TASER plants 3,000 trees to represent lives saved by ECDs since first deployment 19 years ago
TASER International, Inc. (NASDAQ: TASR), is sponsoring the planting of 3,000 trees through Arbor Day Foundation in recognition of the estimated 100,000 lives saved from death or serious personal injury by TASER® brand electronic control devices (ECDs) on Dec. 13, 19 years after the company was founded.
By giving new life to its community, TASER seeks to represent how its life-saving ECDs have made a difference in both law enforcement officers’ and citizens’ lives since the first devices were deployed in 1994.
TASER partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation because of the organization’s ongoing dedication to fostering community health through planting and nurturing trees, while TASER is empowering people around the world to provide the best safety and security for their communities. TASER selected its donations to support domestic reforestation projects of greatest need in California and Florida (representing the U.S. from east to west), as well as an international reforestation project in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest (representing TASER’s international presence).
Brothers Rick and Tom Smith founded TASER in September 1993 to create safer personal protection alternatives, while using technologies to maximize public safety and minimize the potential for misuse. Their inspiration followed the tragic deaths of Rick’s two former high school football teammates who were murdered in a road rage incident. “Tom and I knew we wanted to create technology that could significantly change our culture and be a positive disruptive force that could revolutionize both personal safety and law enforcement by preventing situations like this personal tragedy in the future,” said CEO Rick Smith. “We wanted to commemorate the preservation of life by partnering with a foundation that gives new life to our world’s forests.”
“Undoubtedly our Saves Counter hitting the 100,000 milestone is a critical reminder to our employees and the brave men and women of law enforcement about the valuable work they do every day,” said Rick Smith. “The Saves Counter is linked not just to the math behind the estimate, but to videos and reports of the heroic efforts of law enforcement officers to save lives with ECDs. It is with sincere gratitude that we thank these brave men and women for the risks that take every day to keep our communities safe.”
Methodology and Background
TASER’s “Saves Counter” tracks estimates of the number of people whose lives have been saved from potential death or serious injury using TASER® devices and the number of times law enforcement uses TASER ECDs in the field. The Saves Counter is posted on the home page of TASER.com.
As of Sept. 30, 2012, TASER International has sold approximately 700,000 TASER ECDs in 107 countries to more than 16,800 law enforcement and military agencies. In addition, approximately 255,000 TASER ECDs have been sold to the general public. The milestone coincides with TASER’s recent announcement that it reached a four-year high with earnings, seeing revenues up 18 percent to 28.8 million at the end of the third quarter.
The Saves Counter was developed based on a statistical analysis of TASER usage patterns in the more than 16,800 agencies using TASER ECDs today. Some key statistics:
About Arbor Day Foundation
The Arbor Day Foundation is a nonprofit conservation and education organization of one million members, with the mission to inspire people to plant, nurture and celebrate trees. More information on the Foundation and its programs can be found at www.arborday.org, or by visiting the Foundation on Facebook, Twitter or the Foundation’s blog.
Click here to learn more: http://www.taser.com/taser-products-save-lives/times-police-have-used-taser-ecds-in-the-field
Let’s review excessive force for a moment. Clearly, this is the bane of existence of any community as there are no winners when this occurs. Many times it happens when there is no evidence available to back up an law enforcement officer when it becomes a “she said/he said case. An article from the Denver Post entitled “Denver police paid $1.34 million in 2011 to settle excessive-force lawsuits,” showed just how costly this is for cities.
Note the average dollar pay out per officer per year to settle use of force cases:
• Denver – $697 per year per officer
• Chicago – $2,930 per year per officer
• Los Angeles – $2,200 per year per officer
• Philadelphia – $1,360 per year per officer
If any of you reading this aren’t saying, “HOLY SMOKES!” — well you should be as this is a tremendous waste and cost to taxpayers.
Perhaps, it’s important to discuss the future of policing technologies. We know statistically that use of TASER ECDs reduces injuries to officers AND suspects (US DOJ Report) so we know TASER ECDs can make a difference but they have to be in the hands of all patrol officers for maximum effectiveness for this reduction. Most suspects won’t wait for a supervisor to show up (just ask a local cop.)
But there can me more that can be done to reduce these claims. For one, better policies and enhanced scenario-based training — not just for TASER ECD usage but for all reponses to resistance. Agencies can also make sure they have TASER CAM recorders that record the use of any TASER ECD deployment.
Finally, let’s discuss the one other technique that can help — on-officer videos that record from the officer’s point of view like our TASER AXON on-office camera. Before you say this is a TASER sales pitch take a moment to see what the City of Burnsville, MN did with their AXON cameras at Burnsville Police Department. Want proof? Watch this progressive law enforcement ageny’s video they put on YouTube — the proof is in the pudding: http://bit.ly/wxL0nS
It’s time that taxpayers demand to get more return on their investments for safer communities at a lower cost. You can be sure that TASER is doing all it can to make that our mission.
If you don’t think video is the solution then perhaps you should know that an International Association of Police Chief’s survey has statistical data that indicates that 96.2 percent of the time, the recording of the event exonerated the officer of the allegation or complaint. That alone is worth the costs and more than provides a return on investment.
These are the most common statistics requested by press & our clients: