@article{ref1,
title="Confusion between firearms and electrical weapons as a factor in police shootings",
journal="Forensic science, medicine, and pathology",
year="2022",
author="Kroll, Mark W. and Melinek, Judy and Martin, Jeffrey A. and Brave, Michael A. and Williams, Howard E.",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="Conducted electrical weapons (CEW) have risks including trauma associated with uncontrolled falls, probes penetrating the eye, and fume ignition. A lesser-known risk is weapon-confusion error with officers mistakenly discharging their firearm when they intended to deploy their electrical weapon. We searched for incidents of possible weapon confusion with the TASER® brand CEWs via open-source media, litigation filings, and a survey of CEW law enforcement master instructors. We found 19 incidents of possible CEW weapon confusion in law enforcement field uses from January 2001 to April 2021. We eliminated a case as not meeting our criteria for probable weapons confusion leaving 18 cases, thus giving a demonstrated CEW discharge risk of 3.9 per million with confidence limits (2.4-6.2 per million) by Wilson score interval. Ipsilateral carry of the weapons was historically correlated with increased risk vs. contralateral carry. Officer gender was not a predictor of weapon confusion. The psychological issues behind weapon confusion under stress are discussed. The concurrent carry of electrical weapons and firearms presents a very small but real risk of injury and death from confusion between an electrical weapon and a firearm.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1547-769X",
doi="10.1007/s12024-022-00457-6",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12024-022-00457-6"
}