{"id":27059,"date":"2021-12-24T20:15:07","date_gmt":"2021-12-24T20:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/?p=27059"},"modified":"2021-12-24T20:15:07","modified_gmt":"2021-12-24T20:15:07","slug":"how-often-do-police-confuse-tasers-and-handguns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/24\/how-often-do-police-confuse-tasers-and-handguns\/","title":{"rendered":"How often do police confuse Tasers and handguns?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>(AP) \u2014 At former Minnesota police officer<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsnationnow.com\/us-news\/midwest\/trial-begins-for-ex-officer-charged-in-daunte-wrights-death\/\"> Kim Potter\u2019s\u00a0manslaughter trial<\/a>\u00a0for fatally shooting Daunte Wright, a Black motorist, the core of her defense is clear: She says\u00a0she meant to use her Taser\u00a0but grabbed her handgun instead.<\/p>\n<p>Potter\u2019s\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=cdv03O23vRQ\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">body-camera video<\/a>\u00a0recorded the shooting, with Potter heard saying, \u201cTaser, Taser, Taser\u201d before she fired, followed by, \u201cI grabbed the wrong (expletive) gun.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Many activists have refused to accept the former Brooklyn Center officer\u2019s explanation. And the prosecution argued in its opening statement that Potter \u2014\u00a0a 26-year police veteran\u00a0\u2014 had the experience and training to know better.<\/p>\n<p>Taser-gun mix-ups are rare, but they have happened in several states in recent years.<\/p>\n<div class=\"nlp-ignore-block article-content rich-text\">\n<aside class=\"promo-link\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsnationnow.com\/the-donlon-report\/kim-potter-on-trial-for-daunte-wrights-death-legal-experts-weigh-in\/\" class=\"promo-link__link\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n\t\tKim Potter on trial for Daunte Wright\u2019s death; legal experts weigh in\t<\/a><br \/>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p>Here are some questions and answers about such incidents:<\/p>\n<h5>HOW FREQUENTLY DOES THIS HAPPEN?<\/h5>\n<p>Experts agree that such incidents are rare and probably happen fewer than once per year throughout the U.S. A 2012 article published in the monthly law journal Americans for Effective Law Enforcement documented nine cases dating back to 2001 in which officers shot suspects with handguns when they said they meant to fire stun guns.<\/p>\n<h5>WHY DOES IT HAPPEN?<\/h5>\n<p>Reasons that have been cited include officer training, the way they carry their weapons and the pressure they feel during dangerous and chaotic situations. To avoid confusion, officers typically carry their stun guns on their weak sides \u2014 the side of their nondominant hand \u2014 and away from handguns that are carried on their dominant hand\u2019s side. That\u2019s how Potter carried hers, and the chief of her suburban Minneapolis police department at the time of the shooting said that\u2019s how the department\u2019s officers were trained.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutor Erin Eldridge told jurors that the Brooklyn Center Police Department\u2019s policy requires that officers carry their Taser on their nondominant side and their firearm on their dominant side. In keeping with that, Potter carried her gun on her right and her Taser on her left.<\/p>\n<div class=\"nlp-ignore-block article-content rich-text\">\n<aside class=\"promo-link\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsnationnow.com\/health\/coronavirus\/study-suggests-mixing-vaccines-provides-greater-protection-against-covid-19\/\" class=\"promo-link__link\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n\t\tStudy suggests mixing vaccines provides greater protection against COVID-19\t<\/a><br \/>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p>Officers can choose how they want to position their Tasers in their duty belts, so that they have the option of drawing it from across their body with their dominant hand, or they can choose to draw it with their nondominant hand. Potter had her Taser positioned in a \u201cstraight draw\u201d position on her left, so she would draw it with her left hand.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe only weapon she draws with her right hand is her gun, not her Taser,\u201d Eldridge said.<\/p>\n<p>Eldridge also detailed how Brooklyn Center officers go through Taser training every year, and get training materials that include warnings on how confusing a Taser with a handgun can cause death or serious injury.<\/p>\n<p>And she told jurors they\u2019ll hear about how Potter\u2019s Taser and her handgun both had a very different look and feel, starting with the color. A Taser is bright yellow. Potter\u2019s gun was black and weighed about twice as much.<\/p>\n<p>Defense attorney Paul Engh told jurors that\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/shootings-minnesota-minneapolis-death-of-daunte-wright-homicide-db74c886081be65dd8d334843e0ff430\" rel=\"noopener\">an expert will testify<\/a>\u00a0about how in chaotic situations like this shooting, a person\u2019s ingrained training takes over. He said Potter had 26 years of gun training, but fewer years of training on her Taser, which is a newer weapon.