Police organization gets $300K from group tied to stun-gun maker
Analyst says donation from Taser foundation raises ethics concerns
WASHINGTON The nation’s largest association of police chiefs, which has advised thousands of its members on the appropriate use of stun guns, accepted a $300,000 donation from the foundation associated with Taser International, the biggest supplier of stun guns to law enforcement.
The contribution to the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Foundation, the organization’s philanthropic arm, represents the latest in a series of controversial relationships Taser has established with police, the primary source of the Arizona-based company’s lucrative business.
The rapid deployment of stun guns across the USA and questions related to their safety, prompted the IACP in 2007 to publish guidelines for “selecting, acquiring and using ” the devices.
The study, titled “Electro-Muscular Disruption Technology: A Nine- Step Strategy for Effective Deployment,” was funded by the Justice Department’s research arm, the National Institute of Justice.
And as recently as this year, the IACP cited the increasing use of stun guns in a separate report on police use-of-force issues.
IACP and Taser officials said they found nothing wrong with the gift, saying the contribution — the largestever to the association’s foundation — would provide funds to families of officers killed in the line of duty.
Law enforcement and criminal justice analysts said the donation raises questions about the IACP’s ability to engage in future reviews involving the technology and whether the contribution represented a de facto endorsement.
“When you accept that kind of donation, you create an impression that you view the product favorably,” said Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, the nation’s largest police union. “There is an appearance issue here.”
Samuel Walker, a University of Nebraska criminologist who has written extensively on police accountability issues, said the relationship “raises serious concerns.”
“It’s like a non-profit taking funds from the tobacco industry and being involved in studies on smoking and lung cancer,” Walker said.
The gift was announced earlier this month at the IACP’s annual conference in San Diego. Taser said it was transferring the money from its own foundation, which provides aid to the families of police killed in the line of duty, so that it could be administered by the chiefs’ group.
James McMahon, the IACP’s chief of staff, said the contribution had no connection to the association’s research program. He said that the foundation is a separate entity under IACP and that Taser’s donation represented a transaction “from one foundation to another.”
McMahon said he also believes the contribution would not disqualify the association from engaging in unbiased future research involving use-of-force issues, including stun guns. “We pretty much have a history of making tough calls,” he said. “We call it like it is.”
Taser spokesman Steve Tuttle said the company sought no favored treatment for its products in the contribution decision. However, the company’s relationships with police have raised questions before.
In 2005, a USA TODAY review found that hundreds of police officers were on the payrolls of companies that supplied equipment to departments across the nation, including their own departments.
The companies included Taser, Armor Holdings, a maker of protective equipment; ASP, a manufacturer of police-batons; and PepperBall Technologies, a supplier of non-lethal weapon products.
“We did this (contribution) for the highest of purposes,” Tuttle said, adding that the company’s foundation had initially raised the funds to assist the families of fallen officers. “This is a very important cause for Taser,” he said. “We just felt that the IACP would be the best stewards. We couldn’t be more happy, because we put (the money) in the best hands possible.”