Safety

Security officers at Seattle hospital group to carry Tasers

Hospital Safety Insider, June 5, 2014

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Security officers at a hospital in Seattle will begin to carry Taser guns on them to help subdue violent people they may encounter on their patrols around the hospital campus, according to the Union-Bulletin of Walla Walla, Washington.
 
About 230 security departments in hospitals across the country carry Tasers as part of their arsenal, according to experts cited in the report, and the 70 officers who patrol six campuses of Swedish Medical Center will become the first in the Greater Seattle area.
 
As violent acts escalate in the country’s emergency rooms, the debate continues as to whether security officers should be armed. According to the report, officials at Swedish studied options for a year before deciding on the Tasers, which deliver a non-lethal electric shock to incapacitate a subject long enough for him to be subdued.
 
Hospital officials say security officers will stick to a strict policy of using the Tasers only as a last resort for a violent person who presents a direct threat to staff, patients or themselves, the report added, citing a hospital officials who said it never be used on an uncooperative patient.



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