Taser Use in Orlando Analyzed

The Orlando Sentinelran a revealing article on the Orlando Police Department’s use of tasers during the past two years.  An analysis of the data on Taser use showed that Orlando police have used Tasers against 1,243 people.  The computer-assisted analysis, which also tracked 765 Taser cases through the criminal courts, showed that more than half of the people tased were neither violent nor suspected of committing felonies. Instead, they were charged only with minor misdemeanors, almost always including resisting without violence, which can mean as little as refusing to immediately obey a police officer’s order.