Safety Resources
April 23, 2012 at 7:00:00 AM
Police Use of Force and Officer Injuries: Comparing Conducted Energy Devices (CED) to Hands-And Weapon-Based Tactics
Eugene A. Paoline III, William Terrill and Jason R. Ingram
The widespread adoption of conducted energy devices (CEDs) across American police departments over the last decade has been mired in public controversy. It is generally accepted, from a police perspective, that CEDs are safer for officers who can use the weapon at a greater distance, avoiding much of the harm associated with close physical struggles with citizens. Research has generally supported the notion that aggregate levels of officer injuries are reduced following the implementation of CEDs. Unfortunately, multivariate examinations that, in varying degrees, have attempted to compare CED applications to other forms of force (while controlling for rival causal factors) have yet to produce the same consistent results as the preandpost-CED adoption studies..