WEBVTT - Taser Incorporated | Chapter 2 - Living in the Red 0:00:02.880 --> 0:00:04.960 Previously on Taser Incorporated. 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:10.480 Nobody's getting beat up, nobody's getting hurt. So it was 0:00:10.600 --> 0:00:15.160 like revolutionary door comes flying open and dude's running out. 0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:17.079 He's got the cash register in one hand and a 0:00:17.120 --> 0:00:20.239 gun and the other and shot him like five times. 0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:22.800 It wasn't until you rolled him over that you realized 0:00:22.800 --> 0:00:23.560 how young he was. 0:00:23.640 --> 0:00:26.800 Right, Yeah, he looked like a kid. I'm glad he 0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:28.800 didn't kill him. He was a fifteen year old kid 0:00:28.800 --> 0:00:30.040 with a bb gunde. 0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:32.280 I get hugged by police officers and the code conventions 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:34.120 will come up and they'll say, hey, thank you, I 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:35.520 didn't have to kill somebody last week. 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:38.600 The Taser is so much better, you know, because we 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:40.440 just tase him and then you just pick him up 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:43.280 and brush him off, and they've got handcuffs on, and 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:44.239 you know, here you go. 0:00:56.240 --> 0:00:59.080 Remember that visit to Taser's headquarters that I told you 0:00:59.120 --> 0:01:01.680 about when they had to let me in with the 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:04.280 retinal scanner and then I saw the Taser assembly line, 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:11.480 the place dedicated to a future with no violence. Well, 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:13.800 I went there because of a guy from Moberley, Missouri, 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:17.080 a few towns away from where I was living. He 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:19.720 was twenty three when I first heard about him. That's 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:23.360 how old I was too. I went to Taser International 0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:26.640 to ask if they had any idea of what killed him. 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:29.360 His name was Stanley Harlan and he got pulled over 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:32.839 by some Moberley cops. One minute, he was perfectly fine, 0:01:33.280 --> 0:01:36.440 his hands were in the air talking to officers. Then 0:01:36.440 --> 0:01:40.520 he was tased in the chest, and then he was dead. 0:01:42.120 --> 0:01:45.080 In the medical studies and training manuals on Taser's website 0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:48.960 offered no explanation. I only found evidence that the taser 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:54.040 is perfectly safe. But Stanley Harlan was dead. I wanted 0:01:54.080 --> 0:02:01.920 to know what killed it. This is absolute. Season one, 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:07.800 Taser incorporated a story about unchecked power. I'm Nick Beredini. 0:02:50.600 --> 0:03:00.960 Episode two, Living in the Red Back in Kansas City, 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:03.359 when Officer Matt Masters got called to the scene of 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:06.600 an armed robbery and ended up shooting a kid, he 0:03:06.639 --> 0:03:10.520 didn't have a taser. The Kansas City Police Department wouldn't 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:13.280 get tasers for another couple of years, and it would 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:15.560 be a few more years before a taser would turn 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:19.320 Matt's life upside down. What Matt was holding in his 0:03:19.400 --> 0:03:22.640 hand was a Smith and Wesson police issue Sigma forty 0:03:22.720 --> 0:03:26.800 cow semi automatic handgun. When he first told me the story, 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:28.920 I thought he was going to say it was a 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:32.440 turning point. They never wanted to shoot anyone again after that. 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:34.160 But I was wrong. 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:38.680 I didn't struggle as much with shooting the fifteen year 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:41.640 old with a BB gun that robbed his store as 0:03:41.720 --> 0:03:45.400 much as I dealt with the opinion of me as 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:51.520 a cop and missing my target. I mean literally within 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:54.040 a day or two of that, like people were just 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:57.760 fucking around, joking, saying I needed to go back to 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:02.280 the range, you know, and correct my dipping problem. What 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:06.200 really bothers me is had not choose to shoot at all. 