times on Facebook it's the band One Republic performing live at a private party in Orlando last year on a screen behind the band flashes a series of videos highlighting the heroism of police officers administering c.p.r. Arresting bad guys rescuing a drowning dog and all ending with the message God bless blues. A corner from suburban Chicago recorded the band with his cell phone he was one of about 2500 law enforcement officials in the audience they were in town for a conference this party was a hot ticket and it was free a lot of programming to be good in just a few more minutes please grab a drink from the bar when Rick Smith takes the stage. He gets a rock star reception to this is so cool being up for research I'm going to take a selfie so you share with you guys. Smith is the c.e.o. Of a company called Exxon if you the party to celebrate its 25th anniversary Exxon makes body cameras drones virtual reality simulators but it's best known for tasers almost every law enforcement agency in the country uses them cops seem to love them because they're electrical pulses have the power to stop dangerous people in their tracks but the problem is tasers don't always do that the police in this audience probably know that So Smith levels with them and we know is our technology has gotten better you come to rely on it more and more and it's really painful for you and for us when it doesn't work when it doesn't get the job done. And that's what keeps us up at night and for the last 5 or 6 years we've got a team of people working really hard because we know we need to do better that's what he said in 2018 but just 3 years earlier he was bragging about how well tasers worked 80 to 95 percent effective in the field and acts on his claim that testing its Tasers were effective $99.00 even 100 percent of the time. But police have found that in the field they don't work nearly that well it's not that tasers are malfunctioning that hardly ever happens but they often fail to subdue suspects and some police departments officers say that happens all the time. Reports a team of investigative journalists at American Public Media spent a year looking at what happens when. They correspond occurred Gilbert 1st brought us this story back in May He begins by taking us to Burlington Vermont and we should warn you that this story contains some violence and disturbing language. When Lynn Martin moved to Burlington in 2014 her income was low enough she qualified for public housing she was lucky to find an apartment right downtown it was in a 4 story brick building built of the turn of the century it was once a candy factory in the South Square Apartments cater to senior citizens and people with disabilities but Lynn soon discovered she was in the minority there she was one of the few people on her floor not dealing with major mental health problems 5 of the people had very significant issues in their 2 of us who didn't do you know is going to be like that when you moved in or was it to kind of come as a surprise visit a little startled to find it was quite that that I had density in the population and by the way I had no problems with anybody other than Phil I just want to be very clear about that Phil Gramm in lives right across the hall from Len and he suffered from a host of mental health problems including paranoia. And a disorder related to schizophrenia you know he would talk to the walls and he started at like 4 or 5 o'clock in the afternoon and would quiet finally maybe 11 o'clock at night and then it would start up again at like 5 o'clock in the morning it would be like. Oh you people know I know I'm not going to do that stop bothering me stop talking to me I mean you know just talk to walls. In the winter of 2015 Phil's condition started to get worse just about everyone noticed it his daughter his psychiatrist and perhaps most of all the other people in his building one day Lynn was sitting in her apartment when she heard Phil out in the hallway and this time it wasn't the walls he was yelling at it was one of his neighbors and this next exchange has some pretty offensive language he was getting on to the elevator she got off and he just let fly on are trying to use the language you can I did it out of the mom but you sure are retired blah blah blah and he I mean he just really let her have and this poor woman you know had issues of her own she was just devastated and shaking and very upset. Lin reported the incident to the police and the Burlington Housing Authority which responded by tucking in a vixen notice into his door frame Phil was 76 years old he lived in the subsidized apartment complex for 18 years his medical records show his paranoia often focused on fears of eviction. It was March 26th in early spring time the overnight temperatures in Vermont still Diplo freezing most nights less than a week after he got the eviction notice Phil was sitting alone in his apartment yelling at the walls again but this time Lynn says he was making threats and I heard him say I'm going to get them I'm going to kill him I'm going to get and he was naming people I'm going to cut him up I'm going to got his stomach I mean he was coming out with really very very alarming stuff and I said that's it in addition to being Phil's neighbor Lynne is a licensed mental health counselor so she called the treatment center where Phil was a patient Lynn knew they would notify the police and it did cross my mind that I was calling for somebody who was you know pretty out of the box and threatening people in the police who come in guns and my my awareness was that Phil could end up dead that day. I was fully aware that that he was the type of person who could end up being shot by the police. I felt after all I'm going to plead to officers show up at Phil's door Oddie cameras rolling they knock a few more times with no response. So I get the Keenan can open a store. Or something like that he's standing there with a knife in the channel. One officer draws a gun not the net or the other it's a case or cross a tease drop it and talk to us after nearly 2 minutes of this Phil finally speaks I'm no lawyer Ok I'm a psychiatrist tell me more about that down the line your student son of the Danish government. Down there. Phil isn't a doctor or a lawyer he thought about law school and even took the l. Sat after graduating from the University of Vermont but he ended up getting a master's in education instead still taught at the community college level before his mental illness made holding a job impossible and he was a stay at home dad after that it's clear he's in the midst of a delusion Phil steps