Legal limitations to taser use by cops: Practically none. The cop has extremely broad discretion in determining whether restraint or physical force is required in any given situation. In general, a cop is authorized to use physical force when: he believes that you represent a threat to yourself, him, or others; he believes that you MIGHT represent a threat to yourself, him, or others; he believes that you might try to flee. At any point the use of physical force is deemed to be justified, the cop can legally (and in may cases is encouraged to) use a taser as opposed to any available alternative. The problem, of course, is that this level of discretion means that anything beyond the most benign and friendly encounter imaginable could be seen as providing legal justification for the use of physical force, and therefore a taser. Raise your voice, say a word the wrong way, twitch the wrong finger at the wrong time, or look at the wrong thing and you have just provided an excuse to the cop to taser you. The officer in the video would have been legally justified in tasering the grandmother at any point shown. In fact, he likely would have been deemed to be justified if he had tasered her immediately when she took a negative tone with him, or when she initially refused to sign the ticket he wrote. And remember, whether she committed any offense at all is completely immaterial, because all that's required is a “reasonable belief” that the person has committed an offense. “I thought I saw her drop a straw wrapper on the ground” is a perfectly legal reason for a cop to initiate such an encounter. Such discretion is arguably necessary if civil police forces are to effectively fight crime. It should go without saying that that is an IMMENSE amount of power. And THAT is why law enforcement officers must be held to incredibly high standards of ethical and professional conduct, and must be punished severely for violations of those standards. And in case it actually needs to be said, it is why the use of tasers by cops must be banned or severely limited. The threat of society being overrun by irate grandmothers who refuse to sign traffic citations probably isn't keeping many people awake at night; the threat posed by law enforcement officers wielding potentially deadly, extremely painful, totally immobilizing devices, and with few if any practical limits on how, when and on whom such devices can be used, should be worrying a lot more people than it apparently is.
