# Fla. officer faulted in using Taser



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

*Fla. officer faulted in using Taser *
By Antigone Barton, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer 
Palm Beach Post
Copyright 2006 The Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.

*BOCA RATON*- A police Taser instructor misused the electronic stun gun when she shocked three fellow officers with the weapon, according to a department report released Wednesday.

The investigation of instructor Sgt. Shannon Wendlick began after officials received two anonymous notes saying the 13-year officer "loves to use her Taser" and had bragged about using it on another department sergeant.

Three officers said Wendlick had pressed the weapon against their arms and fired it in the "drive stun" mode with their consent during night shifts after they asked her about the effects of the weapon used in that manner.

In the more common use of a Taser, which city officers experience during training, the stun gun fires two barbed probes which embed in the skin or clothing to deliver a paralyzing 50,000-volt shock.

The drive stun mode, in which the weapon is applied directly, without firing darts, is used to control suspects through pain.

None of the officers was hurt. One later told a supervisor that he thought the incident was "no big deal."

An internal affairs investigator concluded that all four officers showed bad judgment.

"There's a time and a place to deploy a Taser," internal affairs Capt. Tom Ceccarelli said. "It's not between officers on a midnight shift in the police department."

Wendlick, one of several department Taser instructors, leads the force in her official number of Taser uses, having used it nine times on suspects in the three years since June 2003, when she was certified to carry the electric stun gun, Ceccarelli said. In her 13 years on the force, she has been the subject of 15 internal investigations, most on allegations of rudeness, all but two found to be unproven, according to records.

The latest investigation sprang from an incident several months ago when Wendlick and Sgt. Harry Shoff were working alone in the road patrol office at about 5 a.m.

Both later told investigators that because Wendlick was a Taser instructor, Shoff asked her to give him a half-second contact shock from the weapon so he would know how the drive stun mode feels when he uses it on suspects. After she asked him several times if he was sure, she placed the weapon on his shoulder over his police patch and fired.

The investigation found two similar incidents, one involving Sgt. Nelson Guillot in the office several months earlier and one involving Detective Brice Allen several years earlier in a patrol car when he and Wendlick were conducting surveillance.

"The consensus of all the individuals involved in this case was that the Taser deployments should have been conducted in a controlled classroom type environment," the investigator's report said.

The report also notes that "volunteer exposure guidelines" issued by weapon maker Taser International state that "exposures should always be done on proper matting in an area that is clear of any hazards."

Boca Raton's policy states that the drive stun mode should be used when it is impossible to fire probes or to stop aggressive suspects. Some departments in Florida have stated in their policies that officers should avoid using the weapons in the drive stun mode.

The investigation also weighed allegations that when Wendlick used the Taser in training exercises, she delivered a shock longer than that usually used on officers in training. Although neither the Taser maker nor the Boca Raton Police Department have written guidelines on the duration of those shocks, they are usually administered for less than the full cycle of five seconds used on suspects.

According to one of the notes investigators received, Wendlick administered five-second shocks to three police recruits during training in May.

While those allegations were not investigated, the report notes that the department's training coordinator said he would no longer use her as a Taser instructor if she "is going to continue to utilize a five second Taser application in training new recruits."

The report concluded that Wendlick used her weapon improperly, failed to report the uses and that her conduct was unbecoming to an officer.

What, if any, discipline Wendlick will face has not been decided because the department is required by law to give her a chance to respond to the report's findings.

However, Ceccarelli, the internal affairs captain, recommended that the department review Wendlick's status as a Taser instructor. He also recommended that the department check all officers' Tasers periodically to better detect and avoid misuse of the weapon.

Law enforcement agencies across the county, including Boca's police department, tightened their policies on Taser use after The Palm Beach Post in May 2005 published a review of more than 1,000 Taser incidents in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast during the previous four years.

The study showed one out of every four suspects shocked was unarmed, nonviolent and not posing an apparent immediate threat, that officers had used the weapon on the very old and the very young, including an 86-year-old man and a 100-pound 14-year-old boy.

The study also showed departments varied widely in how they recorded and tracked Taser use, some requiring little or no explanation for why officers fired the weapon.

In September, the county's organization of law enforcement heads issued guidelines urging departments to restrict officers from using the weapons on people who are only passively resisting authorities, and to specify that officers should not use the weapon unless a person poses an immediate threat or has committed a crime.

Tasers in Boca

Boca Raton's policy:

"The decision to use the (Taser) will be dependent upon the actions of the subject, the threat facing the officer, and the totality of the circumstances surrounding the incident. . . . The use of common sense and sound judgement, coupled with familiarization with this policy, remain the officer's best course of action."

History:

In late 2001, Boca Raton became the first police agency in the county to add Tasers to its arsenal. By the end of 2004, 18 more departments in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast were using them.

Staff writer Stephanie Slater contributed to this story.

[email protected]








_Copyright © 2006 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Terms and Conditions Privacy Policy _


----------



## copcop (Mar 17, 2006)

She sounds cool........:BNANA:


----------