forward to close the door and one of the officers fires a taser and then said I don't want it. In order for a teaser to work a lot has to go right the weapons fire a pair of barbed darts attached to thin wires both darts need to strike their target in order for electricity to flow between them if even one dart misses nothing happens thick or loose fitting clothing can get in the way of making a complete circuit to let alone a slamming door that's what seemed to knock one of the darts off course and it wouldn't be the last time the Burlington police department tried to use the teaser that night I was down at the shooting range at the Vermont police academy in Pittsford when I got a call that. Motion only disturbed person barricaded in an apartment on College Street Brandon del Pozo was just 7 months into his job as Burlington's chief of police he was $41.00 at the time Ivy League educated and media savvy poser took the job after spending 18 years at the New York Police Department he commanded 2 precincts there and seen his share of police shootings he could tell the situation with film had the potential to turn deadly so he jumps in his police cruiser and drives 60 miles north to try to save Phil's life I was happy to see when I got there that the scene was under control that they'd rope the door shut and they were taking their time and they were trying to get him to talk so they could negotiate this isn't one of those stories where the police rushed in and the situation spirals out of control in a matter of seconds far from it Phil is alone in his apartment the rope tied around the door knob means it's impossible for Phil to burst into the hallway and provoke the cops into shooting in he can't hurt anyone except possibly himself the police have time on their side so they when. They knock on his door they are. Smart like I haven't got anywhere else. We know what you got a night of the dirt under your Bennett got good weed I whispers I can help you let's get out of your life you're gardening they call his phone more than a dozen times. Mike. Are growing corn Sorry Phil never answers never says a word they don't know if he's still alive in their chief del Pozo wants to see what's going on inside the apartment but he doesn't want his officers to go in blind I asked if we had to drill the police department in order drill I went home and got a drill I got a dry wall saw I got the right vets and we cut a few holes in his apartment wall to put a camera in to see what we could see. Here. And what we saw was nothing we just saw empty rooms so almost 4 hours after Phil retreats into his apartment. Poser decides it's time to go in to buy a come out they find Phil standing in the chalet. Hiding behind the curtain he still has the knives got a knight in his hand he still says nothing he just stands there that a little bit the cops use a device called a pepper ball to try to smoke Phil out of the bathroom it doesn't work on him it just throws the officers in the apartment into fits of coughing they were going to avoid the pepper ball boy from oh yeah. Everything Better. It's time to make a new plan my sergeant says listen we can definitely get up on him and we have enough staffing here we have enough equipment if we could start him with a taser we should be able to get in there and to take him into custody he did it. Over again is so confident in the plan he authorizes his deputy chief chan right to hold a press conference on the street below this housing development right here is made up of a bunch of different people. Meanwhile up to me apart. When the cops line up at the bathroom door. Officer Derwin Ellerman stands at the front of the line in one hand he holds a shield in the other he later tells investigators is a taser sight my taser out at the ready off safe start a tree pushed. 1st. Push the curtain open again Phil says nothing he stands there clutching his 9 and turns his body toward the officers at this point Chief poses says everything is still under control the plan stops working the moment they fired the taser I fired the 1st cartridge. I think you got it locked because I saw him seize up and shake it a little bit but he didn't drop the guys and he's screaming the whole time. I'm not sure which hand he speak reached down and pulled the barbs out self as soon as Phil removes one of the barbed darts he breaks the circuit and electricity stops flowing through his body. Accent executives have portrayed yanking out the darts as unlikely Here's c.e.o. Rick Smith on cable t.v. In 2002 so I did take a computer network imagine putting that spike of electricity into it it's going to send everything haywire we do the same thing inside the human body so the brain can't tell the arms legs and muscles what to do it can move you can't attack it what is a stop a perpetrator from breaking those wires of the $50000.00 volts it's go there. Rick Smith's brother and co-founder Tom Smith said something similar when A.B.C.'s Bill Weir asked him about it in 2011 Have you ever seen as how something like to able to yank these out. Taking control of your physical control motor function right but axons more recent training materials seem to contradict the Smith brothers past claims a 2016 Power Point presentation created by the company notes people can retain control of their arms and legs even while receiving a taser shock chief Pozo says that was clearly the case with Phil Graham the tasers hurt him enough to make him really angry and to aggravate his episode is and yet did not hurt him enough to incapacitate him what happens next unfolds in less than 10 seconds. It takes officer Ellerman longer than that just to describe it to investigators he merely steps out of the top of his office or go. Out a member of I said back up I know someone said Get back to back your back. He's moving fast we did not expect that fast that's out in the street the deputy chief is still talking to reporters she's in mid-sentence. On the gunshots ran. The cameras pan up to the open window on the building 2nd story they can't see it the film is on the floor. Holes in his chest. And abdomen. He also has 6 smaller marks on his body the kind tazers left behind. Says another one of his officers fired one just a moment before the gunshots by the time we were done with this encounter Unfortunately the room was just a crisscross mess of Taser wires fill story is like hundreds of others all over the country police end up shooting someone after their Tasers proved ineffective a.p.m. Reports found more than $250.00 cases that follow the same plot line over just a 3 year period tasers failed to resolve