12-year-old tased by police officer

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

But if it depends, then why did you say "Should a 12 year old child get tased? No?" That's the part that confuses me?


Seems pretty simple to me: If your local police department was going to review its policies concerning tasing or adopt new policies, what do you think the official policies should be:

• There are no circumstances under which a 12-year-old should be tased;
• A 12-year-old should not be tased unless the police officer first determines [list criteria here] and gives a clear warning;
• It should be left to a police officer's discretion to determine whether, under the cirsumstances, a 12-year-old should be tased; or
• Some other option.

This assumes that the subject can be positively ID'd as 12, doesn't it? Especially for females, and I'll bet cross-racial IDs are even worse, telling the difference between a 12 year old and a 15-16 year old is not something which can be easily done.

Police officers aren't engaged in an age-guessing endeavor when they are arresting a suspect. They are responsible for their own safety first and second for the person they're placing into custody.

Such a progression probably isn't reasonable under all or even most circumstances. Your suggestion assumes the LEO has information which he typically doesn't have.