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:11.640 What would have been the fallout from that? Officers knowing that, 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:14.680 like he pointed a gun in your direction and you 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:18.880 didn't shoot him, Well, what are you? Are you a coward? 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:23.560 Like almost made you feel like you had to prove 0:04:23.680 --> 0:04:28.000 yourself more. Yeah, Matt wanted other cops to know they 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:30.800 could count on it, and he decided to prove it. 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:35.120 He was going to train for the kcpd's elite swat team. 0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:39.320 Matt says that for six months he sprinted up staircases 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:42.400 in full tactical gear, a door ram in his hands. 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:46.880 He studied jiu jitsu and chromagau at the firing range, 0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:49.320 his aim became virtually perfect. 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:53.800 I mean, there's certainly guys that were much bigger, stronger, 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:56.599 you know, faster than I was. But I don't think 0:04:56.640 --> 0:04:59.120 anybody that had more desire than I did. 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:01.440 He always wanted to be part of something. 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:05.760 Looking back, Matt's wife, Stacy says that he went all 0:05:05.800 --> 0:05:07.880 in because he had to void to fill. 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:10.960 I think that was allowing him to be part of 0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:13.719 a brotherhood. I don't know if he would agree with 0:05:13.760 --> 0:05:18.560 me or even admit this, but it became a supplement 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:24.960 for what we had kind of left behind. 0:05:25.960 --> 0:05:28.719 When Matt and Stacy first got together, they didn't have 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:32.120 any support from their families. They were both raised in 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:36.440 strict evangelical houses, but they started flirting in junior high. 0:05:36.480 --> 0:05:41.400 Anyway, he was the annoying guy that sat behind me 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:41.920 in chapel. 0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:45.440 I kicked her chair a lot and with jack with 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:47.560 her a lot sitting behind her, and she would you know, 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:48.480 it was flirtatious. 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:51.760 Of course, as they got older, Matt sent her flowers 0:05:51.800 --> 0:05:55.279 and candy. He made her feel special, but their teachers 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:58.680 and families made them feel like sinners. Stacy wasn't even 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:01.520 supposed to go to the movie or listen to pop music. 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:05.120 Matt and Stacy didn't quite understand how they were risking 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:08.919 eternal damnation by sneaking out to go on dates. And 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:12.000 by the time Stacy graduated high school, they decided to 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:13.039 move in together. 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:17.080 And of course our families had a major issues with 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:21.080 that because we were living together outside of marriage. 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:23.760 Nobody supported us. There was none of that. It was like, 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:26.560 you're wrong, You're going to hell. You know, this is 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:27.480 not what God wants. 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:32.280 Their ideas about us and us wanting to still at 0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:35.080 some level please them is why we got married young. 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:37.599 We can live together now because we're married, so' go 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:37.960 fuck you. 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:41.520 So by the time Matt joined the police force, Stacy's 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:45.719 theory is he'd already lost one family. He wanted KCPD 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:48.200 to be his new one. He put a thin blue 0:06:48.200 --> 0:06:51.560 line sticker on all their cars, the blue American flag 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:53.400 with the light blue stripe across the center. 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:56.359 If somebody stops my wife or somebody stops one of 0:06:56.400 --> 0:06:59.320 my kids, I always wanted to know, as a police officer, 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:03.479 if you're a police family, especially their immediate family, I 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:07.719 wanted to know that, right I mean because it's a brotherhood. 