<\/p>\n<p>Engh said they\u2019ll hear that Potter made an \u201caction error,\u201d the sort in which someone does something while meaning to do something else, such as writing the previous year on a check out of habit, or typing an old password into a computer. He also compared them with errors made under stress by experienced pilots or surgeons.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are in a human business,\u201d Engh said. \u201cPolice officers are human beings. And that\u2019s what occurred.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bill Lewinski, an expert on police psychology and the founder of the Force Science Institute in Mankato, Minnesota, has used the phrase \u201cslip and capture\u201d errors to describe the phenomenon.<\/p>\n<div class=\"nlp-ignore-block article-content rich-text\">\n<aside class=\"promo-link\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsnationnow.com\/business\/tech\/uber-testing-new-recording-feature-in-three-cities\/\" class=\"promo-link__link\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n\t\tUber testing new recording feature in three cities\t<\/a><br \/>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p>Lewinski, who has testified on behalf of police, has said officers sometimes perform the direct opposite of their intended actions under stress \u2014 that their actions \u201cslip\u201d and are \u201ccaptured\u201d by a stronger response. He notes that officers train far more often on drawing and firing their handguns than they do on using their stun guns.<\/p>\n<p>Other experts are skeptical of the theory.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s no science behind it,\u201d said Geoffrey Alpert, a criminology professor at the University of South Carolina and an expert on police use of force. \u201cIt\u2019s a good theory, but we have no idea if it\u2019s accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Alpert said a major factor in why officers mistakenly draw their firearm is that stun guns typically look and feel like a firearm.<\/p>\n<h5>WHAT ARE SOME OTHER CASES?<\/h5>\n<p>In one of the best-known cases, a transit officer responding to a fight at a train station in Oakland, California, killed 22-year-old Oscar Grant in 2009. The officer, Johannes Mehserle, testified at trial that, fearing Grant had a weapon, he reached for his stun gun but mistakenly pulled his .40-caliber handgun instead. Grant was shot as he lay face down.<\/p>\n<p>Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to two years in prison. His department paid $2.8 million to Grant\u2019s daughter and her mother.<\/p>\n<p>In Tulsa, Oklahoma, a white volunteer sheriff\u2019s deputy, Robert Bates,\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/eb8818c58c3e4c65b62140429221048b\">said he accidentally fired his handgun when he meant to deploy his stun gun<\/a>\u00a0on an unarmed Black man, Eric Harris, who was being held down by other officers in 2015.<\/p>\n<div class=\"nlp-ignore-block article-content rich-text\">\n<p><strong><em>Not sure how to find us? Here\u2019s <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsnationnow.com\/feedback\/tv-provider\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">how to watch NewsNation on air and online<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Bates apologized for killing Harris but described his deadly mistake as a common problem in law enforcement, saying, \u201cThis has happened a number of times around the country\u2026 You must believe me, it can happen to anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bates was convicted of second-degree manslaughter and sentenced to four years in prison. Tulsa County ultimately agreed to pay $6 million to Harris\u2019 estate to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p>In 2019, a suburban St. Louis police officer, Julia Crews, said she meant to use her stun gun but mistakenly grabbed her service revolver and shot a suspected shoplifter, Ashley Hall, who suffered serious injuries. Crews resigned and was charged with second-degree assault. That was eventually dropped at Hall\u2019s request after\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/police-st-louis-missouri-ab646f17abb62ee7883e9803c2716ce3\" rel=\"noopener\">the victim and the former officer<\/a>\u00a0agreed to participate in restorative justice mediation. Separately, the city of Ladue agreed to a $2 million settlement with Hall.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>[ad_2]<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsnationnow.com\/morninginamerica\/how-does-a-police-officer-mistakenly-use-their-gun-instead-of-a-taser\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] (AP) \u2014 At former Minnesota police officer Kim Potter\u2019s\u00a0manslaughter trial\u00a0for fatally shooting Daunte Wright,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-theory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27059"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27061,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27059\/revisions\/27061"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}