LOUISVILLE, Ky. — It’s a question you might be asking. How could the officer have made the mistake of pulling a firearm instead of a Taser in the Brooklyn Center, Minn. shooting?

“It is a very powerful device that comes with a lot of responsibility,” said Mike Bassi, the director of the Southern Police Institute. 

Bassi has experience as a Taser device instructor. He explained that sidearms and tasers are separated on opposite sides of their belts. He said this is spelled out in the policy for local jurisdictions and codified into law.

“Taser will either be on their belt, possibly on a drop leg holster that kind of pushes it down from the duty belt area, or a vest depending on how the uniform looks,” said Bassi.

This separation is helpful when training academy cadets practice wielding the issued weapons with repetition in high-stress training exercises. This helps the trainee develop muscle memory to be able to draw the appropriate weapon.

Bassi said the Taser device is recommended by TASER itself and most trainers to be carried on an officer’s weak side. The officer's strong or dominant side is where they would carry their firearm.

“The whole point behind that would be when you’re training that muscle memory of drawing your firearm, that you’re not mistaking that action for the drawing of the Taser. And it is supposed to sort of alleviate the issues that you saw in that video,” said Bassi.

Bassi thinks that what happened in Minnesota will lead to debates about Tasers. He said that what is clear is that that police trainers and agencies will take a serious look at ways to further improve training.

“We are going to have some significant analysis by the 18,000 agencies there are in the U.S. in order to prevent a tragedy like this from happening in the future,” he said.