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An Anonymous Coward writes:
Camden, New Jersey is a very low income neighborhood. According to this NY Times article, until recently it had typical low income policing--heavy on corruption and violence and low on compassion.
But now they have a new chief and things have changed --
"Handing a $250 ticket to someone who is making $13,000 a year" — around the per capita income in the city — "can be life altering," Chief Thomson said in an interview last year, noting that it can make car insurance unaffordable or result in the loss of a driver's license. "Taxing a poor community is not going to make it stronger."
Handling more vehicle stops with a warning, rather than a ticket, is one element of Chief Thomson's new approach, which, for lack of another name, might be called the Hippocratic ethos of policing: Minimize harm, and try to save lives.
Officers are trained to hold their fire when possible, especially when confronting people wielding knives and showing signs of mental illness, and to engage them in conversation when commands of "drop the knife" don't work. This sometimes requires backing up to a safer distance. Or relying on patience rather than anything on an officer's gun belt.
While not out of the woods yet, it sounds like there is hope for Camden and maybe it won't just continue to be written off as a war zone.
(Score: 1) by tftp on Tuesday April 04 2017, @12:34AM (1 child)
I'm certainly not a police officer, but from what I heard Taser does not guarantee termination of the attack. If the electrodes do not penetrate clothing (say, a leather jacket), then it's not going to work. The wires can be also damaged, needles torn from the skin... some people (on drugs) do not feel pain. I'm not saying that the LEO should always empty the mag at any grandmother who is lost on a sidewalk, but a serious conflict forces the officer to think fast - and the Taser, if he picks it, may be inadequate. As it often happens, Taser is mostly used by the police for torturing the suspects - in situations where the officers are not threatened.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Tuesday April 04 2017, @02:40AM
While painful, the taser doesn't depend on pain to work. It works by disrupting the nervous sustem and making the muscles contract out of control.