tw@t!.
:ermm:
Coming to the UK . . . so any officer who’s lost the will to do the job and can’t deal with a gobby woman can take his frustration out on her by giving her his own form of punishmnt. If we could be sure it would only be used in the correct circumstances it could be useful . . . but even the UN have declared the taser a weapon of torture !
I hope he lost his badge for that one!
Bang out of order!
crikey…and yes darryl dont you have the tasers in the Uk now…???scary stuff…
I would like to know what happen in the end back at the police station
and they just issued 250 extra to the met, don’t it make ya feel warm inside:D:D:D
The met’s TSG (territorial support group) have been issued Tasers under a pilot scheme.
People are aways too quick to criticise when police use it for the wrong reasons, but when you are faced with a knife suspect and all u have is a small poxy can of CS spray … the taser is a good choice 
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/09/30/0930video.html
AUSTIN POLICE VIDEOTAPED ALTERCATION
From officer’s order to Taser: 45 secondsOfficer’s quick use of stun gun captured on tape; chief calls incident 'a black eye.'By Tony Plohetski
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, September 30, 2007
An Austin police corporal who pulled over a man along a busy highway on Thanksgiving 2006 for driving five miles per hour over the limit ordered the driver out of the car and then shocked him with his Taser stun gun as the motorist appeared to question what was happening, according to a videotape from the officer’s patrol car camera.
Cpl. Thomas O’Connor’s immediate supervisor and internal affairs investigators exonerated him of wrongfully using the weapon, saying he was justified because he “perceived a threat,” dozens of pages of internal memos and other records said. In May, Cathy Ellison, acting police chief at the time, suspended O’Connor for three days in May for using force against Eugene Snelling and for violating a department policy requiring officers to “respect the rights of individuals and perform their services with honestly, sincerity, courage and sound judgement.”
The dramatic traffic stop has now become a “black eye on the organization,” according to new Chief Art Acevedo, who this week will begin using the video as a training tool to prevent future incidents.
Acevedo, who arrived in June amid a federal investigation into how Austin police use force against minorities, said he was troubled by the officer’s quick use of his Taser on Snelling, who is black, and by internal affairs detectives’ decision that O’Connor, who is white, had done nothing wrong by using the weapon.
Days after he took office, Acevedo first saw the videotape and a stinging memo from the Austin Police Monitor’s Office, which summed up its response: “We believe that Corporal O’Connor was far too quick on the trigger.”
“It was very upsetting to me,” Acevedo said in an interview last week. “What I saw wasn’t consistent with my expectations of the men and women of the Austin Police Department. Our job is to de-escalate stops, not escalate them. The way the officer conducted business, he absolutely escalated the situation.”
The video shows O’Connor using a tone that he would later call “very direct” to ask for Snelling’s license and proof of insurance and Snelling shouting “whoa! whoa! whoa!” at the officer’s demeanor. O’Connor is heard shouting “No! Not 'whoa, whoa, whoa!,”’ then drawing his Taser and ordering Snelling out of the car. He fired seconds later.
Snelling’s mother sat in the passenger seat — he said she was holding food for a family gathering — as he fell screaming to the ground along MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) near Barton Creek Square mall. O’Connor is then heard telling Snelling that he was going to jail for not obeying his order to show him his license and proof of insurance, a demand he initially made 45 seconds before firing his Taser.
O’Connor, who told investigators that the incident was his first time to use the weapon, did not appeal the suspension, but wrote Ellison a three-page letter defending himself.
In a statement to internal affairs detectives, O’Connor said, “I saw it as a very simple thing, a very simple traffic violation that could have been taken very, care of very quickly, had he presented his driver’s license and insurance. We could have both been on our way.”
He said he pulled his Taser “because he was argumentative, and I thought I might have a problem” and that he fired the weapon, which delivers a shock of up to 50,000 volts, when Snelling appeared to “reach his hand up toward me.” He said he was concerned that he could have been hurled into traffic.
O’Connor said he also had not eaten and has a medical condition that “makes you kind of edgy” without food.
O’Connor declined through a department spokeswoman an interview request from the American-Statesman.
