Taser International Disputes Recent Testing Results

Some Canadian police departments, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, have decided to remove some of the older Taser stun guns from active service. This comes on the heels of a study commissioned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation showing that some of them can deliver more power than the manufacturer’s specifications. United States police departments are not following suit.

The recently released study reported that out of the 44 model X26 stun guns, the model most popular with police departments, four “fired jolts 47% to 58% higher than the manufacturer’s specifications.” The batch of Tasers which were tested had been purchased in 2004 by two Canadian police departments.

Taser International Vice President Steve Tuttle said the study made “false allegations based on scientifically flawed data [which] can create such uncertainty.”

The CBC study was news to the president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, an organization based in Washington, D.C., who stated they would take a look at the issues it raised. Canadian officials, however, are not waiting for additional studies and are pulling a fair number of older models for evaluation.

More than 12,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States use Tasers. Their rise in popularity is due to their ongoing usefulness in reducing officer and suspect injuries.