ABSTRACT

This chapter develops a case study of the silences around the use of the TASERTM electric-shock weapon by the police in England and Wales.2 Of particular interest are the silences regarding TASER’s relative safety compared to other so-called ‘less lethal weapons’ that the police have at their disposal. I argue that an understanding of these silences is not only valuable in its own right but can also point to broader insights into how silences can be analysed within science and technology studies (STS) more generally. Building on the work of Rappert (2001) and Lee (1999) on the performance and distribution of ambiguities, I suggest that the regulatory particularities of TASER and other less lethal weapons in policing highlight the need to consider how silences are resolved, by whom, and with what effects – issues which have been under-examined in the STS literature to date. This approach, in turn, helps point to new ways of conceptualising the winners and losers within a given socio-technical network – with neither the former nor the latter being easily identifiable a priori. My argument develops as follows. First of all I provide a brief outline of

the STS literature and how it currently deals with silences. I then introduce and discuss the merits of an alternative approach concerned with the management and distribution of ambiguities and suggest that this approach may also be useful in analysing silences and their effects. I then provide some conceptual comments on silence, before applying this approach to discussions of the relative safety of TASER and contrasting it with more conventional accounts of the weapon. I start, however, by giving a brief introduction to TASER technology and exploring why the silences around the weapon’s relative safety might prove a valuable empirical study for those interested in silences in science.