To: Palo Alto IPA Mike Gennaco, Palo Alto
Police Chief Andrew Binder, Palo Alto City
Manager Ed Shikada and the Palo
Alto City Council
From: Aram James
April 27, 2025
During the Independent Police Auditor’s Study Session, April 21, 2025, there were some comments made by Palo Alto City Council Member Pat Burt about Tasers. Council Member Burt referred to Tasers as a tool. Both IPA Michael Gennaco and police Chief Andrew Binder know that the manufacturer’s (Axon) eight-page warning never once refers to a Taser as a tool.
Instead, more than 100 times, the warning refers to Tasers as a weapon with multiple examples of how failure to follow the specific, complex, and medically and psychologically focused warnings can result in serious injury or death. Neither Chief Binder nor IPA Gennaco, despite their intimate knowledge of the manufacturer’s 4500-word warning, attempted to correct Pat Burt’s mischaracterization of Tasers as a Tool, not a deadly weapon. Failure to correct Burt regarding the actual dangers associated with Tasers left the rest of the city council and the public attending the meeting with the possible false impression that Tasers are less than a potentially deadly weapon.
Similarly, when council member Burt commented that Tasers are an alternative to using deadly force, neither corrected the mischaracterization of how Tasers are actually used on the streets and on patrol. Simply stated, Taser experts universally accept that when deadly force is necessary, the suspect has a gun, knife, or other deadly weapon, training dictates that police are instructed NOT to use a Taser. Why? Tasers fail to bring down their human target at rates between forty and fifty percent of the time. As the saying goes, “You don’t bring a Taser to a gun fight.”
In a deadly force situation, police are specifically trained to aim their guns at the center mass of the individual in possession of the deadly weapon with the intent to kill. The default is that, since Tasers are not appropriate to use in deadly force situations, Tasers are almost always used on unarmed individuals whose vulnerabilities, physical/medical, and psychological, are unknown to the police officer deploying the Tasers on the individual. None of the information above is new to Andrew Binder or Michael Gennaco.
The failure to appropriately educate our political leaders and community members regarding the extraordinary danger Tasers pose to human life has led to many unnecessary deaths, disproportionately targeting black, brown, and poor individuals.
Tasers have resulted in the unnecessary death and serious injuries of thousands of individuals in this country. Settlements, jury verdicts, and related litigation costs resulting from the misuse of Tasers by law enforcement have cost municipalities across this country hundreds of millions of dollars over several decades.
Over more than two decades, the Coalition for Justice and Accountability (CJA), based in San Jose, has educated numerous political leaders throughout Santa Clara County on the risks associated with Tasers.
Our Coalition consists of a cross-section of grass-roots community leaders from across Santa Clara County. We are available to meet with all members of the Palo Alto City Council, Police Chief Binder, and other members of his staff, as well as City Manager Ed Shikada.
Sincerely,
Aram James
