April 29, 2011 1:35PM # Police Didn’t Know Using Taser 18 Times on Man Was Illegal By [Tim Lynch](https://www.cato.org/people/tim-lynch) --- SHARE It is not that easy to win a lawsuit against the police. Just ask Thomas Olson. He sued the police for excessive force after they used a Taser on him *15–18 times* *after he had been handcuffed.* This month a court concluded that there was [no controlling legal authority](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/campfin/stories/op030797.htm). That is, the officers had no notice from the caselaw or regulations that they might be using [excessive force](http://www.courts.alaska.gov/ops/sp-6552.pdf). One wonders how specific the regulations have to be and how many times the officers involved may have used Tasers inappropriately but no lawsuit was ever filed. And what sort of government would have policies so lenient toward its agents and yet tell the rest of us that we can be punished for things we “should have” done something about — [*even in instances where we had no notice*](http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_17_101/ai_84971361/)*?* ##### Related Tags [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).