Israeli police too often and too quickly make use of their tasers, a report Tuesday said. According to State Comptroller Yosef Shapira, there were 1,268 incidents of taser use between 2011 and 2013 by the 2,000 police officers who are authorized to use the department's 545 taser devices. According to Shapira, that's far too many incidents of tasering.
Among the best-known cases of taser abuse occurred in 2013, when police attacked Yitzhar resident Boaz Albert. Albert was tasered numerous times when police served him with orders to leave his Samaria home for six months. A video shows a defenseless Albert writhing on the floor, with police firing a taser at him numerous times. Police claimed that the video was “doctored.”
Earlier in 2013, an Israeli died after police used their taser on him eight times. Police said they feared that the man, who was holding a rake, was poised to attack them. Police said that they tasered him numerous times because he refused to back down, at one point charging them with the rake.
Shapira said that police in the field needed to quickly adopt a new policy that would allow the taser to be used only in extreme cases where officers felt their lives were threatened – and not as a weapon to subdue non-threatening miscreants.
The current police policy – which was changed earlier this year in the wake of criticism of police behavior in high-profile cases – did not take into account important legal opinions that need to be taken into consideration, Shapira added.