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Samantha Hayes Reporting A Pleasant Grove police officer is off the job, injured in the line of duty, but it's not what you think. This officer was hurt during a training session with taser guns.
Being shocked with a taser is a very unpleasant thing, but police officers do it so they understand its paralyzing effects. Undergoing that shock may have caused severe back pain in one officer. He's not the only one hurt by tasers in training.
This is the first injury in the Pleasant Grove Police department related to taser gun training, and the only one in Utah that we know of. But officers in other parts of the country have filed lawsuits against the manufacturer of the weapon, some claiming permanent injuries.
Before officers use them on the streets they test them on themselves. A Salt Lake County Sheriff's deputy showed us what it looks like and told us what it feels like for a past report on taser gun safety.
"Feels like your pulse just expands through your skin."
For most officers shocked during training, the pain from the fifty thousand volt jolt is over quickly, but that was not the case for one officer in Pleasant Grove.
Captain Cody Cullimore, Pleasant Grove Police: "This officer injured complained his back hurt after being tasered. He was advised to seek medical aid if that's what he felt he needed."
The officer was shocked with this an X26 taser gun. Nine other officers were in the training class and nobody else reported injuries. Captain Cody Cullimore: "I'm aware of hundreds of officers trained and certified in this manner and this is the first injury like this I am aware of."
The taser has been a controversial weapon. Proponents say it has saved the lives of officers and suspects, but opponents point to incidents like one in Salt Lake City in the spring. A suspect was stunned by a taser gun several times when police mistakenly thought he was wanted on an outstanding warrant. His family claims the taser gun killed him.
As for the officer in Pleasant Grove, the police department says it is investigating.
Captain Cody Cullimore: "We've gone through and seen what our procedures were, made sure we followed guidelines, and I'm comfortable we've done all of that."
The police department says the officer was injured in construction jobs before and there's a possibility the taser shock may have aggravated rather than caused his injury.
As previously mentioned, this isn't the first time an officer has been injured in taser training. We uncovered a handful of lawsuits filed against the manufacturer of the taser by injured police officers.
The first one to go to trial, and now the precedent setting case, was from a sheriff's deputy in Arizona who claimed he was hurt in a training exercise. Doctors supported him saying the taser gun caused a spine injury. The jury did not find Taser International liable.
