TASER® Conducted Electrical Weapons: Physiology, Pathology, and Law [Hardcover]

Mark W. Kroll (Editor), Jeffrey D. Ho (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0387854746 | ISBN-13: 978-0387854748 | Publication Date: March 19, 2009 | Edition: 1

TASER® Conducted Electrical Weapons are rapidly replacing the club for law-enforcement control of violent subjects within many countries around the globe. A TASER CEW is a hand-held device that delivers a 400-volt pulse with a duration tuned to control the skeletal muscles without affecting the heart at a distance of up to 6.5 meters over tiny wires. If necessary, it begins with an arcing voltage of 50,000 V to penetrate thick clothing; the 50,000 V is never delivered to the body itself. Due to the widespread usage of these devices and the widespread misconceptions surrounding their operation, this book will have significant utility. This volume is written for cardiologists, emergency physicians, pathologists, law enforcement management, corrections personnel, and attorneys.

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the reviews: "It is a must-read for anyone who has contact with CEWs [conducted electrical weapons]." "From questions about electricity and the details of echocardiography to excited delirium and exercises in case law, this book covers it all." "Drs.Kroll and Ho did an outstanding job of combining the basics of CEWs with the intricate details without making the book unusually complicated." "...this book has facts and answers to many of the common questions surrounding CEWs as well as specialized information for the reader who wants to know the nuanced details." (Dr. Paul Nystrom, TASERs: Fact or Fiction, Emergency Medicine News, October 2009) "This book does an excellent job of pulling together a wide ranging variety of information about electronic control device technology, and its use. … The information in this book is especially important for those in the law enforcement and professional communities … . if you’re serious about understanding electronic control devices, non-lethal force, and all of the other issues related to this field, you need to have this book on your shelf, and you need to be familiar with its contents." (Steve Ashley, ILEETA Review, Vol. 5 (4), October-December, 2009) "This 457-page book … is a unique and rather fascinating compendium of science, clinical medicine, and electrophysiology. … a primer on the law related to conducted electrical weapons (CEWs). … This book is a gem; you will not find such an in-depth treatise in any other source. … a cornucopia of information, data, personal vignettes, and streetwise common sense. … most avid readers will be law enforcement personnel, toxicologists, emergency physicians, medical examiners, and of course, lawyers. … I really like this book." (James R. Roberts, Academic Emergency Medicine, November, 2009) “Published in 2009, ‘TASER Conducted Electrical Weapons: Physiology, Pathology, and the Law’ offers a comprehensive review of the TASER devices and an overview of in-custody events … . The reader is able to travel with ease from the simple to the complex with well- written chapters that are complemented with tables, graphs, photos, and appendices. … This book would be beneficial in preparation for trials, lectures, or completion of postmortem examinations of any in-custody death.” (Ruth E. Kohlmeier, American Journal of Forensic Medicine & Pathology, October, 2010)

From the Back Cover

TASER® Conducted Electrical Weapons are rapidly replacing the club for law-enforcement control of violent subjects within many countries around the globe. A TASER® CEW is a hand-held device that delivers a 400-volt pulse with a duration tuned to control the skeletal muscles without affecting the heart at a distance of up to 6.5 meters over tiny wires. If necessary, it begins with an arcing voltage of 50,000 V to penetrate thick clothing; the 50,000 V is never delivered to the body itself. This book will have significant utility due to the widespread usage of these devices and questions regarding its operation. This volume is written for cardiologists, emergency physicians, pathologists, law enforcement management, corrections personnel, and attorneys. Mark W. Kroll, PhD is an Adj. Full Prof. of Biomedical Engineering at both the California Polytechnic University , and the University of Minnesota . He is also the co-editor of the books: Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator Therapy, and Cardiac Bioelectric Therapy. Jeffrey D. Ho, MD is a Senior Faculty Physician in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Hennepin County Medical Center (Minneapolis, Minnesota) and is a Deputy Sheriff with the Meeker County Sheriff's Office (Minnesota). He is an EMS Medical Director in Minnesota and an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Minnesota.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 460 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 1 edition (March 19, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0387854746
• ISBN-13: 978-0387854748
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,616,610 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review From The Journal Of Academic Emergency Medicine, November 30, 2009

By 

Everitas (Edina, MN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: TASER® Conducted Electrical Weapons: Physiology, Pathology, and Law (Hardcover)

While I have some familiarity with TASER® Conducted Electrical Weapons and have read the book, I believe the following review from the Journal Of Academic Emergency Medicine says it ALL and better than I could.

"This 457-page book, edited by Mark Kroll, a biomedical engineer, and Jeffrey Ho, an emergency physician, is a unique and rather fascinating compendium of science, clinical medicine, and electrophysiology. It is peppered with editorial comment, personal experience, and historical data from law enforcement personnel from New York City and Los Angeles. It is also a primer on the law related to conducted electrical weapons (CEWs). The prototype CEW is the TASER. This device is universally embraced by law enforcement; remains hated, feared, and loathed by the general public; serves as the source of infinite curiosity for the legal system; and spawns prolific fodder for YouTube that simultaneously entertains the voyeur, tweaks the corda tendinae of the American Civil Liberties Union, and definitely flummoxes the lay press.