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:10.600 This was all back in the early two thousands. Matt's 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:13.840 police department didn't have tasers yet, and at the time 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:17.040 Matt certainly wasn't thinking about carrying a non lethal weapon. 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:20.520 But in other parts of the country, tasers were starting 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:25.680 to catch on. Like in Oakland, California, the police department 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:29.720 was using tasers under the leadership of a very different 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:33.560 guy from Matt Masters, more of a renaissance cop. He 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:36.240 grew up in the underground club scene in San Francisco, 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:39.240 a guy who dabbles in black and white photography. 0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:41.880 I haven't gone over to the digital side yet. 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:47.320 Mike Leansio's energetic and upbeat, white goatee, strong jaw. He 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:49.600 looks like a cop, but he grew up thinking he'd 0:07:49.640 --> 0:07:52.560 be a firefighter in Oakland, his whole family had been 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:56.520 for generations. Mike decided he wanted to be a policeman. 0:07:57.160 --> 0:08:01.040 His dad eventually got over it. Mike was still relatively 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:03.120 new on the force when he saw a video about 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:06.760 this new weapon called the Taser. The video where Hans Morrero, 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:10.960 the famous marine from Taser International's first promo video, fell 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:11.880 to the ground. 0:08:12.280 --> 0:08:15.000 I don't know if you're familiar with Hans, But Hans 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:19.600 is about five foot six maybe and about the same 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:24.080 with this guy is nothing but solid muscle. This guy 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:27.800 is like, like you look up marine in the dictionary 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:29.520 and there's Hans. 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:36.920 Mike says. He and a bunch of other officers gathered 0:08:36.920 --> 0:08:43.200 around the TV in the station conference room. What are 0:08:43.240 --> 0:08:45.440 your impressions as you're as you're watching now. 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:47.720 Well, we were all sitting around at a conference table at 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:52.640 the department. The training staff was pretty much crossed the board. 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:57.960 The initial response was that's not real. No, no, that's 0:08:58.040 --> 0:08:59.040 not no, that's not real. 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:02.720 But my boss sent him to a local taser training session. 0:09:03.200 --> 0:09:05.480 It was an all day affair at a hotel in 0:09:05.520 --> 0:09:09.439 San Francisco. A bunch of other agencies from northern California 0:09:09.559 --> 0:09:11.440 were there to check out this new weapon too. 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:15.320 They knew we were all coming in skeptical. Yeah, we'd 0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:18.440 seen the videos. It's all staged. Come on, guys, and 0:09:18.480 --> 0:09:22.280 so the first thing they did we got there, no introductions, made, 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:22.920 no nothing. 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:26.760 They all stepped up and got the same treatment that 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:30.240 Hans got a shock from the advanced Taser M twenty six. 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:34.560 They hooked the alligator clip to my shoelace and then 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:36.920 the other alligator clip in my shirt on my shoulder, 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:40.400 and they said, okay, you ready, and I said, yeah. 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:42.280 Sure, I was on the ground. 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:43.720 I mean I was on the ground. 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:45.839 Stop stop, stop. And they only hit me for like 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:46.880 a couple of seconds. 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:51.559 It's incredibly painful, and then it's not it's just done. 0:09:51.640 --> 0:09:55.800 It's gone, and it's just so bizarre. Your brain doesn't 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:58.080 quite know how to deal with it. The first couple 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:00.880 of times you get hit, can't describe it. 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:05.240 Mike says that everyone in his training laughed hysterically as 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:07.000 they watched each other fall to the floor. 0:10:07.520 --> 0:10:07.760 Ah. 0:10:11.600 --> 0:10:13.839 I've seen lots of videos of cops being trained on 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:22.280 the taser, and there really is something funny about watching 0:10:22.360 --> 0:10:25.440 a big, tough cop, a guy who is always in control, 0:10:25.960 --> 0:10:29.360 loses shit for a couple seconds. If I meet the 0:10:29.400 --> 0:10:31.079 guy that can stand up to that, I'll turn in 0:10:31.160 --> 0:10:32.840 my badge again and become a florist. 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:39.200 And they shocked us all and then at that point 0:10:39.280 --> 0:10:42.320 they had our attention and the rest of the day 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:46.240 went smoothly. But yeah, they had a room full of 0:10:46.240 --> 0:10:47.199 believers at that point. 0:10:48.320 --> 0:10:51.760 This was a game changer. Oakland's chief put Mike in 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:54.360 charge of the taser program and eventually signed up to 0:10:54.400 --> 0:10:58.400 become a Master instructor. That meant he would travel to Scottsdale, 0:10:58.400 --> 0:11:01.000 Arizona to get certified to tea each other cops how 0:11:01.040 --> 0:11:04.760 to use tasers. They held what they called Instructor School 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:06.640 at the same futuristic building. 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:07.080 I saw. 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:10.240 It's an impressive place. I mean, it's like a spaceship. 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:14.760 It's very high tech, you know. Obviously, they take you 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:16.360 on a little tour of the place to impress you, 0:11:16.360 --> 0:11:19.200 you know, immediately, and you get to see the manufacturing, 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:21.280 and you get to find out where all the engineering 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:22.880 is done, although you don't get to go in there. 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:27.960 Behind that glass wall is where the magic is made. 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:30.960 Mike was with a group of cops from all over 0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:32.320 the country. 0:11:32.400 --> 0:11:34.520 And the thing you have to remember, too is the 0:11:34.640 --> 0:11:37.880 vast majority of police agencies in the United States are 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:43.000 under twenty people. So you get somebody from a three 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:48.400 man department in Oklahoma somewhere who has an opportunity to 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:53.440 travel to Scottsdale, stay in a decent hotel, get wined 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:55.760 and dined by the company, go on this tour, see 0:11:55.760 --> 0:12:00.959 this amazing building with all of the technology. I mean 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:03.280 I met people at some of these trainings that this 0:12:03.400 --> 0:12:05.040 was the first time they'd ever been on a plane. 0:12:05.480 --> 0:12:08.240 I mean, you see somebody who's never been outside of 0:12:08.240 --> 0:12:11.720 the state, never been on an airplane, It's not hard 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:14.719 to see how they become starstruck. And I saw a 0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:17.520 lot of that. I mean, people walking around wide eyed. 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:19.559 I mean it was just like Wow. 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:26.880 Oakland was one of the biggest police departments in the country, 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:30.400 and so Taser International really pushed Mike to get every 0:12:30.400 --> 0:12:34.280 officer in the department to carry a taser. Mike attended 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:38.160 special offsite training sessions that felt more like luxury trips 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:38.920 than classes. 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:41.199 They'd always do it at some resort. 0:12:41.600 --> 0:12:44.160 It was work hard, play harder, and they. 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:49.040 Had they'd have food and alcohol, and they'd have guys 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:52.600 sitting there wrapping cigars for you. They'd have all these 0:12:52.600 --> 0:12:55.760 little competition they'd bring people out and you'd have gunfights 0:12:55.800 --> 0:12:58.200 with these little laser guns. I mean, it was like 0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:00.800 a festival kind of at you know. 0:13:01.679 --> 0:13:05.960 Hans was often at retreats too, the action hero Taser's 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:07.680 very own Arnold Schwarzenegger. 