Officers last year fired stun guns at Blacks at a higher rate than at white suspects, and warned but didn’t fire at white suspects at a higher rate than they did Blacks or Hispanics, according to preliminary data from the first state to require police to document their use of stun guns.
The new data from Connecticut comes as police across the country face mounting scrutiny over their use of force, in the wake of several high-profile fatal shootings by officers, especially of Black suspects.
While stun guns have been billed as non-lethal alternatives to guns, they have resulted in deaths, and reliable information on how police use them has been lacking.
The overall number of stun gun incidents recorded officers firing them 60 percent of the time in cases involving whites, compared to 80 percent of the time in cases involving Blacks.
Read more at JET.