Acevedo said he thinks the decision by internal affairs detectives to clear O’Connor his use of his Taser — they did conclude that he had been rude during the stop — also indicates a greater need for Police Department officials to understand his expectations and the need for a broader understanding in the agency about how and when the weapons should be used.
Acevedo is posting the video on an internal department Web site with a two-minute introduction, in which he urges officers to consider how they would react if a family member were treated like Snelling, whether they would be ashamed if the tape were shown publicly and whether they treat suspects that way.
“In cases like this, we hold people accountable, and the penalty will be severe,” he said.
‘I felt threatened’
O’Connor’s suspension was his second in his 13 years with the department. He received a one-day suspension in 2005 for a minor patrol car accident, and has since received a third: A disciplinary memo in June giving him a day off without pay said he shouted at a motorist who accidentally entered a funeral procession on Interstate 35, then pulled the driver over and issued a proof of insurance citation.
O’Connor, 46, ranked second among all officers in the frequency with which he filed use-of-force reports, according to a 2004 American-Statesman series about use of force by police. O’Connor had worked in the pedestrian-heavy Sixth Street entertainment district, and the newspaper reported that O’Connor had recently been cited in a performance evaluation for rudeness to citizens.
O’Connor is now assigned patrol duties in Central-West Austin.
Last Thanksgiving, O’Connor was heading toward a report of a 911 hang-up that had gone unanswered for two hours. That’s when he told investigators he noticed Snelling’s car “tailgating” him along MoPac.
Somewhere near Barton Skyway, he said in his internal affairs statement, Snelling passed him going about 70 mph. O’Connor said heturned on his lights to pull him over, and he noticed that Snelling’s license plate on his Hyundai Accent was illegally laying near the back window.
O’Connor walked up to the driver’s side door — a decision he later recognized put him dangerously close to a busy highway.
“They were talking to me, and they were arguing about stopping for 5 over the speed limit,” O’Connor told the investigators.
He said he decided to order Snelling, 32, out of the car because he wasn’t complying with a request for his license. O’Connor said he wanted to verify who the driver was away from the other passengers, who also included Snelling’s adult cousin, who was in the back seat.
“I was concerned,” O’Connor said. “There’s no plates on this car. Possibly, the car is stolen, and he didn’t want to give me an ID. Now I’m concerned that possibly, he has warrants.”
He opened the car door, and O’Connor said he thought Snelling pushed the door of the car toward him, putting him even closer to traffic.
“He reaches his right arm up towards me,” O’Connor said. “I don’t know what he’s going to do, so I Tased him. I felt threatened.”
‘Are you having a bad day?’
Snelling said he had once considered becoming an Austin police officer.
He joined several friends who are police officers on patrol while earning an on-line associate’s degree in criminal justice, but he said he decided to go back to school for a business degree after working in retail.
Snelling said he had recently bought his new Hyundai and hadn’t had time to properly put his license plate on the back when he encountered O’Connor.
Snelling, who also talked to internal affairs detectives, told them he was only questioning why O’Connor had stopped him when the officer began raising his voice.
“I said, ‘Dude, you know that your tone to me … I’m not yelling at you. I’m asking you a question,’” Snelling said. “There’s no reason, just because you’re wearing a badge, does not mean you have the right to yell at me.’”
Snelling said he remembered O’Connor then yanking him out of his car. The video appears to show a brief altercation, but it is not obvious what, if any, contact occurred then. Internal affairs detectives later said in their summary that the video shows O’Connor never touched Snelling with his hands.
“I kept on saying, ‘I don’t understand why you’re treating me like this. Are you having a bad day? This is Thanksgiving. I’m sorry if you’re not with your family,’” Snelling said. “… And the next minute, I’m being Tased.”
He was then arrested on a charge of disobeying a lawful order, and spent several hours in the Travis County Jail.
‘What was your reason?’
In his review, Sgt. Michael Larner, O’Connor’s sergeant, asked O’Connor why he hadn’t called for backup, especially if he thought Snelling wasn’t complying. He also questioned why O’Connor had positioned himself in front of the driver’s door, where he could have been pushed into traffic.
“I met with (O’Connor) to advise him that after looking at the videotape, I could not see any policy violation that was violated when he used his Taser on the driver during the traffic stop,” Larner wrote in a two-page Dec. 15 letter to his commander.
