The legal and societal controversy over taser abuse may have reached a new level, with the revelation by a British Columbia television station that employees of Taser International had disclosed numerous safety violations, including failure to properly inspect and cull out faulty products and a practice of placing circuit boards returned as defective in new casings with new serial numbers and shipping them back out unrepaired. 

The battle about whether or not tasers are inherently dangerous and whether itheir benefits outweigh the "occasional" death rages on, but this information adds a whole new element.  If the employee statements are accurate, it means that any given taser may or may not work as anticipated, and that some may be more dangerous than others–a difference that would not be apparent to the officer using the taser until the damage was done.

In response to these safety concerns, the B.C. solicitor general announced that B.C. police would no longer use tasers acquired before 2006.  We can only hope that U.S. officials will act as responsibly.