BRATTLEBORO, Vt. – Chained to a 55-gallon drum, protesting the potential development of a vacant lot, Jonathan Crowell wasn’t violent or threatening anyone. But he refused police orders to unshackle himself and leave, so they zapped him with a Taser until he did. Then they charged him with trespassing.

“It wasn’t just a short burst,” said Crowell, 32, of Dummerston, recalling the July 24 incident. “Five seconds is a long time to be electrocuted. My whole body was contorting and flapping around. You can’t think of anything else but that pain. It’s really scary. I felt like I was being tortured.”

Increasingly, police facing stubborn lawbreakers, belligerent drunks or violent suspects are reaching for stun guns, shocking them into submission. In one incident, a hospital security guard in Houston trying to stop a defiant father from taking home his newborn shot him with a Taser, sending both to the floor.

Police call them valuable tools for avoiding hand-to-hand struggles that can injure officers and citizens. Critics say Tasers are being used as a weapon of first resort, sometimes on frail or mentally ill people.

“What’s at issue is whether the level of force being used is appropriate for arresting somebody,” said Allen Gilbert, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Vermont. “The Fourth Amendment protects you from unreasonable seizures, which means police can’t use excessive force when they’re taking you into custody. It doesn’t mean they can use any means whatsoever to take you into custody.”

Small, portable and often effective even when merely brandished, Tasers – which fire tiny, tethered cartridges that transmit electrical currents – have become de rigeur in law enforcement circles in recent years, with some 11,500 police agencies using them. Among the benefits: Cutting workers’ compensation and lost time claims by police.

“We went over an entire year without a single lost hour of employee time or officer injury relating to wrestling or struggling to get a prisoner into custody, which is virtually unheard of,” said Deputy Chief Walt Decker of the Burlington, Vt., Police Department.

His department, which got Tasers last year, spent more than $150,000 on lost time the year before for officers sidelined by on-the-job injuries suffered subduing suspects, he said. To many, the issue isn’t whether Tasers should be used, it’s how.

Earlier this month, in Shelby Township, Mich., a man who was running through traffic wearing only underwear and socks died after being Tasered by police.

In the Houston incident, which occurred April 13, William Lewis, 30, was trying to take his baby girl from Woman’s Hospital of Texas because he and his wife felt mistreated by staff. He was told not to take the baby, and was trying to leave when off-duty policeman David Boling – working security – shot Lewis with the stun gun as he held the child.

“It’s very easy to blame police officers for the inappropriate use of a Taser, but we need to take another step back and look at how it’s been introduced to them,” said Dalia Hashad, a human rights violations specialist with Amnesty International.

“They’re under the impression that it’s a bit of a magic tool, that you’ll shoot someone with 50,000 volts and they’ll be rendered incapable and no harm will be done.”

She says police should use more restraint using Tasers on the mentally ill, and those with medical conditions who can die from the shock.

Similar concerns have been expressed in Vermont, where two of three recent Taser incidents involved psychiatric patients.

On July 3, police used a Taser to subdue an unruly juvenile patient on July 3 at Brattleboro Retreat, a psychiatric facility.

Neither the hospital nor police would give more detail about the incident, which prompted Gov. Jim Douglas to ask the state attorney general to review the police’s actions and later to ask for a review of police agencies’ protocol for Taser use, with an eye toward establishing a uniform statewide policy.

In the other, a psychiatric patient from Vermont State Hospital fled while out on pass Aug. 10 and was spotted jumping in front of cars on Interstate 89. A Taser was used to subdue him.

“It probably saved his life,” said Sgt. Craig Gardner, a Vermont State Police trooper who was there. “It prevented any of the troopers there having to get into a fighting match. We were right next to the Interstate, and there was the chance he could pull someone into traffic or jump out. It alleviated that problem.”

But some worry.

“Whether it’s coincidence or circumstance, we have several incidents of use of a Taser gun involving a person with a serious mental problem or presumed serious mental health problem,” said Ken Libertoff, executive director of the Vermont Association for Mental Health. “The use of a Taser intervention is not a minor situation, and it is not state-of-the-art mental health care.”

Police counter that they can’t always tell whether a person has mental health issues or pre-existing medical conditions that would make Taser use dangerous to them.

“You have to remember: Officers going in are not all-knowing,” said Brattleboro Police Chief John Martin. “They don’t have the luxury of knowing a person’s medical history.”

Martin wouldn’t discuss the details of either of the Brattleboro incidents, but said he has seen nothing indicating the officers involved violated the department’s policy on Taser use.

AP-ES-08-18-07 1325EDT