We need to talk about tasers

Donald Burgess is the latest Briton to die after being hit by a police taser. He won’t be the last, but the circumstances of his death underscore the need for a wider debate about conducted energy devices.

Police were called to a care home in St Leonards-on-Sea on 21 June, where they found Burgess threatening staff with a knife. One officer sprayed him with PAVA, an incapacitant spray that the National Police Chiefs’ Council describes as ‘significantly more potent than CS’. The same officer then struck Burgess with a baton while another discharged a taser, sending an electric current coursing through the man’s neuromuscular system. He was then handcuffed and conveyed to hospital, where he died on 13 July.

Burgess was not an intruder at the care home, but a resident. He was 93, had one leg and was in a wheelchair. He was suffering from dementia. A post-mortem has been carried out but further cardio-pathology is required to determine a cause of death.