ACLU seeks restrictions on Taser use

The ACLU has asked the Orange County Sheriff’s Department to restrict the use of Tasers in most cases, saying hundreds of people have died nationally after being shocked by the stun guns during encounters with police.

The American Civil Liberties Union delivered a sharply worded 10-page letter to Sheriff Sandra Hutchens on Tuesday, urging her to limit the department’s use of Tasers to incidents in which there is a threat of “death or serious bodily injury.”

Further, the group recommended that the department revise its policy to provide more specific guidelines and clarifications for deputies about Taser use.

“There’s a real question of what situations you’re going to allow Tasers to be used in, and whether you think it is a lethal force weapon or no,” said Hector Villagra, director of the Orange County office of the ACLU.

“Our initial recommendation is to classify it as a lethal force weapon; if you don’t do it, then we think you have to seriously consider the limitations of its use and application in various circumstances,” he said.

The letter states that since June 2001 more than 320 people across the country have died after being shocked with Tasers. Two Orange County jail inmates died after being shocked with Tasers last year.

Jason Jesus Gomez died April 1, 2008, six days after deputies used a Taser while restraining him at the Intake Release Center in Santa Ana. He had been jailed for violating terms of his probation from a 2006 conviction for displaying a firearm and cultivating marijuana.

In October, Michael Patrick Lass died after deputies used a Taser while trying to restrain him at the Central Men’s Jail in Santa Ana. He had been jailed for drinking in public.

An Orange County grand jury report released last year called the recent inmate deaths a “cause of alarm” and said the jail staff used Tasers on 437 inmates from 2004 to 2007.

The Sheriff’s Department implemented a new policy in April that bans deputies from using electronic stun guns on restrained suspects unless an alternative means of control fails to subdue “overtly assaultive behavior.”

But Villagra, who wrote the letter to Hutchens, said the changes are not enough.

“Based on the policy that was implemented in April . . . there’s clearly a number of areas where substantial changes can be made and should be made,” Villagra said.

The letter recommends that the department adopt 12 changes, which include specifying the Taser’s potential dangers, emphasizing the risk of being shocked multiple times or over a prolonged period, limiting the number of officers who can discharge the Taser on a subject at a time and requiring supervisor response and review after Taser use.

The department will review the letter, said spokesman John McDonald.

Taser guns use compressed nitrogen to propel two darts that attach to the body. The darts are connected to the gun by a wire and deliver a 50,000-volt shock at five-second intervals to incapacitate a subject.

Taser International Inc., which developed and manufactures the weapons, defends the guns as nonlethal.

“You can ask any law enforcement agency, deadly force is deadly force,” said Steve Tuttle, a company spokesman.

But “I would have to agree with the ACLU that good policies and good training are critical to successful Taser programs,” he said.

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tami.abdollah@latimes.com