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:12.160 He had an entourage around him the whole time. People 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:14.240 would follow him around and wanted to train with him, 0:13:14.240 --> 0:13:17.040 and they had matt rooms set up where there'd be like, 0:13:17.240 --> 0:13:19.120 you know, fifteen eighteen guys in there, and they just 0:13:19.120 --> 0:13:20.480 want to wrestle with Hans. 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:23.319 You know. It was like a church revival, but with 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:28.160 way more booze celebrating this miracle. The Taser a safe 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:31.800 weapon that literally transformed a person's body with a higher power, 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:36.320 and this higher power was backed up basically by holy books. 0:13:37.000 --> 0:13:39.120 They would wheel this card out and it was a 0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:42.920 cart that was full of books, and they would wheel 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:44.560 this thing out and they would put their hand on 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:46.120 top of it, and the thing was like two three 0:13:46.120 --> 0:13:46.640 feet tall. 0:13:47.160 --> 0:13:49.720 This was all the research that proved the miracle of 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:53.240 Taser's awe inspiring electric current. It was just like this 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:56.800 incredible amount of paper, right. They would put their hand 0:13:56.840 --> 0:13:59.000 on top of it and say, you know, we've got 0:13:59.000 --> 0:14:02.600 this research compangn all of the research compiled that we've done, 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:05.319 that other people have done, and every single one of 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:11.000 them says it's completely safe. Once Mike was back in 0:14:11.000 --> 0:14:13.960 Oakland City, officials were more skeptical of the weapon than 0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:17.760 he was, so we went way beyond what Taser International provided. 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:21.320 When he held his trainings, he wrote policies that said 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:24.880 how and when his officers could use tasers. He created 0:14:24.920 --> 0:14:29.520 training scenarios based on real world circumstances. Once every cop 0:14:29.560 --> 0:14:32.760 had a taser, he documented every single time an officer 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:36.280 used it, not a requirement for lots of other departments. 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:40.040 We were using these weapons at that point, probably three 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:42.960 hundred to three hundred and fifty times a year, and 0:14:43.200 --> 0:14:45.600 in the entire time I was running the program, we 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:49.320 never had an injury, we never had a lawsuit, we 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:53.240 never had a IA complaint. These things are completely safe. 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:56.160 I mean, I'm convinced. 0:14:56.440 --> 0:14:59.240 Tasers were designed to be used against people who were 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:03.120 violently was arrest, people who might eventually be shot if 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:05.160 things got out of hand and cops couldn't get them 0:15:05.200 --> 0:15:10.040 under control. But as taser use exploded across the country, 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:14.040 cops found just about any and every reason to use them. 0:15:14.440 --> 0:15:15.400 Lots of people were. 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:18.280 Getting taste for simply arguing with cops, like this guy 0:15:18.320 --> 0:15:22.080 in Utah, put your hands behind your back, who didn't 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:26.240 agree with the speeding ticket. Put your hands behind your back, 0:15:26.520 --> 0:15:28.680 Now you turn out. 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:29.560 Turn around. 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:34.040 He got shocked in front of his wife and kid. 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:44.600 There were elderly women getting zapped like this seventy two 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:47.120 year old woman in Texas who also didn't want to 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:49.960 sign a speeding ticket. The officer got her out of 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:51.080 her car to arrest her. 0:15:51.560 --> 0:16:03.160 I'm getting back in car. You're gonna be paid. Stop Mariglow. 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:09.160 The reason cops were using the taser so much all 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:11.120 went back to how they were trained on the weapon. 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:14.120 They were learning, don't put your hands on people who 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:15.960 argue with you, Taser them. 0:16:16.640 --> 0:16:17.200 It's safer. 0:16:18.160 --> 0:16:21.520 That was true for children too, like in Miami, when 0:16:21.560 --> 0:16:23.240 a six year old boy and a twelve year old 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:25.800 girl were tased during school within weeks of each other. 