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THE ILEETA USE OF FORCE JOURNAL
VOLUME 5, NUMBER 2
APRIL - JUNE, 2005

HOWARD RAHTZ, EDITOR
STEVE ASHLEY, ASSOC. EDITOR
ED NOWICKI, EXEC. DIR.

The ILEETA Use of Force Journal is published free of charge by the International Law
Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association (ILEETA) on a quarterly basis, and is
meant to share relevant information pertaining to the use of force by criminal justice
professionals. The information does not necessarily reflect the opinions of ILEETA. Any
material contained within this newsletter is brought to the readers in good faith and there is
no intent to violate any copyright, trademark or other laws pertaining to intellectual property.
As we have promised, we WILL NOT share anyone’s e-mail address with anyone. We will
honor this promise.
The purpose of this newsletter is to benefit and not to hinder the criminal justice
community. The opinions of the various contributors, including the columnists, do not
necessarily reflect the opinions of the ILEETA or its staff. Due to the litigious society that we
live in, it is necessary for us to use this disclaimer. Is it a coincidence that there are over
one million attorneys and that seventy percent of the world’s attorneys are located in the
USA? We think not. Please do not share this information with those that want to make the
tough job of law enforcement even tougher.
We want to do all that we can to make this the best publication possible. In order to
achieve that, we need your feedback so please e-mail me the editor, Howard Rahtz, at
HowardRahtz@ileeta.org and let me know – good, bad or ugly. We may not respond to
your e-mail due to time constraints, but we will read every e-mail, that’s another promise!
We’ve assembled a great group of columnists who will contribute their columns each
issue. We’re honored to have people of this caliber be a part of The ILEETA Use of Force
Journal. The columnists have also included their respective e-mail addresses, so feel free
to contact them directly with any feedback.
There may be occasional grammatical or typographical errors. We will do our best to
reduce these as much as we can. We cannot edit the respective columns nor any
articles published for spelling or grammar due to our limited resources, so what you
read is what we received for the writers. We also cannot guarantee the accuracy of the
information, so keep that in mind. Remember, this is a free publication and we want to
make sure that this newsletter has valuable information, so your feedback is important.

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MORE ON THE TASER
We received a lot of comments on the
Taser article published in our last Use of
Force Journal, including a request by Taser
International to reprint the article on their
website. We also got an e-mail from a
reader in Great Britain who advised the
same debate is raging on the other side of
the Atlantic.

The entire study can be viewed at
www.potomacinstitute.org.
In an interesting related note, the
Scottsdale Police Department is providing
Tasers for all 370 of its officers but has
prohibited them from being tased as part of
the training. Most departments have made
a voluntary exposure part of the Taser
training for two reasons. First, it gives
officers confidence in the effectiveness of
the Taser. Second, it provides a vivid
glimpse into the importance of weapon
retention. A suspect who manages to take
away an officer’s Taser becomes a deadly
threat.

In the meantime, another study on the
safety of the Taser has been released by
The Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, a
D.C. area think tank, using an interesting
methodology. They used the same
approach utilized by the Federal Drug
Administration which considers risks
relative to product efficacy. The approach
recognizes that no product is risk free. One
interesting statistic noted in the study was a
comparison to airbags, which are estimated
to save 50 people for each person killed by
an airbag. The same ratio for Taser is
estimated by the study to be over 700:1.

The possibility of injury cited by the
Scottsdale Chief in this decision can be
mitigated by proper safety practices. Our
agency, the Cincinnati Police Department,
had over 900 officers submit to a voluntary
exposure without a single injury reported.

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PLEASE FORWARD ARTICLES OR OTHER MATERIAL OF INTEREST TO THE EDITOR AT
HOWARDRAHTZ@ILEETA.ORG OR SNAIL MAIL TO THE POLICE ACADEMY, 800 EVANS
STREET, CINCINNATI, OH 45224. STAY SAFE.
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IN THIS ISSUE
Take your time!! This issue of The ILEETA Use of Force Journal contains over 40 pages of
great information. There is info on legal cases, commentary on current issues, and a very
special appearance by Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman, who sent us an excerpt from his
most recent book, On Combat. We’re honored to have Lt. Col. Grossman writing for us and he
joins a distinguished group of writers covering a multitude of topics. This issue is not meant to
skimmed over, but read and absorbed over time. Enjoy!

No Less Lethal?? – Laura Scarry is a former police officer and a full-time police defense
attorney in the Chicago area. Laura is also a Charter Member of ILEETA. In this issue Ms.
ILEETA USE OF FORCE JOURNAL

APRIL – JUNE, 2005

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VOLUME 5, NUMBER 2