More than two million citizens have been tased by police as Taser stun guns have become one of the preferred weapons by police departments. But what does that 50,000-volt shock do to a person's brain?
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Despite widespread adoption by law enforcement, little is known about the ability of a suspect to understand and waive their Miranda rights.
New research from a first-of-its-kind human study by Drexel University and Arizona State University reveals that the burst of electricity from a stun gun can impair a person's ability to remember and process information.
In a randomized control trial, volunteer participants were subjected to Taser shocks and tested for cognitive impairment. Some showed short-term declines in cognitive functioning comparable to dementia, raising serious questions about the ability of police suspects to understand their rights at the point of arrest.
The study informs public policy in the area of police interrogations, specifically addressing the length of time police departments might wait before interviewing suspects who have been Tased by police officers.
The study, “TASER Exposure and Cognitive Impairment: Implications for Valid Miranda Waivers and the Timing of Police Custodial Interrogations,†was published this month in the journal Criminology & Public Policy.
Funded by the U.S. Department of Justice's National Institute of Justice, it marks the first time that the Taser has been submitted to a major randomized clinical trial on a community sample outside the purview of Taser International.
The article was authored by Robert J. Kane, PhD, professor and director of the Criminology and Justice Studies Department in Drexel's College of Arts and Sciences and a senior research fellow at the Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety at ASU; and Michael D. White, PhD, a professor in ASU's School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, who were co-principal investigators on the study, along with Justin Ready, PhD, an assistant professor in ASU's School of Criminology and Criminal Justice.
“The findings of this study have considerable implications for how the police administer Miranda warnings,†said Kane.
“If suspects are cognitively impaired after being Tased, when should police begin asking them questions? There are plenty of people in prison who were Tased and then immediately questioned.
“Were they intellectually capable of giving 'knowing' and 'valid' waivers of their Miranda rights before being subjected to a police interrogation? We felt we had moral imperative to fully understand the Tasers' potential impact on decision-making faculties in order to protect individuals' due process rights.†■