Worker affidavits allege Taser problems

www.ctv.ca...

CTV News has obtained court documents that suggest thousands of Tasers may be defective.

The lawsuit was brought against Taser International by its own shareholders, who were concerned the company had not disclosed safety deficiencies.

The former employees also claimed defective Tasers that had been returned were sawn open, the high voltage circuit boards were removed and "simply put in new casings with new serial numbers and sent out again without the flaws actually being rectified."

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[edit on 10-12-2008 by GAOTU789]

So after all the rhetoric from Taser that there was never any issues about there product, this lawsuit comes to light after 3 years. This isn't some group of people whose family members may have died or the like, it's the shareholders!!!

Also if Taser had nothing to hide, why did they settle the suit for $20 million than promptly bury this?

I really think that the most serious allegation is that defective units had their circuit boards removed and placed in new housing, repackaged and shipped off without ever fixing the problems.

Harmless eh?

Inquires into any death related to the use of the taser should be reopened or started. At least ones that happened before 2006.

Instead of linking all the stories that pop up about Taser and lawsuits, I'll just link the google search page. You can pick which ones you read, as there are thousands of stories to choose from. Well, I'll actually link a couple because it involves Police officers suing them over the device's safety standards.

Also, instead of linking the hundreds of threads here about people allegedly dying from this device, I'll just link you to the search page. Type in Taser and you can again chose whatever thread catches your eye.

www.ctv.ca
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit: fixed long link]

[edit on 10-12-2008 by 12m8keall2c]

Hide the bad, promote the good

All in the name of a quick buck.

Good to see that their are honest employees who won't go along with the company's line concerning a defective product. Makes one wonder how many defective tasers there are out on the streets that are potentially dangerous to the person or people they are being used on.

Most of the problems involved with the timing circuits that regulate how long the charge is active. A 30 thousand volt zap at 100 miliamps wont kill, just paralyze. BUT if you sustain that kind of zap for a long time, it CAN severely injure or kill.

Some of them did experience problems in the PWM circuits, which determine how much voltage and at what frequency rate the HV pulse is. The circuits would shift in frequency and pulse width, which in turn would INCREASE the high voltage at the end. Instead of a safe 30 kilovolt 100 milliamp zap, some of them ended up shooting as high as 150 kilovolts and up to near an amp of current!! THAT will kill the second it hits you.

The thing about tasers is that they are not very safe at all. They have been known to throw the high voltage back at the operator as well, especially on wet ground, where the path for the high voltage shooting throgh the subject, comes right back up to the officer and then both are on the ground, and if the cop has his finger still on the trigger, the trigger could remain pushed and both get a sustained shock, and if anyone was to attempt to touch either the subject or the officer, they too would get zapped.

I believe there are some experiments going on in developing a projectile type taser, where the projectile shoots at the subject with just enough velocity to penetrate thick clothing and then stick the high voltage probes into the skin layer. The high voltage circuits are contained inside the projectile, no wires between the subject and the officer. The projectile would have a "one time use" and has a cut off timer to prevent prolonged shocks.

I cant remember where I saw this, I think it was on Court TV or Discovery. But considering the safety issues for both subject and officer, it is probably the best solution for the non-lethal weapons that cops could use....next to their clubs and just bop you on the head!




Cheers!!!!!

TASER XREP (extended range electronic projectile)