By Jacqueline Koch
Chattanooga Times Free Press
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Opinions about Taser use in hospitals are mixed, but most law enforcement and mental health advocates agree that maintaining safety is essential during volatile situations.
Two men were shocked with Tasers in Tenn. hospitals during the past month. Edward Buckner, 53, died Nov. 27, shortly after he was shocked in Erlanger hospital. An autopsy revealed he died of natural causes, specifically blood clots.
On Wednesday, Chattanooga police officers with the department’s crisis intervention team shocked a man four times in the Parkridge Medical Center emergency room.
James Mitchell, 40, was “experiencing a mental crisis” and became combative and irrational when officers tried to calm him verbally, police department spokeswoman Sgt. Jerri Weary said.
Officers shot Mr. Mitchell four times with the Taser before they could gain control of him. The first two attempts did not work because the Taser’s probes did not penetrate Mr. Mitchell’s clothes, Sgt. Weary said.
After the incident, Parkridge staff administered medication to calm Mr. Mitchell. He then underwent a mental evaluation and his condition is not considered life-threatening, Sgt. Weary said.
Crisis intervention team supervisors with the Chattanooga Police Department and the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to requests for comment.
More than 53 percent of hospital security officers nationwide do not carry lethal or less-lethal weapons, a study this year by Campus Safety Magazine found.
The study found that 7 percent of hospital safety employees carried lethal weapons such as handguns, 26 percent carried less-lethal weapons such as Tasers and 13 percent are armed with both.
Tasers remain safe and effective when used in a hospital setting, especially when a baton blow or pepper spray can contaminate a hospital’s sensitive environment, said Steve Tuttle, vice president of communications for Taser International.
“Often hospital patients and/or visitors can become psychotic, violent, dangerous and combative,” he said. "(A) response to resistance is necessary using a tool designed to reduce harm.”
Erlanger and Chattanooga officers carry Tasers and undergo proper training required to possess them, officials said.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness maintains that the use of Tasers on the seriously mentally ill should be permitted only if the responding officer is faced with an immediate threat of death or serious injury or if the situation may be hazardous to the individual, officer or other person.
“Such devices should not be deployed when other means or methods of de-escalations are appropriate, available and suitable for the crisis event, nor should these devices ever be used as a means of intimidation or inappropriate coercion,” according to a statement from the alliance.
In Chattanooga, crisis intervention team training requires that officers learn multiple ways to control situations, beginning at the verbal level and moving to other force as an incident progresses.
But every situation contains different factors, and officers use their judgment when deciding how to handle each, said Maj. Sam Cochran, founder of the first crisis intervention team in the country and a retired major in the Memphis police department.
“What is the level of potential harm that could warrant taking the next step? You could be criticized about why (you waited) so long and something happened,” he said.
Copyright 2009 Chattanooga Publishing Company