Tasers HURTT

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The name Taser is an acronym: "Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle". It was designed in 1969 by Arizona inventor Jack Cover; he named it for the science fiction teenage inventor and adventurer character Tom Swift.

In 1991 in Scottsdale, Arizona, TASER International's founders, brothers Rick and Tom Smith began a quest to reduce overall world violence by developing a more effective and safer use of force option for citizens and law enforcement.

Along with TASER™ inventor Jack Cover, the trio began work in 1993 on an effective electronic control device. The result of the garage-shop beginning was the production of a device that has revolutionized personal protection and law enforcement and the incorporation of AIR TASER, Inc. in September 1993.

In June 1994, after Rick and Tom Smith developed a non-firearm version of the TASER device, they also engineered a unique tracking system to make citizens accountable when TASER devices were utilized. This system, known as the anti-felon identification (AFID) system, disperses dozens of small confetti with serial numbers that match back to the owner of the TASER device. In that same month, the ATF certified that the AIR TASER was not a firearm and is not subject to the stringent regulations that were placed on the original TASER device.

The AIR TASER became a successful self-defense tool available to citizens concerned about personal security. Over the past decade, 100,000 citizen TASER systems were sold.

During 1998 AIR TASER, Inc. changed its name to TASER, International, Inc. to reflect the company's international expansion and the introduction of the AIR TASER to the law enforcement community in 1998.

Harold L. Hurtt, once chief of the Phoenix, Arizona, Police Department, is now the head   of the Houston Police Department.   A veteran of the U.S. Air Force, began his law enforcement career as a patrolman in the Phoenix Department in 1968. He retired in 1992 to become chief of the Oxnard, California, Police Department. He returned to the Phoenix Police Department as its chief in April 1998.

Chief Hurtt graduated from Arizona State University in 1977 with a bachelor's degree in sociology. He earned a master's degree in organizational management from the University of Phoenix in 1991.

As Chief of Phoenix, Hurt once stated:

“Tasers give officers another option than their handguns when they are confronted by someone with a weapon other than a gun or by a person who is mentally ill. In a lot of these cases where we used Tasers, we would have had to use deadly force, we have to give our officers a lot of credit. . . . When they're given the option to use less than lethal force, they are doing that."




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Feb. 17, 2007, 11:38PM
Tasered inmate had history of mental illness


By STEVE MCVICKER
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle


Daryl Dwayne Kelley heard voices. They told him that he and the people around him were possessed by Satan. They told him to steal a police car, which he did.

In January 2006, he was arrested for the crime at a private mental health facility and taken to the Harris County Jail, where he would later be shocked several times with a Taser and die.

But despite Kelley's well-documented history of mental problems, he was not assigned to a mental health bed. The jail's inmate-classification personnel concluded that Kelley was "emotionally stable" with "no indicators of mental illness."

He was, however, prescribed 10 milligrams of Zyprexa, used to treat schizophrenia, to be taken every evening. Kelley's sister, Shirley Roberson was concerned he was not receiving the medication.

"I went down there (to the jail) to talk to them about his medication, but they didn't pay any attention to me," Roberson said.

Jail reports indicate that Kelley refused to take it. Either way, Kelley, according to jail records, began getting "aggressive" and "confused" and was transferred to the mental health ward, where he erupted into a psychotic fury.

As they attempted to restrain him, deputies Tasered Kelley seven times in just over 20 minutes. He was administered an unknown sedative by a jail nurse, records show. A few minutes later, he was dead.

The Harris County Medical Examiner's Office ruled the death "natural" as a result of "psychotic delirium" related to hypertensive cardiovascular disease. But it also noted abrasions and bruises on his face, head, neck, left hip, arms, wrists, hands, ankles and chest.

Inmates claim he was also beaten.

Sheriff Tommy Thomas declined to elaborate on the case because of a possible lawsuit but noted that medical staffers were present as Kelley was Tasered.



TASERS HURTT


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