[DavidE]

I was wondering if the folks at this board had any perspective on this apparently accidental shooting:

Lawyer: Tulsa reserve deputy to turn himself in

I see it as adrenaline and stress, but not a mistake that can be repaired. I am guessing they just didn't look at what they were pulling out, or if they did, it did not register in time.

 

[CaptainGyro]

It is a source of continuing consternation that, faced with a burning or damaged engine, aircrews will sometimes shut down the wrong one. This is particularly inconvenient if you've only got two, as happened recently to the Transasia crew that crashed in Taiwan.

We go to extreme lengths and build in rigid procedural safeguards to prevent this from happening, and still see it in training from time to time. At a minimum, two pilots have to confirm that the engine being shut down is the correct one. NASA's procedure during a shuttle emergency was for the astronaut performing the checklist to reach for the intended control, and then, before activating anything, announce to everyone on the flight deck, "watch my fingers".

 

[William R. Moore]

There are a number of these incidents on record. Some departments mandate that the less lethal stuff be carried on the support hand side to try to minimize the possibility of grabbing the wrong tool.

I have noted that at least one of the TASER models bears too close a resemblance to a handgun grip for my personal comfort. I expect that's to increase "familiarity".

While I don't operate in that environment, I tend to think the problem is multi-phase. We load the LEO down with too much stuff to accomodate a wide selection of options for problem solving. Training isn't sufficient to make the selection error free under stress. Possibly the best way to take care of this is to make TASERs shotgun like. When an officer gets an EDP call or something where the TASER might reasonably be deployed, get it out of the trunk. Otherwise, quit trying to find warm, fuzzy solutions to situations that justify lethal force.

 

[Charlie Petty]

I retired long before tasers were issue, but was watching a bunch of cops train this afternoon and noted where the taser was in relation to the pistol. There were a couple where it was either forward or just aft of the pistol.

Belts seem to have way too much stuff these days anyhow but I had a good lesson ages ago where I reached for a gun and ended up with a can of mace instead. There was no harm but I moved stuff around.

Seems to me that less lethal tools should be just as far away as possible and not feel like guns either.

I can understand how easy it would be to mistake the two in a real stress situation.

 

[Kevin Gibson]

Seems to me that less lethal tools should be just as far away as possible and not feel like guns either.

That's very good advice.