Police Use of Tasers Criticized in Miami

Police have acknowledged using a stun gun to immobilize a 12-year-old girl weeks after an officer jolted a first-grader with 50,000 volts.

Police Director Bobby Parker defended the decision to use a Taser on the 6-year-old boy last month because he was threatening to injure himself with a shard of glass. But Parker said Friday that he couldn’t defend the decision to shock the fleeing girl, who was skipping school and who apparently was drunk. He said the department would review its policy.

According to the incident report, Officer William Nelson responded to a complaint that children were swimming, drinking alcohol and smoking cigars on the morning of Nov. 5.

Nelson said he noticed the girl was intoxicated and was walking her to his car to take her back to school when she ran away through a parking lot.

Nelson, 38, said he chased her and yelled several times for her to stop before firing the Taser when she began to run into traffic. The electric probes hit the girl in the neck and lower back, immobilizing her. Nelson said he fired “for [his] safety along with [the girl’s] safety.” Paramedics treated the girl, who went home with her mother.

Parker said department policy permits officers to use the Taser to apprehend someone, but he said he expected his officers to use better judgment, especially when police had no plans to arrest a person.

The first incident increased criticism of the department for its use of Tasers, which it had begun distributing in greater numbers to officers.

The 6-year-old boy was shocked Oct. 20 in the principal’s office at Kelsey Pharr Elementary School. Principal Maria Mason called 911 after the child broke a picture frame in her office and waved a piece of glass, holding a security guard back.

The boy had cut his face and hand when officers arrived.

“The police could have handled this better,” said the boy’s mother, Kathy Rojas.