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This looks pretty out of line.

The officer ignored the passenger still in the car, and stood a little to close to freeway traffic as well...IMHO.

The only thing out of line was the violator.

The driver refused several times to show the license and insurance, then refused to exit from the vehicle when ordered. The driver then took an aggressive stance once out of the vehicle. The TASER was completely called for and appropriate at that time.

Cops don't have to convince you as to WHY you need to comply, or ask you more than once.

The TASER is an alternative to going hands on with a person. It keeps offender AND officer injuries down.

Good job, APD.

Oh, It only took the violator 3 minutes to throw down the race card.

txinvestigator wrote:The only thing out of line was the violator.

The driver refused several times to show the license and insurance, then refused to exit from the vehicle when ordered. The driver then took an aggressive stance once out of the vehicle. The TASER was completely called for and appropriate at that time.

Cops don't have to convince you as to WHY you need to comply, or ask you more than once.

The TASER is an alternative to going hands on with a person. It keeps offender AND officer injuries down.

Good job, APD.


Oh, It only took the violator 3 minutes to throw down the race card.

Did I miss something on that video I had the audio off because soon to be Mrs. SSG was sleeping. If the subtitles were correct then I am confused. Back to the video...

edited to fix the quote box...

There should be an emoticon for "biting my tongue"

ScubaSigGuy wrote:

txinvestigator wrote:The only thing out of line was the violator.

The driver refused several times to show the license and insurance, then refused to exit from the vehicle when ordered. The driver then took an aggressive stance once out of the vehicle. The TASER was completely called for and appropriate at that time.

Cops don't have to convince you as to WHY you need to comply, or ask you more than once.

The TASER is an alternative to going hands on with a person. It keeps offender AND officer injuries down.

Good job, APD.


Did I miss something on that video I had tha audio off becasue Mrs. SSG was sleeping. If the subtitles were correct then I am confused. Back to the video...

Oh, It only took the violator 3 minutes to throw down the race card.

Normally one puts his/her comments/questions outside of the quote box.

I don't know what you may have missed or not. It was a good TASE

So the use of a taser on someone whose not a danger to anyone is okay?

nitrogen wrote:So the use of a taser on someone whose not a danger to anyone is okay?

Yes. If a person fails to obey the officers commands, the officer COULD go hands on, and risk having the situation escalate to a fight on the side of a busy highway.

However, your question is moot because the person failed to move to the rear of the car, and then took an aggressive stance. Should the officer instead have invited the driver to sit and have a cup of tea and discuss the issue?

After further review by the replay officials (with volume this time) I think they were both out of line.

The difference is that the officer should know better. He seemed to be trying to push his buttons.

I don' t know about an aggressive stance by the drive... it sure looked like he was jumping out of the way after being hit by the door.

I am all for LEO's doing what they need to to ensure thier safety, but this probably could have went another way.

5 miles over the SL and it's possible that he didn't know his plate was missing. He should have complied anyway, but the officer lacked diplomacy.

I'm not sure if he wasn't a danger to the officer. He was belligerent before he stopped out of the vehicle, and taking an aggressive stance outside the vehicle, or even just not putting your hands where they aren't going to cause problems (ie, near your waist, or another part of the body where you could be hiding a weapon) justifies a tase. If the officer legitimately believes that the suspect is trying to set himself up to act aggressively, I think the tase is a good option. Furthermore, it didn't have any lasting effects! The suspect was still on the ground back talking. At least his actions were more cooperative than previously. He stopped moving when the officer told him to, whereas before, he wouldn't even show the officer that he wasn't a threat. I think the officer did a good job in de-escalating the situation because no one was seriously hurt, and everyone's safety was maintained.

With the exception of them being maybe a little too closer to traffic as someone said earlier.

The officer was simply domonstrating the proper deployment of the new taser he was issued to increase public awareness of their new less lethal tools used to get up close and personal with the locals. It was a free demonstration and luckily, no animals were hurt during the making of this video............


All kidding aside, to me, it appears as if tasing someone for a mere traffic violation is a bit excessive. It appeared as if the people weren't given much time to produce the items the officer wanted. Maybe he should switch to decaf? Maybe there's more we don't know.

txinvestigator wrote:The only thing out of line was the violator.
...
Good job, APD.

I am reminded once again how thankful I am that it's unlikely I'll ever encounter you in a police/citizen context.

Oh, It only took the violator 3 minutes to throw down the race card.

And that's a full 2:20 longer than it took the officer to escalate the situation.

txinvestigator wrote:Cops don't have to convince you as to WHY you need to comply, or ask you more than once.

What they do need to do is give you time to comply..."woah woah woah, let me get it" should of been a clue for him.

That was an aggressive stance? The next time an officer asks me to step out of the car I'll do my best to slither out on my stomach so I don't get tased.

If that was considered within the scope of the law/policy, then they need to be changed.

I am more and more troubled when I see Police too quick to use force and so many people state it was justified. I bet if this were one of us the story would change a little. I have only been pulled over twice in my life but I have still runa across Pilce that are jerks and out of line. Due to me keeping it cool I avoided escalating the situation. I realize these guys can be killed at any moment, but they chose to take that risk when they accepted the job. They have to walk a fine line between being cautious and being safe. Although I am normally on the side of the Police, sometimes they go too far, as in this case. This guy was definately too quick to pull out the tazer when he could have ended the situation verbally. When we go through the CHL training we are taught how to deescalate the situation verbally. Why aren't Police Officers expected to do the same? When was his life in danger here people? If we turn our bodies the wrong we is that considered a threat to someone life? The Officer deemed the drivers reaction time too slow (i.e. he took too long to pull out his license) so he can taze at will? Police Officers have a very dangerous job and are required to make many life or death situations in a short amount of time. I would suggest that those that are not willing to accept those risks to find another line of work.

My take is that there was very little time between the officer's request for license and insurance and when he ordered the guy out of the car. Sure, the guy questioned the stop. Big deal.

And there was again very little time between the guy getting out of the car (i.e. complying with what the officer said to do) and his getting tased.

The cop may have been within the law to do what he did, but if so just barely. It does no one any good for cops to act belligerent, as this one did, when conducting a traffic stop.

My guess is that this cop is going to find himself in trouble with the department. In my view he needs either re-training or to find another line of work.

With authority comes responsibility. In this stop, it did not look like he properly handled his authority.