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:28.840 The boy was allegedly holding a piece of glass and 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:32.680 the girl was running away toward traffic. In both incidents, 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:35.760 the department claimed the taser was used for both kids' safety, 0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:38.320 but the headlines were rough. 0:16:39.040 --> 0:16:41.520 In a letter said to Miami Dade's police chief, the 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:46.000 school superintendent asked that police quote refrain from deploying tasers 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:49.560 against elementary school students so that leads us to our 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:50.320 last conquest. 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:53.520 The original idea of the taser was getting lost. The 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:56.360 taser wasn't being used as a replacement for a gun. 0:16:57.320 --> 0:17:00.800 It was a compliance tool. The National Institute of Justice 0:17:00.880 --> 0:17:04.639 use the phrase lazy cops syndrome to describe the phenomenon 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:08.959 of officers using tasers against nonviolent people. A reporter from 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:12.960 ABC Nightline asked CEO Rick Smith about it right, because 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:16.879 cops figure, hey, no must, no fuss, just pull the taser. 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:19.359 How do you deal with the lazy cops syndrome? They 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:19.600 call it. 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:21.639 That's our technology. It's like our baby, and when it 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:24.160 gets misused, it does hit you in the gut. 0:17:24.240 --> 0:17:26.879 But that's why we But there were other stories that 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:30.000 were much worse than cops just getting taser trigger happy. 0:17:30.840 --> 0:17:33.680 A lot of articles were about how people died after 0:17:33.760 --> 0:17:34.359 being tased. 0:17:35.880 --> 0:17:38.879 Debate in Ford Worth lingers over the use of tasers. 0:17:39.000 --> 0:17:41.240 Five people died after being tased by police. 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:44.040 Fifteen year old Brett Elder died early Sunday after being 0:17:44.119 --> 0:17:45.320 tasered by police officer. 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:49.280 For Taser's Rick Smith sales and profits are skyrocketing, but 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:52.520 so is another statistic taser related deaths. 0:17:53.720 --> 0:17:57.159 CEO Rick Smith was getting bombarded with reporters asking if 0:17:57.200 --> 0:18:01.600 the taser was truly safe, answers He told the public 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:04.639 the same story he'd been telling cops. Has he explained 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:08.360 to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the taser could not kill. 0:18:08.920 --> 0:18:11.360 Look, I've been hit with this thing seven times. Every 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:13.520 senior employe this company has been hit with a taser. 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:15.639 Many of our wives, many of our children have been 0:18:15.720 --> 0:18:19.560 hit with tasers. So we believe this is the safest 0:18:19.600 --> 0:18:20.640 way to get a violent. 0:18:20.440 --> 0:18:22.240 Person under control. That's huge. 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:25.200 We're very proud of what we do and it is 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:26.360 like a religion to us. 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:32.159 When the CBS Evening News ran a two part investigation 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:35.919 because they had found over forty deaths associated with the taser, 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:39.719 reconsisted that his weapon played no part in killing them. 0:18:41.200 --> 0:18:44.800 None of these cases has the person died while being 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:45.600 hit with the taser. 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:47.280 You're saying that this was a coincidence. 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:49.199 They would have died anyway. 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:53.000 In every single case, these people would have died anyway. 0:18:56.680 --> 0:18:58.840 You read the media reports, and I mean they made 0:18:58.880 --> 0:19:01.080 this weapon look like it was you know, people were 0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:05.000 out there dying left and right every time an officer 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:06.600 used it. It was basically lethal force. 0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:10.440 Back in Oakland, Mike began talking with other cops about 0:19:10.480 --> 0:19:14.120 the news. They'd all seen the research taser showed at demos. 