Taser use violated newest guidelines
Department has studied but not yet adopted them
Police officers who tased a mentally ill man repeatedly before his death in May 2017 failed to follow guidelines laid out by the International Chiefs of Police more than a year ago.
The West Milwaukee Police Department has been studying the model policy, according to Chief Dennis L. Nasci, but had not yet implemented it when two officers broke down the door of Adam Trammell, who suffered from schizophrenia.
The department still had not adopted the protocols as of last week, when body camera video of the officers’ interactions with Trammell went viral and made national news.
The officers, Michael Rohleder and Anthony Munoz, likely will not be disciplined in light of Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm’s decision not to issue criminal charges against them, Nasci said.
Police were called to check the welfare of Trammell, 22. He was not accused of any crime. They broke down his door when he didn’t respond to their knocks. They found him in the shower, naked and drinking from a jug of water, where they confronted him.
Records show the officers tased Trammell as many as 18 times, depending on the number of jolts of electricity delivered by each of 15 trigger pulls. Nasci has said he believes Trammell felt only six or seven shocks.
Each standard Taser cycle lasts five seconds.
This means that by Nasci’s estimate, Trammell was shocked for 30 to 35 seconds.
Guidelines by the Police Executive Research Forum state that “exposure longer than 15 seconds (whether continuous or cumulative) may increase the risk of serious injury or death and should be avoided.”
A controversial condition
The medical examiner listed the cause of Trammell’s death as excited delirium, a controversial condition often cited when police use force.
Symptoms of excited delirium include aggressive or bizarre behavior,
paranoia and high body temperature. Although pathologists cite the syndrome as a cause of death and emergency room doctors have procedures to treat it, excited delirium is not recognized by the American Medical Association or the American Psychological Association.
Trammell showed some of the symptoms, such as not responding to police and removing his clothing. He did not exhibit others, such as extreme tolerance to pain.
The model policy on excited delirium adopted by the International Association of Chiefs of Police in April 2017 says officers who suspect excited delirium should “consider the possibility that the situation is a medical emergency that could result in sudden death.”
It also says this: “When there is no apparent threat of immediate injury to the subject or others, the officer should not attempt to take physical control of the subject. This would likely precipitate a struggle and exacerbate the subject’s physical and emotional distress. The officer should wait for backup and EMS assistance before attempting to control the subject.”
Recommendations from the Police Executive Research Forum also address excited delirium and the use of Tasers.
Officers should be aware that people in a state of excited delirium “may be at a heightened risk for serious injury or death” if Tasers are used on them, the recommendations say.
“If this is the law of the land, the law needs to change.” Chris Larson, state legislator
Legislators outraged
Chisholm’s decision not to issue charges provoked outrage from state legislators Chris Larson and David Bowen.
“All indications show the two West Milwaukee police officers, who did the 100% opposite of helping our neighbor by invading his home and repeatedly attacking him in the shower, were found not to have contributed to his death and are each still on duty,” Larson said in a Facebook post.
“If this is the law of the land, the law needs to change.”
Bowen said he had spoken with Chisholm and disagreed with his conclusion that the officers’ conduct wasn’t criminal because they were trying to get Trammell medical attention.
“We need to be sure the D.A. recognizes it’s a problem that it’s being seen as appropriate to tase someone 15 to18 times,” Bowen said. “It doesn’t send the right message and we have to get focused on how do we do this a lot better.”
Chisholm concluded there was “no basis to conclusively link Mr. Trammell’s death to actions taken by police officers.”
To issue criminal charges, Chisholm “would have to demonstrate that the officers intentionally or negligently subjected Mr. Trammell to abuse under circumstances that were likely to cause bodily harm,” Chisholm wrote.
To prove negligence, the prosecutor would have to “demonstrate negligence to a high degree, consisting of conduct that the officers realized created a substantial and unreasonable risk of harm,” he wrote.
The prosecutor also would have to show that the officers’ conduct was not subject to a state law that prohibits criminal charges against police if their conduct is “in good faith and is an apparently authorized and reasonable fulfillment of any duties of a public office” or is “a reasonable accomplishment of a lawful arrest.”
Bowen said he planned to contact the U.S. attorney to discuss the case.
In the past, federal prosecutors have charged officers who were not charged or were found not guilty in state court.
Reached Monday, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office said he could neither confirm nor deny whether officials there were investigating Trammell’s death.