I'm interested in any research has been done on this :
If a Taser could set off the most commonly used explosives used 
in Terrorist attacks.

Dear joey123455555-ga;

Thank you for allowing me to answer your interesting question. I?ve
spent to many years in professional law enforcement myself that my
career even predates the TASER. Because of this I?ve seen just about
every kind of news story that has ever come out on the technology, not
the least of which have been some fairly horrific accidents involving
the weapon.

There have been people who were severely burned by the TASER current
and people who have literally been ignited by TASERS:

TASER INDEPENDENT EVALUATION REPORT
http://www.zarc.com/english/non-lethal_weapons/taser_eval.html

CBS NEWS
http://www.cbs58.com/cbsdata.cgi?_dhweb=form&_lt23r=home&kv=headlinenews.headlinenew_id=7129

DULUTH NEWS TRIBUNE
http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/12348850.htm

The reason I mention this is because almost any electrical current is
capable of igniting explosives. Since a TASER sends a current
equivalent to about 50,000 volts into whatever it strikes, it most
certainly could provide the ?spark? necessary to set off an explosion
in the exact same way that a battery operated plunger or other
electrical fuse would deliver such a charge.

You are not the first one to ask this question. Recently the whole
world wondered what the police were thinking when they fired a TASER
at a man in London who was suspected of wearing a bomb belt. As the
public shook their heads at the method used, CNN reported that
London?s Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair agreed that the
officers ?took an "incredible risk" because it could have set off any
explosives on the man?.

CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/07/29/ian.blair/

I personally would have admired Blair more if he's said, "That was
just the stupidest thing I'd ever heard in my entire life."

Jeff Slotnick, an American security consultant, appears to dispute
this and claims to have tested TASERS on a wide range of explosives.
He says his research suggests that TASERS are usually ?safe and
effective? for ?for most commercial explosives?. Two things struck me
as odd about this almost immediately:

(1) I could not find any of the research Slotnick claims to have conducted. 
(2) According to this article Slotnick has never conducted a single
test on any home-made devices.

Now it makes sense that most suicide bombers don?t carry commercial
explosives, doen't it? Slotnick said, ?If I were confronted with a
suicide bomber and I had to make a split-second decision, I would
utilise the Taser without hesitation?, however it is VERY important to
note that according to this article Slotnick has not tested the Taser
on the type of home-made explosives used in the terror strikes on the
London Underground either.

TASER DANGERS
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9073-1715127,00.html

You can come to your own conclusion here but in looking further it
turns out that Slotnick probably doesn't want to make TASERS look bad
because he is actually the President of SETRACON, a security
consulting agency that sells, among other things, you guessed it,
TASERS.

SETRACON
http://www.setracon.com/taser.html

What's more telling is that even TASER INTERNATIONAL itself warns on
its official web site, from their own research:

?The ADVANCED TASER will not ignite standard solids or even black
gunpowder. However, the spark from an ADVANCED TASER can ignite some
flammable liquids, vapors, meth labs or sensitive explosives.?

TASER INTERNATIONAL
http://www.taser.com/self_defense/faqs.htm

Now you can't beat that for reliable information. When a company
admits right up front that their product is not safe in some
situations, you can take it to the bank that the product is NOT SAFE
in THAT particular situation. See what I mean? There's little need to
research further The manufacturer says that shooting a TASER at an
expplosive is not safe (or smart, if you want to accept that unspoken
implication as well).

You see, a TASER does essentially the same thing that a plunger type
detonator does. When you push down the plunger a small generator
inside the box creates an electrical charge, sends that charge down
the line into the explosive at the other end. A TASER is designed the
same way except the cords are only about 20 feet long ? placing the
shooter well within range of the explosive....No, it's NOT a good
idea.

In short, virtually every reliable expert would probably agree that an
electrical surge from a TASER could detonate some bombs, or at the
very least poses such a likely hazard as to make the practice of
firing a TASER at an explosive or explosive carrying threat highly
unacceptable. The flip side of that is that there are literally
hundreds of different types of explosive material and there?s no way
to provide research on every kind known to man. Having said that,
commercial explosives are the most plentiful types of explosives to
test with so that is basically where moist of our knowledge about this
subject comes from. Any inaccuracies or conflicts in research stem
from the fact that many illicit explosives nowadays are NOT
conventional and are made up of who-knows-what so the clinical facts
about how TASERS react with those devices can only be speculated about
at best. Common sense dictates that it is NEVER a good idea to shoot
50,000 volts of electricity into a bomb ? ever.

I hope you find that my answer exceeds your expectations. If you have
any questions about my research please post a clarification request
prior to rating the answer. Otherwise I welcome your rating and your
final comments and I look forward to working with you again in the
near future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.

Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga ? Google Answers Researcher



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Request for Answer Clarification by joey123455555-ga on 24 Aug 2005 02:48 PDT

Hi tutuzdad-ga
Thanks for your detailed answer. 
I guess I had 2 main parts in orignal question
1) Would a Taser ignite explosives - which the answer seems clearly to be yes.
2) Could a Taser be fired accuratly at some part of a sucicide bomber
where it would not strick explosives , i.e his face ?
How accurate could a Taser shot be  ?
would a Taser shot to the face kill a suspect ?

Thanks again and hope you can help with this.
Joe

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Clarification of Answer by tutuzdad-ga on 24 Aug 2005 06:59 PDT

Here is a very good graphic and explanation about the accuracy of the TASER

TASER
http://www.taser.org/accuracy.html

Like most weapons it depends on the target, the circumstances under
which the target is acquired, the expertise of the shooter and many
other factors. It seems however that under non-threatening laboratory
conditions the TASER is a fairly accurate weapon assuming the person
behind the trigger knows what he or she is doing.

Officers are typically trained to avoid hitting the target subject in
sensitive tissue areas such as head, face, neck, groin, or female
breast area. Remember, the business end of this weapon is a set of
very sharp darts. There have been documented cases where target
subjects have lost an eye. In this document a white paper specifically
condemns head, face and groin shots as unnecessarily dangerous. In
response to your question about ?killing? a suspect, the answer is NO;
under normal circumstances a TASER is a non-lethal weapon:

?According to Taser, the barbs that attach to a targeted subject
should generally not cause significant injury or discomfort unless
they strike a targeted subject in a sensitive area. Taser suggests
that only emergency room staff remove probes embedded in sensitive
areas, such as the neck, throat, face, breast, and groin. Significant
injury also can occur if a person is struck in an eye with a barb.
Similarly, the laser sight on the Tasers may cause eye damage if
directed into the eyes.?

TASER
?POSITION PAPER OF THE POLICE TRAINING INSTITUTE?
http://www.pti.uiuc.edu/pdf/taser.pdf

 
Again, TASER INTERNATIONAL itself specifically and implicitly warns
against aiming for the face or eyes.
http://www.taser.com/self_defense/faqs.htm#10

Liability where TASERS are concerned is almost a given. In Tallahassee
Florida for example the city was sued after an officer allegedly
struck a suspect in the groin with a TASER even though there was
debate as to whether the darts ever hit him in the groin at all (and
this guy was ?only? threatening the officer with an axe, not a bomb).

TALLAHASSEE DEMOCRAT
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/12435929.htm

I look forward to your final rating and comments.

Regards;
Tutuzdad-ga

Good answer. I think it shows that training police to shot tasers at a
suspect's face is a viable option  when a sucicide bomber is a
suspect.
Its certainly better than the risk  of killing an innocent person.

I think the previous answer is quite thorough, the only discrepancy I
see is the comment about the current equivalent to about 50kV. This is
a standard voltage generated by the taser, the current on the other
hand is minimal( enough to cause nerve, and muscle contraction!!!)A
measured resistance of a human body is in the range of 1megahom 
1000000 ohms...+-100000, if you use the formula for current I=V/R this
equates to around 50milliAmps,relatively small. But the potential
difference of 50kV is the determining factor of "spark". the factor of
causing a spark is depending on a few variables, resistance of the
subjects body which varies with body temp, persperation, and is
relative to the individual. If the "bomb" is to be detinatated by a
hand switch ,pushed by the subject,The contractions could definetely
cause a detination. If it a chemical reaction no, electrical
detination by means of a timer no( ie short circuit), most likely the
circuit is in package or board which causes an insulator, isolating
the device from the skin. In actuality who really knows these
imbeciles which insist on martrysm by means of human sacrifice most
likely do not have a clue what they are doing to begin with. the links
on tasers seemed very informative, hope this is as well.
God Bless

Surely if confronted with a suicide bomber who just about to let off
an explosian and you/others are in the blast zone, then shooting him
with a tazer is not so daft?

There may be a 0.01% chance of detonating. There may be a 99.99%
chance, but i prefer those odds better than 100% chance if nothing is
done!

Depends a great deal on what kind of explosives suicide bomber was
carrying. acetone peroxide that was used in London bombings is
extremely unstable, practically anything can set of organic peroxides
not only friction, heat, shock, but it can also detonate
spontaniously.
On the other hand explosives such as TNT, Semtex, fertilizer etc.
won't be set off unless you use a detonator. You can toss TNT on a
fire without setting it off.
The question then becomes how to stop a suspected suicide bomber. I
would guess that for a suicide bomber carrying acetone peroxide it is
atleast equally if not more likely for explosives to go off if you
shoot him compared to if use a taser. With that in mind using non
lethal force seems like the best choice.
If suspect is innocent you avoid a London incident and if he is guilty
you can still extract information.
Law enforcement dude who thought using taser was stupid claimed piston
detonator created electricity, but the piston thingy we call detonator
is in fact a bit misleading, the piston thingy is a generator which
creates electricity, which sets off detonator (piston thingy is used
to set off commercial explosives like TNT too).