Incapacitation recovery times from a conductive electrical weapon exposure.
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PURPOSE: Law enforcement officers expect that a TASER() CEW (Conducted Electrical Weapon) broad-spread probe exposure will temporarily incapacitate a subject who will then be able to immediately (~1s delay) recover motor control in order to comply with commands. However, this recovery time has not been previously reported. METHODS: A total of 32 police academy students were exposed to a very broad-spread 5s CEW stimulus as part of their training and told to depress a push-button as soon as they sensed the stimulus. A subgroup also depressed the push-button after being alerted by an audio stimulus. RESULTS: The response time after the audio trigger was 1.050.25s; the median was 1.04s (range 0.69-1.34s). For the paired CEW triggered group the mean response time was 1.410.61s with a median of 1.06s (range 0.92-2.18s), which was not statistically different. Only 2/32 subjects were able to depress the button during the CEW exposure and with delays of 3.09 and 4.70s from the start. Of the remaining 30subjects the mean response time to execute the task (once the CEW exposure ended) was 1.270.58s with a median of 1.19s (range 0.31-2.99s) (NS vs. the audio trigger). CONCLUSIONS: With a very-broad electrode spread, a CEW exposure could prevent or delay some purposeful movements. Normal reaction times appear to return immediately (~1s) after the CEW exposure ceases.
