The Minnesota police officer charged today with killing Daunte Wright isn’t the first cop to mistake a gun for a Taser. It happens every year or two. Departments have tweaked policies to reduce the confusion, but one thing hasn’t changed: Tasers are still shaped like guns. 
The reason for the design is simple. According to the man responsible for the widespread use of Tasers in law enforcement, it’s what police want.
Tasers haven’t always been gun-shaped. The original prototype developed in the 1970s by scientist Jack Cover looked more like a bulky flashlight. That’s the model LAPD officers used on Rodney King.
Today’s Tasers are made by Axon. Its first weapon, released in 1995, also looked more like a flashlight than a gun. It sold poorly.
But in 1999, Axon, then called Taser International, had a breakthrough. It jacked up the power the weapons produced and re-designed them to look like guns. Police depts bought them like crazy.
In 2015, Axon founder Rick Smith explained that making the Taser look like a gun was critical to getting cops to take it seriously.
Smith said his staff made foam prototypes of various designs and brought them to a policing conference. His favorite one was made to look “super-futuristic,” like the phaser from Star Trek. “The cops all laughed” at it.
Officers were immediately drawn to the gun-like design. “The fact that we shaped it like a gun conveyed this sense of seriousness,” Smith said. The familiar profile also made it easier to aim, he explained.
To reduce confusion, officers in the Brooklyn Center Police Department carry their Tasers on the opposite hip from their guns. The weapons are also yellow, instead of black.
“Over the years Axon has implemented numerous features and training recommendations to reduce the possibility of these incidents occurring,” the company said in an email.
Taser grips are designed to feel different from a firearm, and Tasers are also quite a bit lighter than the Glock 9mm Officer Kimberly Potter carried.
Brooklyn Center’s policy says officers must practice drawing their Tasers by reaching across their bodies “to reduce the possibility of accidentally drawing and firing a firearm.” But prosecutors say Officer Potter’s Taser was holstered in a way that wouldn’t allow for that.
A 2012 study found nine instances of police confusing guns for Tasers between 2001 and 2009 -- about one a year. In more recent years, similar incidents have occurred in Oklahoma and Pennsylvania as well. aele.org/law/2012all06/…
Mix-ups are rare. The vast majority of the time, officers can tell their guns from Tasers. But when they confuse them, the results can obviously be deadly.
Tasers contribute to police shootings in other ways, though. Our 2019 @apmreports investigation “When Tasers Fail” found 258 cases where police shot and killed someone after a Taser proved ineffective. apmreports.org/episode/2019/0…
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