Results of a new study of sudden cardiac death suggest that some of the mysteries surrounding arrest-related fatalities are likely to remain unanswered for the foreseeable future and perhaps should simply be accepted as falling among unfortunate medical occurrences that often have no ready explanations. “Cases of SCD [sudden cardiac death] associated with altercation and...Read More
To learn more about a subject of growing concern to law enforcement, researchers in England and Greece pored through 2,400 cases of sudden, unexpected cardiac death (SDC) and identified 110 that occurred either during or within 30 minutes after stressful events, not all of them related to contact with police. “An event was considered stressful...Read More
When allegations of excessive force involve use of a CEW, plaintiffs’ attorneys or their hired experts may raise a couple of stock arguments: The suspect was not able to comply with the officer’s commands because he could not recover promptly enough from the electronic “stunning”; When the suspect has died and an autopsy fails to...Read More
For the first time, a research study of a “very large sample size of real-world subjects” who actually underwent police use of force has determined with precision how often deaths occur in conjunction with forceful encounters. The frequency, in contrast to the impression often conveyed by the media and activist “watchdog” organizations, is extremely minimal,...Read More
With the symptoms and dangers of excited delirium now well-publicized and solidly confirmed by numerous research studies, agencies that fail to have a response protocol in place are inviting needless liability problems, according to a day-long presentation recently at a training seminar sponsored by the Illinois Tactical Officers Assn. “Usually administrators start to take notice...Read More
An exaggeration of the sudden in-custody death problem is generating “persecution and prosecution” of LEOs and their agencies and is resulting in “reactionary changes in policy and procedure that may well be based in conjecture rather than fact,” according to new findings by a Canadian research team. In particular the study group challenges the widely...Read More
Sudden deaths, which are often seen as an in-custody police problem, in reality occur with significant frequency from “natural causes” in the general population and are related to cocaine abuse in at least 3 out of every 100 cases, according to a new study. Researchers analyzed 668 sudden deaths across 32 months, and in none...Read More