Police Used Taser On 11-Year-Old Shoplifting Suspect While Bodycam Was Off

A Cincinnati police officer in Ohio is being investigated after using a Taser on an 11-year-old girl on Monday, who was suspected to have shoplifted a bag of food from a store.

Police Chief Eliot Issac said: “We are extremely concerned when force is used by one of our officers on a child of this age. As a result we will be taking a very thorough review of our policies as it relates to using force on juveniles as well as the propriety of the officers actions.”

The incident in question took place around 9:30 p.m. local time at the store on Kenard Avenue, at Kroger in Spring Grove Village, Cincinnati, Ohio. The suspect in question resisted arrest and tried to flee the scene, according to the Cincinnati Police Department (CPD). That is when the officer deployed the Taser, NBC affiliated WLWT reported.

CPD’s guidelines on the use of force clearly state that “The TASER may be deployed on a suspect actively resisting arrest when there is probable cause to arrest the suspect, or to defend one’s self or another from active aggression.”

However, at the same time, the document stated that “officers should avoid using the TASER on obviously pregnant females and those individuals under the age of 7 or over the age of 70 due to the potential for these individuals to fall when incapacitated by the TASER, unless the encounter rises to the level of a deadly force situation.”

Councilman Jeff Pastor said that in the light of the guidelines, he would like to review the circumstances that led the officer to user the Taser on a child. "I would like to confer with the police officers to see why that policy is in place," Pastor said. "I'm not in the business of criticizing the policy, however a 7-year-old kid, being eligible for use of force by Taser, it probably shocks me, probably shocks most Cincinnatians."

"We're still waiting on bits and pieces of information but I can see no reason, I have a 12-year-old daughter, but I can see no reason why an 11-year-old child would be tasered given the circumstances for shoplifting," Pastor added.

One of the major discrepancies in the case is the fact that there is no bodycam footage of the incident. The officer who used the Taser, allegedly tried to turn on his body camera during the incident but was unable to do so, according to the police. Hence, the only footage retrieved from the bodycam shows the aftermath of the Taser usage, which does not explain the circumstances that led to the deployment of the excessive force.

"There needs to be a complete investigation," said Vice Mayor Christopher Smitherman, chairman of council's Law and Public Safety Committee. "It's hard to understand why an 11-year-old would be tased. I expect answers in 24 hours."

The 11-year-old was hospitalized following the incident and was released to her parent’s custody. She was charged with theft and obstruction of justice after release.