Zap!

By Michael S. Serrill

Only a few weeks ago, it seemed as if the stun gun was a product whose time had come. The electrical self-defense device has become a big seller, both to worried citizens who dislike conventional guns and to police departments searching for a nonlethal method of "taking down" an emotionally disturbed suspect. "We can't keep 'em in stock," says Bobbi Repasy of the O'Herron police supply firm, which sells 250 a month in Danville, Ill.

Stun guns have been controversial since they were introduced ten years ago, however, and recent events have shown why. Five New York City police officers last week were indicted on charges growing out of use of these devices to torture four men arrested on minor drug charges. Mark Davidson, 18, unveiled in court a back and abdomen laced with dozens of "fried flesh" marks, as his lawyer put it. The allegations so outraged Police Commissioner Benjamin Ward that he forced the retirement or transfer of some 20 supervising officers, including the department's third highest official.

In San Antonio a sheriff's lieutenant was just sentenced to two years' probation for repeatedly zapping a handcuffed suspect last summer. In April in Dallas, another worry of stun-gun critics became reality when a pair of robbers used one to disable a clerk in a Safeway supermarket. In Los Angeles, the county coroner is investigating the death four weeks ago of a suspected PCP drug user who was zapped by police. It was the second such fatality in two years, though PCP is considered more likely to have been responsible for the deaths than the zappings.

This string of incidents has stun-gun manufacturers on the defensive, though sales continue to soar. If the alleged police assailants had not had stun guns, "a traditional method--burning cigarettes or whatever--would have been used," argues James McCourt of Nova Technologies. Nova has sold more than 100,000 of its $85 XR-5000s in the past two years. The lightweight 6-in. shock stick is powered by a nine-volt rechargeable battery. When triggered while pressed against a person's body, it sends out 50,000 volts but, Nova claims, just .00006 of an amp, a tiny fraction of the amount that would give electricity a lethal jolt. A stun-gunned victim typically loses control of all voluntary muscles, drops and remains dazed and rubbery-legged for a few minutes.

The XR-5000's chief competition is the bulkier, higher-priced ($325 to $400) Taser, a ten-year-old apparatus that shoots two wire-trailing darts into its victims, then passes an electric current through the wires. The Taser dart shooter is favored by many police, who would rather keep their distance from violent drunks, drug users and mental patients. Taser says that more than 400 police departments have bought the devices.

Police supporters of the stun guns contend that they solve an old problem: how to avoid serious harm while capturing suspects who are a danger more to themselves than to others. The Houston officers who serve commitment warrants on the mentally disturbed use Tasers regularly and gratefully; injuries are down. The XR-5000, says Police Chief Conrad Teller of Southampton, N.Y., "sets them on their fanny nice and quiet. So far as we can see, it's the most humane way to do it." There are police complaints, however. The devices do not always work. Large and aggressive suspects sometimes keep on coming despite being zapped. Lieut. David Townsend of the Michigan state police is not sure of the stun guns' safety. "The manufacturers claim they are not lethal to healthy hearts," he says. "The people we deal with are not always healthy, so there is a risk of injuring or killing someone."

The Taser is considered a firearm (because it shoots darts), and its sale is somewhat restricted by federal law, while a handful of states have tougher rules that ban both Tasers and Novas, or limit them to police. Many civil libertarians are cautious supporters of stun guns on the ground that police are more likely to injure suspects with a gun or a nightstick. But the new charges of stun-gun abuse have sharpened their concerns. "The risks are the same as the advantages," answers Greg Thomas, a Washington police researcher. "It all comes back to the judgment and discretion of the officer."

With reporting by Raji Samghabadi/New York and Gary Taylor/Houston, with other bureaus