the situation and then police resorted to firearms and in more than $100.00 of those cases people became more aggressive after an officer fired a Taser at them had the tasers been effective many of those people might still be alive. In some cases it's obvious why the taser didn't work because one or both of the electrified darts missed their target but with many of the shootings it's much more clear the darts hit they just don't do much and the investigators don't spend much time trying to figure out why they tend to focus on the bullets the proof. Not the tasers the proved ineffective that was the case with Phil Graham ins death 2 it's a question that gnawed on Phil's niece Sara Grennan it was eating me alive for a while a little less than 2 months after Phil died the Burlington police department released videos from the cameras officers wore on their uniforms but it wasn't until the next year that Sarah could bring herself to look at them I watched it on the anniversary of his death. And I did you decide to do that I don't even know if the answer is I don't even know why a lot of shit. I guess just to maybe try to figure out why it went so wrong and that's when she saw how close Phil was when Officer Ellerman used his taser they were. Face to face Elaman was in the bathroom doorway Phil was in the shower Sarah started researching tasers and she discovered it's not enough just for both darts to hit it also matters how far away the target is tasers don't have the same effect on the human body when they're used at too close range they still hurt and sometimes that's enough but they want to was knock you over that's because the 2 taser darts spread apart as they fly the farther apart they hit the more effective they become and I think that I had heard that the tasers they were using at the time you have to be 9 feet away she's right and the problem is it's hard for officers to get that kind of distance in a small apartment or even in a scuffle out on the street the manufacturer Axon acknowledges Tasers are typically used to close range and when you look at databases from major police departments to track this stuff you can see just how close in New York and Fort Worth Texas for example officers report they usually fire their tasers at distances of 7 feet or less they only use them at longer ranges about a quarter of the time in other words most of the time cops don't use tasers at the ranges where they become reliably effective. So how far away was Phil to find that out I needed to get into his building and look at one of the apartments and then yeah my turn is go hikers it is the only thing in Cindy Ok I will not in so much Cindy column and has lived in this tiny one bedroom apartment for about 18 years were city says that it is this use it until she was probably feels best friend I meet him down and sit next error and. We talked and. We had Thanksgiving together every year and only had stuff. Because that's all we each liked he was so appreciative so fur or he was so dear or he would just I can't say enough about I could tell that Phil's death had really affected Cindy but I wasn't prepared for what she said next it was so terrible that I. Tried to commit suicide 4 days afterwards and they told me I was in the hospital for 3 weeks and I'd never done that before or since Never Do you remember making a decision to commit suicide. For some reason the loss of he went through before his death was so traumatic for me. 'd 'd and chance the person who is in his apartment right now is named Steve. And he just moved in your few months ago he would let you in a minute could you take me up there and move should we go see. Steve is 66 and lives with a little dog. He has not problem showing me his bathroom he points to a mark on the shower he thinks might have been caused by a bullet there's the interesting thing then he lets me take some measurements with my phone under the watchful eye for. The place is tiny the whole apartment measures less than 500 square feet the bathroom is a bit shy of 4 feet by 7 feet. That's according to this app on my phone. Phil might have been only 3 maybe 4 feet away from the officer when he teased him and could not have been more than say 6 feet or so away so I think that could have been a big factor in why the teaser didn't work on film. They initially agree but then canceled the interview the company didn't respond to our questions about the connection between tasers and fatal shootings by police they sent us a statement saying research shows Tasers are quote the most safe and effective less lethal use of force tool available to law enforcement. After the break. From police officers news or days or didn't work and didn't know why and frankly we didn't know why and then lo and behold the over here was right in front of us because it was designed to be. That's next on revealed from the Center for Investigative Reporting. From the Center for Investigative Reporting in p.r. This is revealed. The idea of zapping something with an electrical weapon was once the stuff of science fiction. Just to be able think of but in the mid seventy's it became a reality in the debate over whether to make handguns illegal under a new face a reprimand. Like this 1985 Il b c news report includes the only recorded interview we could find featuring Jack over he's a Southern California scientist who invented the teaser. For . An article there it's over said he got the name for the teaser now from Star Trek phaser but from Tom Swift. Really. Tom Swift was a fictional boy genius when vented all kinds of futuristic devices in the world taser is a loose acronym of the book Tom Swift and His electric rifle today the single company Exxon has a monopoly on producing to. Razors in the u.s. The most cops carry them but the problem is tasers often don't work the way police expect until today on reveal we're looking at why that happens with our colleagues at 8 pm reports correspondent Curtis Gilbert finds out how Exxon cornered the taser market and what's happened since then. Rick Smith was in his early twenties fresh out of business school when he decided to go into the electrical weapons business. Oh I'd like to thank you for purchasing their taser be eligible as for self defense I'd also like to welcome you into my home this video is such here because they are tasers made my home a safer place and the purpose of this video is to help you make your home a safer place as well it was 1994 at the time another company called taser Tron was still selling tasers based on Jack overs original design it on the patents and had the exclusive right to sell Tasers to p