Taser maker issues new guidelines

This diagram from Taser International's website shows the new target area for Taser use.

October 7, 2009
CTV Calgary

A company that makes Tasers has issued new guidelines to police who use their product.

Taser International maintains its devices are safe but is telling police to avoid aiming the weapon at a suspect's chest.

On Wednesday those new rules were passed onto Calgary police.

"We have released a new directive, relative to Taser targeting, to our members and this follows a training bulletin that Taser International released," says SSgt. Chris Butler from the Calgary Police Service.

The bulletin, which is posted on Taser International's website, includes a diagram showing the new target areas on a suspect's body.

The bulletin instructs police: "when possible, avoiding chest shots with ECDS avoids the controversy about whether ECD's do, or do not, affect the human heart."

"The rationale from Taser in their training bulletin is that the new medical research that is coming out is showing that the closer probe to heart distances have a likelihood, or a possibility, that they may affect the rhythm of the heart," says SSgt. Butler.

CTV Calgary tried to contact Taser International for an interview but, so far, it has not responded.