TASER, TASER, TASER

Recently there was another incident of a police officer firing her service weapon when she intended to fire her taser. How can that happen? I wrote earlier about training and the muscle memory that is needed to do the “right thing” when in a stressful situation. That is evidently only part of the issue. See this article: “Unintended: A theory of TASER/weapon confusion.”

The police officer who shared this article with me said that he sees officers on a regular basis practicing drawing the right weapon and dry firing it to promote the muscle memory that is needed, and also the proficiency with which the movement is made.

I also believe having the taser not be on the dominant hand side and also being drawn with the non-dominant hand to fire it is the right approach. Thus, the muscle memory is completely different.

Believe it or not, there are evidently police departments that train their officers to draw both weapons, the taser and pistol, simultaneously, which I think is a mistake waiting to happen. Then you are only the wrong trigger finger away from the ultimate error.

Officer Jeremy shared the above with me.