At the conference of the there was a call for the increased use of (and, of interest to etymologists, the appearance of the verb 鈥渢o tase鈥�). Purely in the interests of research, what could be done by an individual to lessen the effect of being tased? What happens if the tased person grabs the officer who has fired the Taser? If the tasee is wearing rubber-soled shoes, will that help? Alternatively, if they are standing in a puddle, will that worsen the effect? And what would a master criminal need to become invulnerable to tasing 鈥� a full-body rubber suit?
Tasers work by shooting two darts into the skin of the subject and running high-voltage, low-current electricity through the muscles, resulting in painful spasms and loss of voluntary control. Wearing a pair of rubber shoes or standing in water would have no effect because the current passes between the two darts in the skin and not through your body to the ground.
An all-encompassing rubber suit would only protect you if it was thick enough to prevent the darts penetrating to the skin. Thick clothes too could have this effect, but because a Taser will still be reasonably effective even if it strikes an extremity like an arm or a leg, any layer would have to cover your whole body to be effective, which would be hot and cumbersome.
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The best defence is probably to keep moving as fast as possible across the assailant鈥檚 arc of fire, making it as difficult as possible for the Taser operator to keep you in their sights and therefore maximising the chance of one or both of the darts missing your body.
鈥淭he best defence against a Taser attack is probably to keep moving as fast as possible鈥�
Peter Oliver, Stockton-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, UK
The best way to stop a shock from a Taser would be to wear a conductive suit in order to short-circuit the needles. A shark suit, which is made of metal mesh and worn by divers in shark-infested waters, might be the most effective. The suit would probably stop the needles reaching the skin, but could be a bit awkward for a master criminal attempting a quick getaway.
Aluminium foil is cheap and should work, but could pull away from the needles under the force of their impact, so the best option would probably be to wear a woven metal fabric, which would tend to grab the needles.
A bulletproof jacket might also work by stopping the needles before they penetrate the skin.
Andrew Hicks, Harris Park, New South Wales, Australia
Here on the west coast of Canada we read almost daily in the papers of people who have successfully lessened the Taser effect. Strangely, they are always found to be high on the drug crystal meth.
It seems that they can fight on through half a dozen zaps. Of course they are not sane when the process commences and indeed nor when it finishes. One thing is for sure, do not try this at home.
Jon Ackroyd, Vancouver Island, British Colombia, Canada