Howey started looking into this advice, and found that officers have been using this tactic across California, and the information families disclosed affected the families' lawsuits later.

This award-winning episode of @revealnews.org details this investigation in full:

As @steelandballast.bsky.social reported in 2024, Bruce Praet, who runs Lexipol, offered this advice to cops:

If the police kill someone, officers should first ask the family about the victim to get as much unflattering info as possible before delivering the news of their loved one's death.

But across MS, agencies don't use Taser logs to track officer stun gun use & many didn't know how to retrieve their logs when we requested them, so we bought a special Taser download cable and drove it around the state, showing several depts how to use it.
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/14/i...

Some deputies joked about abusive Taser use in a private WhatsApp channel we unearthed last year...
www.nytimes.com/2024/05/29/u...

...And several former deputies, including those convicted of torturing two Black men with stun guns, told us Rankin Co. Sheriff's Dept. leaders rarely reviewed their Taser logs, allowing them to hide abusive Taser use by simply not reporting it.
www.nytimes.com/2024/03/21/u...

...Because in 2023, we found that sheriff's deputies in Rankin County, MS, had used their Tasers to torture multiple people over the course of 20 years...
www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/u...

The Taser logs also revealed at least 16 instances where officers inaccurately reported their Taser deployments in official incident reports. The context of these findings is very serious in Mississippi...
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/14/u...

...In other cases, department leaders said their officers were testing the weapons -- or fooling around with them. One deputy told us he used his Taser to kill spiders ⚡️🕷️

Taser logs, which record every time a stun gun is triggered, revealed more than 600 instances at dozens of agencies where officers triggered their Tasers for dangerously long durations. Agencies couldn't explain why officers had triggered the weapons in many of those cases...

In Mississippi, police set their own rules about shocking people with Tasers, with little fear of repercussions. Many departments have held on to vague, outdated policies that allow officers to shock virtually anyone they feel is a threat.

Our stories build on years of reporting that has detailed the enormous struggles with insurance that Americans face as they try to access medically necessary health care: www.propublica.org/topics/healt...