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In 11 years as a police officer and self-defense instructor, David Wright has been kicked, punched, choked and clubbed. But none of that comes close to the shock he got from a Taser stun gun in March 2001.

"It's still hard to describe or compare it to anything. It was numbing and pain, and every muscle just contracted," said Wright, 31, a Pittsburgh police officer. "Before I knew it, my feet were in the air and I was on the ground. But then I was fine."

Wright took his five-second dose of 50,000 volts as part of a certification program so he could carry and later train fellow officers on the Taser. He has trained about 40 fellow cops this year on how to use the weapons as city police move to equip 160 officers with them at a cost of $120,000.

Ten city officers have been carrying Tasers along with their service pistols since March during a "pilot deployment" of the weapons, which are far less lethal than regular guns. Even as Chief Robert W. McNeilly Jr., who has championed Taser use, and his advisers write a full policy on stun gun use, police have used them six times, with no serious injuries reported.

At the same time, though, police departments and the Arizona company that produces what it calls less-lethal "electro-muscular disruption" devices have come under fire over safety concerns.

Published reports indicate that more than 50 people have died after being shocked by Tasers in the past five years. Taser International says that no autopsy has ever declared the Taser as the primary cause of death, though some medical examiners have listed Taser shocks as contributing factors in some of the deaths.

Amnesty International has called for a moratorium on the use of Tasers until an "independent, comprehensive medical review of Taser-related deaths" is done, said Edward Jackson, a spokesman for the human rights group.

"We're opposed to unleashing these on the public without independent evidence that they're safe," Jackson said.

Pittsburgh police have 150 Tasers waiting to be distributed to officers. A delay in the purchase of special thigh holsters -- which cost about $100 each -- has kept them off the street and delayed training for all of the officers.

McNeilly said he is glad for the delay because it has given him more time to discuss Tasers with other police officials and review how the 10 already on the street are being used. But despite the national news, McNeilly said he has not considered rethinking his decision to put Tasers in the hands of his officers.

"There's going to be controversy with any tool we use, but I believe now, even more than before, that this will be useful and helpful," he said.

Locally, McNeilly appears to have support. In July, the Pittsburgh Citizen Police Review Board told City Council it backs the use of Tasers.

Allegheny County Coroner Dr. Cyril Wecht, who was hired by Taser earlier this year to review the autopsy of an Indiana man who died after being shocked by police there, said he hasn't seen any proof that Tasers kill.

"The bottom line is that guns do kill, and so can beating someone or pouncing on them with the positional asphyxiation we've already seen," Wecht said, referring to the death of a man in Mt. Oliver whom police restrained by putting their weight on his back. "Without a Taser, cops will draw their guns, and there's no question they kill."

Taser insists the weapons are not deadly, and the company has touted Wecht's autopsy review as further proof.

Tasers fire two barbed pins attached to wires up to 21 feet from what looks like a semiautomatic pistol. The pins deliver a 50,000-volt shock that overwhelms the body's electrical system and temporarily incapacitates the person. Those questioning whether Tasers are safe say the electrical shock could be damaging to the heart and could cause heart attacks in people who are high on drugs or over-excited, Wecht said. Taser claims tests have shown the shock does not affect the heart.

McNeilly said he is paying less attention to what Taser says, and more to what other police departments have found.

Late last month, he attended a conference on the weapons with 30 police chiefs sponsored by the Police Executive Research Forum. The chiefs compared their experiences with Tasers and the policies each department has written for their use. Taser officials were not invited.

"I felt much more confident in our decisions on this after the summit," he said.

McNeilly, staff from the police training academy and city lawyers are rewriting the department's use-of-force policies as they decide on rules for when and where Tasers should and should not be used.

Tasers will likely fall in the same place as pepper spray on what police call the "continuum of control," or the range of actions officers should take when confronting someone. Mere police presence is the first step in the continuum. Deadly force is the last. Tasers will be just below the baton, which is one step away from the gun, McNeilly said.

Police still need to decide whether Tasers should be used on the very young and very old, pregnant women and handcuffed prisoners. They already know they shouldn't use the weapon near flammable substances. McNeilly is clear that officers should still use their guns if confronted by someone who is armed.

"This is another tool, just like pepper spray or batons," he said. "And hopefully, this won't be the end of the options available. Someday there could be something else out there, and we will look at it."

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