Tasering the Mentally Ill

In an earlier post, I commented on a police officer's use of a taser on an elderly wheelchair-bound woman. That incident incurred in Florida in September 2007. The woman who was tasered, 56-year-old Emily Delafield, died after being tasered 10 times in succession. According to the family's attorney, Rick Alexander, Emily Delafield, was schizophrenic.

Today, I read a story that gave me a feeling of deja vu. The Chicago Police Department has tasered an elderly person, this time 82-year-old Lillian Fletcher. Again, the victim suffered from schizophrenia. She also suffers from dementia.

When I read stories like this, I have to wonder if the training police officers receive is up to the task of enabling them to differentiate between criminals and individuals who are mentally ill. Obviously, in these two incidents, the training was insufficient.

Some may disagree, of course, but I would argue that the use of tasers on those who have mental illness, particularly when it may result in death, is a poor technique. These individuals were swinging hammers, but in one case the victim was in a wheelchair and, in the other, the victim was eighty-two years old.





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