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In order to get law enforcement lobby support for a law requiring warrants to deploy drones for surveillance, North Dakota legislators decided to allow law enforcement to use "less-than-lethal" weaponized drones:
Legal experts are very concerned that a new North Dakota law which allows law enforcement drones to be armed with so-called less-than-lethal weapons—including stun guns and beanbag rounds—could be highly problematic. The law, however, explicitly forbids lethal weapons. Previous drafts of the bill specifically included prohibitions on non-lethal weapons, language that was later removed.
Among other reasons, such weapons have been shown that they can, in fact, kill people. According to research by The Guardian, 39 Americans have died this year alone at the hands of police wielding a Taser. Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported Wednesday that more than 20 North American cities are pursuing large silicone-based projectiles as yet another alternative weapon.
North Dakota is believed to be the first state in the union to allow such weapons aboard state and local police drones.
[...] The law, known as House Bill 1328, which took effect earlier this month, imposes a significant pro-privacy victory: requiring that police and sheriff's deputies get a warrant when deploying a drone for surveillance. [...] However, in order to get the measure through the state's legislative body, the bill's author told Ars that he had to do a little horse trading with the state law enforcement lobby, the North Dakota Peace Officers' Association, which had strongly lobbied against it.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday August 30 2015, @02:17PM
I listen to a radio talk show on my way home from work in the mornings. They feature a daily taser report. About half of them seem to be reasonable use of force. Some of the rest are probably reasonable judgement calls as well. Others are just examples of people who never should have been cops, abusing their authority and/or power.
I think that every time a taser is used, the cop should also be jolted after the arrest is made. They need to be reminded again and again that 50,000 volts is more than enough to kill. Make them play Russian Roulette with the taser, and they won't be so very quick to use it.
I'm not against tasers, so much as I'm against cop's readiness to resort to force.
(Score: 1) by LowSpeedHighDrag on Sunday August 30 2015, @10:26PM
I know a number of cops mostly because I enjoy shooting and firearms training and have met quite a few that way. The subject of Tasers (and other Less than Lethal stuff) has come up many times. The Taser company requires that any LE training includes the trainees being Tasered themselves. A good policy IMO. Quite painful from what friends tell me - every muscle basically goes into spasm. But it also stops completely when the trigger is released. Everyone I know that has experienced it also says that they would vastly prefer the Taser to getting pepper sprayed because the pain is very brief with a Taser but goes on and on with pepper spray.
Side note: I mis spelled pepper spray as: peeper spray before I hit preview. That would be a whole nother ball game!