When can the police legally taze you? A taser really replaces hard empty hand control. You don't want to taze somebody unless they're actively resisting. It's really a tool that can prevent somebody from being seriously injured when they are otherwise resisting. I've done videos on body cams where officers will react to somebody cussing at them and they'll use their taser and that's just the improper use of a taser. If an officer doesn't follow the use of force policy on his department and they violate your civil rights, they can lose qualified immunity where they can be subject to a civil lawsuit themselves and they can subject the department to a really serious lawsuit.