Any sort of exposure to electrical current can interfere with the hearts natural rhythm. I think the tone or approach of this article is somewhat incomplete and misleading. They looked at 8 (7 deaths) cases and determined that the electrical current that the taser generates can interfere with the hearts natural rhythm/electricity in certain individuals. I would be curious to know more about the demographics of the folks that died. Age, physical condition, etc. It is well known that a certain percentage (very small) of the population is far more susceptible to ventricular fib than others. To date there have been nearly 100,000 taser exposures across the country and the instances of cardiac arrests due to ventricular fib are extremely low. Much, much lower than say folks dying from accidentally touching an electrical fence. Less than .003%. Be careful when you read that "XX number of people have died after being tased" as in many of these cases the death was not a result of the electrical current and/or subsequent cardiac issues.

Amps are the bad kind of electricity and the std taser units used by most LE are very, very low in amps, around 2 milliamps or .0021 amps. Compare that to the AED machine that is used to restore natural heart rhythms which runs about 60 amps through your body.

As common sense would dictate, there is no perfectly safe way to employ force in the context of law enforcement. By nature, the term should tend to imply there is a risk of injury or death. The question is and will always been, was the application of force reasonable. If given the choice, I would much, much rather be tased than shot, punched, hit with a baton, or run over with a car as I am faaaaaar less likely to suffer any lasting damage as a result. I've been tased as a matter of fact (long story) and it sucks, but only for a short time.

I think science and law will continue to show that when used reasonably, tasers are still a fantastic tool that lead to far less damage than other applications of force.

Being a fairly new tool, the "appropriate and reasonable" issues are still being determined, but recent cases have been determining that taser deployment is only reasonable in cases of active resistance or worse. In other words, they are appropriate in cases where physical manipulation or other control/defensive devices would also be reasonable and again I think the potential for harm to the subject is far greater with other methods. Tasers will never be considered "deadly" force as deadly force is defined as force that is "likely" to cause death or serious injury and the stats on the tasers show quite the opposite, you are very, very, very unlikely to die as a direct result of being tased.

Bottom line, better not to find ourselves having to worry about such things!