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:19.400 It started to become a topic of conversation and agencies 0:19:20.080 --> 0:19:27.520 across the country were looking for explanationist, we're seeing deaths 0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:32.800 that are in some way associated with taser use, and 0:19:33.000 --> 0:19:35.359 the manufacturer was adamant that it's not the weapon. 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:41.760 Rick and his team had a different theory, one that 0:19:41.840 --> 0:19:44.480 had nothing to do with the taser and everything to 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:48.480 do with the violent nature of policing, a condition called 0:19:49.040 --> 0:19:53.240 excited delirium. The idea was that some people got so 0:19:53.440 --> 0:19:56.600 worked up they were on drugs in a psychosis or 0:19:56.800 --> 0:19:59.679 violent rage, that their bodies gave out from. 0:19:59.520 --> 0:20:04.200 The exert it's drugs, it's you know, whatever, exhaustion. 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:08.000 Mike spent hours on the phone talking about the taser 0:20:08.040 --> 0:20:10.520 with other cops, and they told me about how he 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:13.600 started similar conversations with people he knew who worked at 0:20:13.640 --> 0:20:17.320 Taser International, like his friend and sales rep Jim Halstead. 0:20:18.760 --> 0:20:21.040 Jim it assured me that, you know, we do all 0:20:21.119 --> 0:20:24.680 of this research. We're doing constant research, ongoing, all this 0:20:24.760 --> 0:20:28.800 published research from all these like world class scientists and engineers, 0:20:29.080 --> 0:20:32.000 and that's when it basically kind of opened the door. 0:20:33.200 --> 0:20:35.680 Mike asked Jim if he could watch Taser scientists in 0:20:35.760 --> 0:20:38.439 action while they conducted their studies of the weapons. 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:38.840 Safety. 0:20:39.760 --> 0:20:41.879 That'd probably would be pretty interesting to see something like that. 0:20:41.960 --> 0:20:43.680 You think he could, I could attend one of those, 0:20:44.640 --> 0:20:46.359 And then he says, yeah, I don't see why not. 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:47.000 Let me check. 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:16.720 By the time Mike Leansio called up Taser and asked 0:21:16.760 --> 0:21:19.760 if he could see their research and action, Matt Masters 0:21:19.840 --> 0:21:23.080 had become the point man for Kansas City's most elite unit, 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:27.280 s New Tack, the Street Narcotics Unit Tactical Team. 0:21:28.119 --> 0:21:30.879 It was just like that was the shit, kicking indoors 0:21:30.960 --> 0:21:34.840 and like you know, rifles and chasing bad guys and 0:21:34.960 --> 0:21:36.520 like that was a level up. 0:21:37.600 --> 0:21:39.480 This was the kind of shit you see in shows 0:21:39.520 --> 0:21:42.080 like The Wire. Matt was the first man through the 0:21:42.119 --> 0:21:45.840 door on over one thousand high risk Warran arrests, and 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:48.320 his team was also the first in Kansas City to 0:21:48.400 --> 0:21:51.240 get trained on tasers. Perks of being the best. 0:21:52.359 --> 0:21:56.320 They start off the whole introduction with this video of 0:21:56.400 --> 0:21:58.000 this bowl being tased. 0:22:00.080 --> 0:22:02.639 In this promo video, there's a bowl in a dusty 0:22:02.760 --> 0:22:06.359 pat A guy wearing black sunglasses and a black turtleneck 0:22:06.480 --> 0:22:09.080 aims his taser at the animal from behind the fence. 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:22.280 And he just like falls over, locks up and is 0:22:22.840 --> 0:22:24.600 I don't even know how much that sucker weight is 0:22:24.640 --> 0:22:27.680 big bull and they tase him and he's like falls 0:22:27.720 --> 0:22:29.639 over and his legs are out like this, and they 0:22:29.720 --> 0:22:32.159 let off the taser and he jumps up rams the 0:22:32.240 --> 0:22:34.320 gate that they were standing on the other side of 0:22:34.440 --> 0:22:37.000 with the taser. That's what they show you. That's the 0:22:37.119 --> 0:22:39.840 first video that I ever saw about taser, you know, 0:22:39.840 --> 0:22:43.480 and I'm like, holy shit, that's cool, Like look at that. 0:22:44.160 --> 0:22:47.200 And they made all of our guys get tased, and 0:22:47.320 --> 0:22:50.359 they all crumpled up on the floor, you know, the 0:22:50.520 --> 0:22:52.480 from the smallest guy to the biggest guy. 0:22:53.400 --> 0:22:55.320 Then it was Matt's turn to get tased for the 0:22:55.400 --> 0:22:55.880 first time. 0:22:56.840 --> 0:22:59.080 I mean, it's probably not appropriate to say I cried 0:22:59.119 --> 0:23:00.639 like a little girl, but like I cried like a 0:23:00.680 --> 0:23:03.960 little girl, Like I was like screaming. It was the 0:23:04.040 --> 0:23:09.040 most excruciating pain. You don't breathe. I mean maybe you breathe. 0:23:09.040 --> 0:23:10.639 That doesn't feel like you breathe. It feels like you 0:23:10.800 --> 0:23:13.120 just lock up. That shot goes through you and you're 0:23:13.200 --> 0:23:16.520 just like, to me, it's excruciating pain. But I will 0:23:16.600 --> 0:23:19.240 say that once it's over and done with, there is 0:23:19.320 --> 0:23:20.879 no more pain. It's weird. 0:23:23.160 --> 0:23:26.560 Matt, just like Mike Lenesio became a believer. 0:23:27.680 --> 0:23:29.760