LOUISVILLE –  Following the death on Tuesday of Louisville resident Larry Noles after police attempted to subdue him with a Taser, the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky called upon the Louisville Metro Police Department to impose a moratorium on the use of the weapons pending further study.

“The death of Mr. Noles seems inevitable in light of the continually growing evidence that stun guns are not the non-lethal devices that proponents purport them to be,” said Beth Wilson, Executive Director of the ACLU of Kentucky.  “Tasers should be used only as an alternative to deadly force in situations where there is an immediate threat to human life.”

If press accounts are accurate, there seems to be little evidence to support the need for deadly force in this situation, the ACLU said.  In addition, it is critical for officers to distinguish between the “non-compliance” of a mentally ill individual and the dangerous behavior of a criminal.

In a letter sent today to Louisville Metro Police Chief Robert White, the ACLU of Kentucky asks the Louisville Metro Police Department to halt the use of Tasers 1) until additional information can be gathered on this incident, 2) until the safety of the weapon has been independently and more thoroughly scrutinized by department officials, and 3) until the department has had a chance to carefully review both its policies and training procedures governing the use of these weapons.

Certainly, Tasers may have a place in police arsenals, the ACLU said, but police policies around the country often permit inappropriate and unnecessarily harmful uses.  The Taser should be considered potentially lethal, and used only as an alternative to deadly force.

Indeed, recent research by University of Wisconsin biomedical engineering professor John Webster, demonstrates that Tasers can cause cardiac ventricular fibrillation – a precursor of cardiac arrest – in pigs. Particularly in susceptible populations, such as the young, the elderly, or those with obvious medical conditions, Tasers must be presumed capable of causing cardiac arrest in humans as well.

Moreover, the Taser causes excruciating pain to which people should not be exposed without a high degree of law-enforcement justification.

A growing body of research questions the Taser’s safety record and the way it is used on suspects.  As Taser sales have increased around the country, the number of deaths associated with their use has skyrocketed.  Even though the guns deliver a 50,000 volt, five-second shock that stuns victims, they continue to be marketed as a “non-lethal” alternative to handguns, the ACLU said.

The letter to Chief White asks for copies of the policies governing the weapon’s use on suspects by Louisville police. The ACLU will analyze those policies to examine what safeguards are in place to limit the use of the weapon.

Click here for a copy of the letter to LMPD Chief Robert White.