Ho Jeffrey D, Dawes Donald M, Johnson Mark A, Lundin Erik J, Miner James R
Department of Emergency Medicine, Hennepin County Medical Center, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
Am J Emerg Med. 2007 Sep;25(7):780-5. doi: 10.1016/j.ajem.2007.02.030.
Conducted electrical weapons (CEWs) are used by some law enforcement agencies to subdue mentally ill subjects who are combative, violent, or suicidal. The use of CEWs in this population is controversial. Proponents advocate CEW use to avoid other forms of escalated force. Opponents advocate against CEW use because of the potential for abuse. What is lacking in the medical literature is documentation of the impact on outcome that this technology may have when used in this population. This project represents an initial report in this area.
A database of CEW use has been maintained since 1999 to which law enforcement agencies voluntarily report. This database was reviewed for occurrences of CEW use on mentally ill and suicidal subjects. Situation outcome and potential for law enforcement use of deadly force as an alternative were recorded. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics.
There were 10,608 reports of CEW use over a 72-month period. Of these, there were 2452 uses on mentally ill subjects; and of these, 1111 (45.3%) were in situations where lethal force by the law enforcement agency would have been justified or where the subject represented an imminent life threat to himself.
The mentally ill represents a significant portion of subjects upon whom CEWs are used. These data suggest frequent use of CEWs in situations where deadly force would otherwise be justified and in situations where subjects exhibit imminent danger to themselves. These data also suggest that escalation to deadly force was avoided in many mental illness and suicidal situations by the presence of a CEW.
一些执法机构使用导电电子武器（CEW）来制服具有攻击性、暴力倾向或自杀倾向的精神病患者。在这一人群中使用CEW存在争议。支持者主张使用CEW以避免其他形式的武力升级。反对者则因存在滥用的可能性而反对使用CEW。医学文献中缺乏关于该技术在这一人群中使用时对结果影响的记录。本项目是该领域的初步报告。
自1999年以来维护了一个CEW使用数据库，执法机构可自愿向其报告。对该数据库中针对精神病患者和有自杀倾向者使用CEW的情况进行了审查。记录了情况结果以及执法机构使用致命武力作为替代手段的可能性。使用描述性统计进行数据分析。
在72个月的时间里，有10608份CEW使用报告。其中，有2452次用于精神病患者；在这些情况中，1111次（45.3%）是在执法机构使用致命武力合理或对象对自身构成紧迫生命威胁的情况下。
精神病患者是使用CEW的很大一部分对象。这些数据表明，在原本可使用致命武力的情况下以及对象对自身表现出紧迫危险的情况下，CEW被频繁使用。这些数据还表明，在许多精神疾病和自杀情况下，由于有CEW，避免了升级至致命武力。