But Larner’s boss, Cmdr. Calvin Smith, sent the case to internal affairs, which investigates allegations of wrongdoing against officers to determine if they violated policies. The unit traditionally gives their findings to the chief, who makes final decision about punishment.
Transcripts show that investigators questioned O’Connor pointedly at times.
Detective Cara Boyd asked, “Were you intending to Tase him in the car if he didn’t get out? I mean, what was your reason for pulling your Taser out?”
Later, she questioned why O’Connor fired at Snelling and challenged his fear about being shoved into traffic since he didn’t move away from the highway after Snelling was on the ground.
But even after he told investigators that he wishes that he had slowed down during the exchange, the investigators concluded that O’Connor had acted appropriately by using his Taser “to gain control and compliance.”
The Police Monitor’s office, which includes a civilian panel that reviews internal investigations and provides suggestions to the chief about training and policies, disagreed, saying in its July 26 memo, “We observed no obvious verbal or physical threatening actions by Mr. Snelling that would have justified Corporal O’Connor’s activating the Taser.”
Charges of disobeying a lawful order against Snelling were dropped. He still has pending citations for speeding, for not wearing his glasses while he was driving and for improperly displaying his license plate.
The monitor asked Acevedo to consider writing into policy a guideline about how long officers should wait for a suspect to comply with an order before taking further action. Acevedo said he is reviewing those policies.
He said he also recently met with O’Connor but declined to elaborate.
In his letter to Ellison, O’Connor said, "I also consider this incident as a learning experience as well and readily accept the additional training that has been provided since.
“I continue to look forward to serving our community.”
[email protected]; 445-3605
Chief’s view on the traffic stop
Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said he has several concerns about the Thanksgiving Day 2006 traffic stop by Cpl. Thomas O’Connor:
His approach to Eugene Snelling was “confrontational” and it appeared as though he took the stop as a “personal affront.”
O’Connor did not “slow down and take a step back. He escalated the situation.”
O’Connor ordered Snelling out of the car and used his Taser under “questionable circumstances.”
O’Connor approached the car from the left, which is allowed under Austin police policy. However, officers have a greater chance of being struck by a passing car.
Taser guidelines
The Austin Police Department’s use of force policy requires officers to use only the minimum amount of force to bring an incident under control. Unacceptable uses of the Taser include:
• Horseplay or practical jokes.
• To harass or unduly influence a suspect or prisoner under any circumstances.
• To overcome passive resistance (meaning a subject offers no physical resistance to arrest, simply goes limp and makes no overt act of aggressive behavior). The weapon is not designed for use as, nor will it be used as, a prod to get a suspect or prisoner to move in these type of situations.
APD Taser infractions
Austin police officials said internal affairs detectives have investigated 17 allegations of improper Taser use among officers since 2004, when the agency outfitted them with the weapons. Four officers have received written reprimands and two others quit the force while under investigation.
1 rule for them and 1 for us.
Not often I disagree with ya mate, but if you’re talking about British coppers in your statement then you’re talking poo !
the same could be said for “any Officer who’s lost the will to do the job and can’t deal with a gobby woman can take his frustration out on her by giving her his own form of punishmnt” about Batons and CS.
When i joined I was given a pair of chain link cuffs and a wooden truncheon. Thats all we had, I’ve heard this same argument each time when we got speedcuffs, acrylic batons, Asp batons and CS.
As for the weapon of torture business … well having experienced both a baton and a taser from the wrong end … I would rather be tasered everytime.
As for the clip featured at the start of this thread, the Taser is quite clearly being used as a weapon of compliance there … something that is not done in the UK in any shape or form.
"AUSTIN POLICE VIDEOTAPED ALTERCATION
From officer’s order to Taser: 45 secondsOfficer’s quick use of stun gun captured on tape; chief calls incident 'a black eye.'By Tony Plohetski
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, September 30, 2007"
Good post Mate!
so ya saying that the law is just as hard on you lot when laws are broken?
Yep, even more so.I did actually write a longer reply to this but it’s been eaten ?!?!?
wow there was no need for that treatment even slamming the door into him was a bit out of order dude this officer was having a really bad day.