In February 2005, Inweekly published a shocking videotape from the Escambia County Jail that would thrust Pensacola into the national spotlight over police use of Taser devices. The footage showed Pensacola Police Officer Ray McPhail threatening a detained man with a 50,000-volt Taser gun, pointing it directly at his temple before taking him off-camera and shocking him despite his pleas that he wasn’t resisting.
The victim, Randy Koch, a 42-year-old tree service worker from Louisiana who was in town helping with Hurricane Ivan cleanup, had been arrested for DUI and was refusing to take a Breathalyzer test. What happened next, captured on jail surveillance video, revealed a disturbing pattern of excessive force that civil rights organizations said was becoming all too common 20 years ago.
A Pattern of Abuse
Koch’s case wasn’t isolated. The incident occurred against a backdrop of mounting concerns about Taser misuse in Northwest Florida. Officer McPhail himself had a troubling history—he had been suspended four days the previous year for inappropriately using his Taser on bartenders at McGuire’s restaurant while working off-duty. Reports also surfaced of another videotape showing McPhail violently assaulting a detainee, breaking the man’s wrist in the process.
- The abuse extended beyond Pensacola city limits. Local attorney Patrece Cashwell represented Harold Fountain, a 47-year-old man who lost sight in his left eye after being shocked eight times by an Escambia County sheriff’s deputy simply for refusing to leave his own porch. Witnesses reported seeing “flames popping off” Fountain during the attack.
A National Crisis
By 2005, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference had documented 86 deaths involving Tasers across the United States and Canada since 1999. Florida led the nation with 16 Taser-related fatalities. The weapons, which deliver nearly 25 times the voltage of an electric chair, were being used far beyond their intended purpose of subduing violent, resisting suspects.
Amnesty International’s research revealed that 80 percent of Taser-related deaths involved unarmed individuals, and 36 percent occurred when people were shocked simply for failing to comply with verbal commands. Children as young as six, elderly individuals, and wheelchair-bound people had all become victims of Taser abuse.
The Fight for Accountability
The SCLC chose Pensacola as the launching point for their national campaign against Taser abuse, holding a rally at Bethel A.M.E. Church in February 2005. “Too many police departments abuse Taser guns. It kills folks,” declared SCLC President Charles Steele Jr. The organization called for an immediate moratorium on Taser use pending comprehensive safety studies.
- Local civil rights leader Ellison Bennett, who worked with families of Taser victims, observed that “police officers use it when they lose their temper,” pointing to a culture of impunity where officers knew they had institutional protection.
Laws & Policies Changed
In 2006, the Florida Legislature passed Florida statute 943.1717, which set statewide standards for law enforcement officers on the use of dart-firing stun guns (Tasers), including training requirements and conditions for use: only against subjects escalating from passive to active physical resistance, and with apparent ability to threaten or flee
In October 2009, after the fatal police chase and death of teenager Victor Steen, the Pensacola Police Department updated its stun gun (Taser) policy. The major change was that officers were immediately prohibited from firing a Taser from a moving vehicle or into a moving vehicle. Previously, the policy only required officers to act “professionally” and for stun gun use to be “reasonable.”
Through a public record request, we got the video from the police officer’s vehicle while he chased Steen:
