Do Saliva-Saturated Spit Hoods Interfere With Ventilation?

Spit hoods are used by law enforcement, officers in correctional facilities, and medical personnel during the restraint of agitated subjects that are actively spitting to prevent the transmission of droplet-transmitted pathogens. We could find no studies reporting on the time course of normal breathing to clear saliva from such a saturated spit hood. We purchased samples of 3 popular spit hood models and applied a section over the output of a pneumatic test system.

Confusion between firearms and electrical weapons as a factor in police shootings.

Conducted electrical weapons (CEW) have risks including trauma associated with uncontrolled falls, probes penetrating the eye, and fume ignition. A lesser-known risk is weapon-confusion error with officers mistakenly discharging their firearm when they intended to deploy their electrical weapon. We searched for incidents of possible weapon confusion with the TASER® brand CEWs via open-source media, litigation filings, and a survey of CEW law enforcement master instructors.

Output of Electronic Muscle Stimulators: Physical Therapy and Police Models Compared.

Introduction: Both physical therapists and police officers use electrical muscle stimulation. The typical physical therapist unit is attached with adhesive patches while the police models use needle-based electrodes to penetrate clothing. There have been very few papers describing the outputs of these physical therapy EMS (electrical muscle stimulator) units.

Detection of Arcing and High Impedance with Electrical Weapons.

Introduction: Conducted electrical weapons are primarily designed to stop subjects from endangering themselves or others by deploying 2, or more, probes to conduct current via the body to induce motor-nerve mediated muscle contractions, but probe impedance can vary significantly including open circuits from probes failing to complete or maintain a circuit.

Methods: We tested 10 units of the TASER 7 model with a range of impedances and open circuit conditions. Pulse data (stored in the device's memory) were used to predict the load resistances and detect arcing conditions.

Estimation of Physiological Impedance from Neuromuscular Pulse Data.

Introduction: A Conducted Electrical Weapon (CEW) deploys 2, or more, probes to conduct current via the body to induce motor-nerve mediated muscle contractions, but the inter-probe resistances can vary and this can affect charge delivery. For this reason, newer generation CEWs such as the TASER X3, X2 and X26P models have feed-forward control circuits to keep the delivered charge constant regardless of impedance. Our main goal was to explore the load limits for this "charge metering" system.

Pneumatic Impedance of Spit Socks and N95 Masks: The Applicability to Death Investigation.

Introduction: Restrained subjects often spit on law enforcement and corrections officers and medical responders. Based on the droplet-transmitted risk of COVID-19, such spitting could be considered a potentially life-threatening assault. Officers commonly use "spit socks" over the head and neck of spitting subjects to reduce this risk.

Applied Force During Prone Restraint: Is Officer Weight a Factor?

Introduction: It has been suggested that law enforcement officer (LEO) weight on the backs of prone subjects may cause asphyxia.

Methods: Law enforcement officers used their agency-trained "local" single- and double-knee techniques, the "Wisconsin" 3-Point Ground Stabilization, and the Human Factor Research Group Inc single-knee tactical handcuffing techniques, and the weight force was measured.

Results: Forty-one LEOs (36 men, 5 women) participated, aged 38.

Electrical Weapon Charge Delivery With Arcing.

Introduction: Human electronic control with the Conducted Electrical Weapon (CEW) has gained widespread acceptance as the preferred law enforcement force option technology due to its dramatic injury and fatal shooting reduction. However, with bulky or baggy clothing, a CEW probe may fail to make direct skin contact and thus arcing is critical to complete the circuit. The goal of the study was to evaluate the ability of modern CEWs to deliver their pulse charges across typical required arcing distances.

Eye injury from electrical weapon probes: Mechanisms and treatment.

Purpose: While generally reducing morbidity and mortality, TASER® electrical weapons have risks associated with their usage, including burn injuries and head and cervical trauma associated with uncontrolled falls. The primary non-fatal complications appear to be significant eye injury but no analysis of the mechanisms or suggested treatments has been published.

Methods: We used a biomechanical model to predict the risk of eye injury as a function of distance from the weapon muzzle to the eye.

Eye injuries from electrical weapon probes: Incidents, prevalence, and legal implications.

Purpose: While generally reducing morbidity and mortality, electrical weapons have risks associated with their usage, including burn injuries and trauma associated with uncontrolled fall impacts. However, the prevalence of significant eye injury has not been investigated.

Methods: We searched for incidents of penetrating eye injury from TASER conducted electrical weapon (CEW) probes via open source media, litigation filings, and a survey of CEW law-enforcement master instructors.

New conducted electrical weapons: Thoracic cage shielding effects.

Introduction: The TASER conducted electrical weapon (CEW) delivers electrical pulses that can temporarily incapacitate subjects. For existing CEW models, we have previously presented the distribution of currents in tissues posterior to the sternum and their likelihood of triggering cardiac arrhythmias. New models, the eXperimental Rotating-Field (XRF) waveform CEW (in development) and the X2 CEW (released) have not been investigated.

New conducted electrical weapons: Electrical safety relative to relevant standards.

Introduction: We have previously published about TASER conducted electrical weapons (CEW) compliance with international standards. CEWs deliver electrical pulses that can inhibit a person's neuromuscular control or temporarily incapacitate. An eXperimental Rotating-Field (XRF) waveform CEW and the X2 CEW are new 2-shot electrical weapon models designed to target a precise amount of delivered charge per pulse.

New conducted electrical weapons: Finite element modeling of safety margins.

Introduction-We have previously published on the ventricular fibrillation (VF) risk with TASER X26 conducted electrical weapon (CEW). Our risk model accounted for realistic body mass index distributions, modeled the effects of partial or oblique dart penetration, and used epidemiological CEW statistics. As new CEWs have become available to law enforcement, their cardiac safety profile was not quantified.

Validity of the small swine model for human electrical safety risks.

Small swine are the most common model now used for electrical safety studies. Because of the significant anatomical and electrophysiological differences and the effect of animal size on the ventricular fibrillation (VF) threshold, there are concerns that these differences may exaggerate the risks of electrical devices to humans. We chose, as an illustrative and relevant example, swine studies of the TASER® conducted electrical weapon (CEW) as it has numerous published VF studies.

The neurocognitive effects of simulated use-of-force scenarios.

While the physiologic effects of modern conducted electrical weapons (CEW) have been the subject of numerous studies, their effects on neurocognitive functioning, both short-term and long-term, are less well understood. It is also unclear how these effects compare to other use-of-force options or other arrest-related stressors. We compared the neurocognitive effects of an exposure to a TASER(®) (TASER International, Inc, Scottsdale, AZ) X26™ CEW to four other use-of-force scenarios during a training exercise using a well-established neurocognitive metric administered repeatedly over 1 h.