Police custody deaths in Maryland, USA: An examination of 45 cases

Southall, Pamela; Grant, Jami R.; Fowler, David; Scott, S

doi:10.1016/j.jflm.2007.10.005

Cited by 39 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…144 In one study of deaths-in-custody between 1990 and 2004, only one out of 45 cases involved use of an ECD. 145 In a prospective multicenter cohort study of 1201 subjects exposed to ECDs, two deathsin-custody occurred; both were determined to be unrelated to ECD use. 146 In contrast, on the basis of some analyses, as many as 75% of excited delirium patients die at scene or during transport (C. Hall, quoted in Calgary Police Commission 147 ).…”

Section: Clinical Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pathophysiologic changes due to TASER® devices versus excited delirium: Potential relevance to deaths-in-custody?

Jauchem

2011

Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine

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Section: Clinical Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pathophysiologic changes due to TASER® devices versus excited delirium: Potential relevance to deaths-in-custody?

Jauchem

2011

Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine

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“…Arrest-related death is a well-recognized syndrome often with no clear single pathological mechanism. 18,19 2. The majority of arrest-related deaths do not involve an ECD.…”

Section: Postulated Diagnosis Of Exclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The majority of arrest-related deaths do not involve an ECD. 19,20 3. The battery-operated ECD satisfies all relevant safety standards, including those for electric fences, and thus its inclusion should be questioned and its exclusion favored.…”

Section: Postulated Diagnosis Of Exclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

TASER Electronic Control Devices and Cardiac Arrests: Coincidental or Causal?

et al. 2014

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Being arrested is a highly emotional event and can result in a fatal, adrenergically supercharged physiological state. 1 The exertion of arrest-related struggle is several-fold greater than that seen with normal exercise and leads to numerous extreme metabolic and electrolytic derangements, including elevated levels of lactate, CO 2 , potassium, creatine kinase, and myoglobin.2 Only 1.6% of US law-enforcement interactions involve the use or threats of force, and annually there are ≈700 000 cases in which force is used or threatened.3 There are ≈700 arrest-related deaths per year in the United States, yielding a mortality rate of ≈1 in 1000 for a law-enforcement interaction associated with force. 4 Response by Zipes on p 100The electronic control device (ECD) has gained widespread acceptance as the force option for law enforcement because of its dramatic reduction in both suspect and officer injury. At the same time, advocacy groups post statements on the Internet listing the hundreds of arrest-related deaths after ECD use with the implication that the ECD involvement was causal. Studies covering a total of >48 000 forceful arrests have consistently found suspect injury rate reductions of ≈65%.5,6 Of the 250 000 annual ECD field uses in the United States, only 1 in 4000 is involved in an arrest-related death. This reduction in fatality rate is consistent with published data showing that 5.4% of ECD uses "clearly prevented the use of lethal force by police." 7Of the >3 million total ECD applications, there have been 12 published case reports suggesting a potential cardiac arrest link, giving an incidence of 4×10 −6 per application. [8][9][10][11][12][13] In most cases, those authors did not consider important factors that are now better understood. These include separating postural from cardiovascular collapse, the latency of electrically induced ventricular fibrillation (VF), the presence of significant cardiac pathology, failure of prompt defibrillation, the duration of documented breathing, the distance of the ECD electrode from the heart, and the stability of electrically induced VF. We have thoroughly investigated these cases as either TASER scientific advisors or expert witnesses. The goal of this article is to resolve the confusion about these cases by introducing more complete data and by using a consistent case-report scoring methodology. Methods Understanding the Confounders Postural Versus Cardiovascular CollapseIn the normal course of life, an exertional postural collapse is, correctly, often associated with a cardiac arrest. However, it is sometimes forgotten that the ECD design goal is to cause a postural collapse to stop aggression. A sternal rub response is often blunted by the presence of alcohol, illegal drugs, psychotic break, and endorphins from the struggle. Hence, nonresponsiveness is also more difficult to evaluate in the law-enforcement scenario.(Circulation. 2014;129:93-100)

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“…In a recent study of deaths in police custody 88% of the deaths with undetermined manner of death were related to alcohol (69% of all deaths). 1 In a previous study from Norway 88% of deaths in police custody was related to alcohol, and in 33% of the deaths alcohol intoxication was the only known cause. 2 The exact mechanism by which ethanol intoxication causes death is unknown.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

ECG-voltage in alcoholics and non-alcoholics with acute alcohol intoxication

Aasebø

2009

Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine

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Police custody deaths in Maryland, USA: An examination of 45 cases

Cited by 39 publications

References 12 publications

Pathophysiologic changes due to TASER® devices versus excited delirium: Potential relevance to deaths-in-custody?

Pathophysiologic changes due to TASER® devices versus excited delirium: Potential relevance to deaths-in-custody?

TASER Electronic Control Devices and Cardiac Arrests: Coincidental or Causal?

ECG-voltage in alcoholics and non-alcoholics with acute alcohol intoxication

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