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.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by Kevin

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 can generally determine that a person is under the age of 18 and there are procedures to guess the age range (if not the exact age) if no ID is present.

Originally Posted by Kevin

Police officers aren't engaged in an age-guessing endeavor when they are arresting a suspect.

Police officers are engaged in a number of things which includes gauging age range. That is one of the ways in which truancy, legal drinking age, and runaway laws and practices have always been possible both with and without an identification card.