pain without incapacitating the target. "Drive Stun" is "the process of using the EMD (Electro Muscular Disruption) weapon as a [[pain compliance]] technique. This is done by activating the Taser [device] and placing it against an individual's body. This can be done without an air cartridge in place or after an air cartridge has been deployed."<ref name="MMRMA">{{cite journal |author=Law Enforcement Advisory Committee |title=Less Lethal Weapons: Model Policy and Procedure for Public Safety Officers |publisher=Michigan Municipal Risk Management Authority |date=Summer 2005 |url=http://www.taser.com/research/Science/Documents/Michigna%20Risk%20Managment%20TASER.pdf |access-date=May 12, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080820074158/http://www.taser.com/research/Science/Documents/Michigna%20Risk%20Managment%20TASER.pdf |archive-date=August 20, 2008 }}</ref>

Guidelines released in 2011 by the [[U.S. Department of Justice]] recommend that use of Drive Stun as a pain compliance technique be avoided.<ref name="PERFCOPS">{{cite journal |author=A Joint Project of PERF and COPS |title=2011 Electronic Control Weapon Guidelines |publisher=United States Department of Justice |date=April 2011 |url=http://cops.usdoj.gov/RIC/ResourceDetail.aspx?RID=603 |format=PDF |access-date=October 7, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111017150931/http://cops.usdoj.gov/RIC/ResourceDetail.aspx?RID=603 |archive-date=October 17, 2011 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref> The guidelines were issued by a joint committee of the [[Police Executive Research Forum]] and the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. The guidelines state "Using the CEW to achieve pain compliance may have limited effectiveness and, when used repeatedly, may even exacerbate the situation by inducing [[rage (emotion)|rage]] in the subject."

A study of U.S. police and sheriff departments found that 29.6% of the jurisdictions allowed the use of Drive Stun for gaining compliance in a passive resistance arrest scenario, with no physical contact between the officer and the subject. For a scenario that also includes non-violent physical contact, this number is 65.2%.<ref name="NIJEV">{{cite journal|author=Michael R. Smith, J.D., Robert J. Kaminski, Geoffrey P. Alpert, Lorie A. Fridell, John MacDonald, Bruce Kubu |title=A Multi-Method Evaluation of Police Use of Force Outcomes |publisher=National Institute of Justice |date=July 2010 |url=https://www.rkb.us/contentdetail.cfm?content_id=236251 |format=PDF |access-date=October 10, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120401044725/https://www.rkb.us/contentdetail.cfm?content_id=236251 |archive-date=April 1, 2012 }}</ref>

A [[Las Vegas, Nevada|Las Vegas]] police document says "The Drive Stun causes significant localized pain in the area touched by the Taser [CEW], but does not have a significant effect on the [[central nervous system]]. The Drive Stun does not incapacitate a subject but may assist in taking a subject into custody."<ref>[http://www.aele.org/taser-lvmpd.pdf Use of the Taser], Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department</ref> The [[UCLA Taser incident]]<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Merrick Bobb |author2=Matthew Barge |author3=Camelia Naguib |title=A Bad Night at Powell Library: The Events of November 14, 2006 |publisher=Police Assessment Resource Center |date=August 2007 |url=http://www.aele.org/law/2009all08/ucla-parc.pdf |access-date=April 14, 2016}}</ref> and the [[University of Florida Taser incident]]<ref name="offensereport">{{cite web|url=http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/images/09/18/offense.report.072274.pdf|title=University of Florida Police Department offense report|date=October 18, 2007|publisher=[[CNN]]|access-date=April 14, 2016}}</ref> involved university police officers using their Taser device's "Drive Stun" capability (referred to as a "contact tase" in the University of Florida Offense Report).

Amnesty International has expressed particular concern about Drive Stun, noting that "the potential to use Tasers in drive-stun mode—where they are used as 'pain compliance' tools when individuals are already effectively in custody—and the capacity to inflict multiple and prolonged shocks, renders the weapons inherently open to abuse."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.amnesty.ca/themes/tasers_backgrounder.php |title=Amnesty International's concerns about Tasers |publisher=Amnesty.ca |access-date=October 14, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20090717105322/http://www.amnesty.ca/themes/tasers_backgrounder.php |archive-date=July 17, 2009 }}</ref>