The text is authored by over 50 contributors, including pathologists, toxicologists, veterans of law enforcement, emergency physicians, and engineers. Kroll and Ho have assembled more erudite snippets than one can likely absorb on the first reading. The TASER has become the standard nonlethal use-of-force tool for the majority of law enforcement agencies throughout the world, but euphemistically, it has been the source of much controversy. The authors generally succeed in demystifying the TASER with detailed scientific data and a believable rationale for its deployment and longevity that is supported by cogent interpretations of current studies and accepted physiology, all this with the aid of some basic science that remains inscrutable to most clinicians.

As an actively practicing emergency physician, I particularly appreciate, and echo, the introduction where the editors lucidly state the obvious: the public is essentially clueless with regard to the challenges faced by law enforcement officers, prehospital medical personnel, and emergency physicians who must protect and serve the general public in the hostile milieu of excited delirium. The danger to everyone from the onslaught of a gargantuanly strong 400-pound hapless raging lunatic in the ED is difficult and scary enough with grams of IV benzodiazepines in hand. Although empathetic, I am thankful not to be a police officer faced with such dangers on the street without a TASER. When your life is on the line, it does take some restraint to reach for the electric gun rather than one's trusty Glock.

Although not an outright sycophant, this book does foster a generally positive tone, and some contributors are acknowledged consultants to TASER International, Inc. It includes the historical background of CEWs, as well as an overview of the forceful techniques and less reasonable alternatives often required by law enforcement officers to subdue violent and dangerous individuals as safely and quickly as possible. The potential adverse or untoward effects of CEWs are nicely examined via animal experiments and historical case reports, but despite the TASER's omnipresence, there is a paucity of human studies. It appears, however, that both the infamous Rodney King and this book's editors have been recipients of the TASER's output. The text explores cellular and cardiac physiology, contains a number of chapters on the toxicology of stimulants, and offers the pathologist's view of excited delirium. It would behoove all medical examiners to peruse this work prior to promulgating reports implicating law enforcement officers and CEWs as a direct cause of death in the scenario of excited delirium.

All authors have their e-mail address listed, and I posit they are provided for ready communication. Contributors Jeffrey Ho, Theodore Chan, Robert Reardon, Donald Dawes, and Gary Vilke are no strangers to the emergency medicine literature, and their prior work with CEWs can be termed pioneering. The chapter on stimulant abuse and sudden cardiac death by Steven Karch, a well-known expert in this field, is brief but to the point and is nicely supplemented by a plethora of additional chapters on these topics. For the engineers in the audience, a variety of inscrutable electrical diagrams and charts are included but, sadly, electricity still befuddles me. I particularly enjoyed the chapters by Samuel Stratton and Charles Wetli on sudden unexpected death in custody and Michael Brave on the legal basics for the CEW. John Peters, founder for the Institute for the Prevention of In Custody Deaths, Inc., penned the aptly titled "Science and Logic Meet the Law." Michael White and Justin Ready relay the New York City/NYPD's many years of experience with the TASER. This book is a gem; you will not find such an in-depth treatise in any other source. It is a cornucopia of information, data, personal vignettes, and streetwise common sense. I suspect the most avid readers will be law enforcement personnel, toxicologists, emergency physicians, medical examiners, and of course, lawyers. One might intuit from this review that I really like this book.

James R. Roberts, MD
([e-mail])
The Drexel University College of Medicine,
the Department of Emergency Medicine
Mercy Catholic Medical Center
Philadelphia, PA"

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, thorough treatise on conducted electrical weapons, May 9, 2009

By 

Master Force Instructor (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: TASER® Conducted Electrical Weapons: Physiology, Pathology, and Law (Hardcover)

FINALLY, a well researched, analyzed, written treatise on conducted electrical weapons. This book will go a long way towards quashing the hysterial, sensationalistic ignorant rhetoric espoused by the negative unscientific special interest groups. A CEW is a handheld device powered by small batteries. It delivers an incredibly small electrical charge to the body. It is well proven to be a much safer force alternative and has been studied far more than any other tool or technique available to law enforcement and more than the vast majority of electrical medical devices. The book delves deeply into the cardiac, physiologic, and metabolic effects, or lack of effects, of CEWs. Including pathology, arrest-related death, science, logic, and the law, The book is well organized, thorough and up-to-date.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sound Science, May 16, 2009

By 

P. Smith - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: TASER® Conducted Electrical Weapons: Physiology, Pathology, and Law (Hardcover)

Finally, a solid review of the science and law around electronic control devices. Anyone who wants to truly understand how TASER devices work and their physiological effects should definitely read this book.