title: Incapacitation recovery times from a conductive electrical weapon exposure.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  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 (~1 s 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 5 s 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 1.05 ± 0.25 s; the median was 1.04 s (range 0.69-1.34 s). For the paired CEW triggered group the mean response time was 1.41 ± 0.61 s with a median of 1.06 s (range 0.92-2.18 s), 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 4.70 s from the start. Of the remaining 30 subjects the mean response time to execute the task (once the CEW exposure ended) was 1.27 ± 0.58 s with a median of 1.19 s (range 0.31-2.99 s) (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 (~1 s) after the CEW exposure ceases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA.
authors.forename: John C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Criscione
authors.forename: Mark W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Kroll
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D057667:Conducted Energy Weapon Injuries / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016495:Police; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D020127:Recovery of Function / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult