Taser gives five seconds of complete paralysis

Constable Mike Smith is hit in his backside by a stun gun. Picture / Mark Mitchell

Constable Mike Smith's body stiffened in an instant, his face grimaced, and he cried out in pain as he fell to the ground like a toppling tree trunk.

He had just had a series of 50,000 volt pulses at low amperage surge through his body - making his muscles tauten, paralysing him - for five seconds by means of a Taser gun.

"I couldn't move. No chance. My body was completely incapacitated from my feet to my head," he said.

But five seconds later, he felt fine.

"I could run away [from police], but if I knew that Taser was coming again, I wouldn't."

The demonstration yesterday at the Police College in Porirua was a preview for the 12-month taser trial that begins on Friday.

Police college instructor Darren Napier was "tasered" in another demonstration, the two dart-like probes embedding themselves in his back.

"I felt all my muscles convulsing and thought, 'Please, make it stop'."

He said he preferred the taser to being pepper-sprayed because the torture was over in five seconds.

Instructor Mark Leach agreed, after he took an hour to recover from being sprayed in another demonstration.

Afterwards he spat into a bucket for several minutes, gasping for air, his face turning a scorching red.

"It burns the eyes."

But the difference was obvious: a Tasered victim can't move, but a pepper-sprayed one, though blind, was still free to flail about.