Legal Aspects of Conducted Electrical Weapon Injuries, Wounds, and Effects

Abstract

A law enforcement officer’s (LEO’s) use of a conducted electrical weapon (CEW) is usually a use of force under the authority of a governmental entity that must comply with our society’s established force standards. While there are numerous such standards that define whether a LEO’s use of force is appropriate or not, one of the key elements of any such analysis is the foreseeable consequences of the LEO’s force under the circumstances of its use, the “quantum of force”: in the circumstances of the LEO’s CEW use, what are the reasonably foreseeable consequences to the person, including the injuries, wounds, and effects?

This chapter will help provide basic insight into analyzing LEO’s use of a CEW from the legal perspective. While a full-breadth legal analysis of CEW use would easily fill a series of large treatises, this chapter will provide food for thought to consider when deciding to use a CEW in a particular situation and in analyzing a LEO’s CEW use to determine whether under the circumstances the use of force was appropriate.

We explicitly “recognize[d] the important role controlled electric devices like the [TASER^® X26™ CEW] can play in law enforcement” to “help protect police officers, bystanders, and suspects alike.”

(Bryan, 9th Circuit, 11/30/10) [1]