The option of Tasers

August 10, 2004
Globe & Mail

The Taser has been described as a non-lethal alternative to guns for police officers facing an aggressive suspect. This was evidently the case in the death in Kingston Sunday of Samuel Truscott, who was shot with a Taser when pepper spray failed to subdue him and who then walked unaided to the police cruiser to be taken to hospital, where he died. Ontario deputy chief coroner James Cairns announced after yesterday's autopsy that the Taser had played no role in Mr. Truscott's death; he died of a drug overdose.

However, Dr. Cairns said he wasdrawing no conclusion about the use of Tasers in general. Enough people have died after the use of the stun gun -- more than 50 to date in the United States and Canada -- that the "non-lethal" tag is ripe for re-evaluation. After the death in June of Robert Bagnell, a B.C. man who had been subdued with a Taser, provincial Police Complaints Commissioner Dirk Ryneveld asked Victoria Police ChiefPaul Battershill to investigate the use of Tasers.

The Taser shoots barbs at people as far as six metres away. The barbs are on wires connected to a battery. The more powerful Tasers administer 50,000 volts for five seconds, causing temporary loss of muscle control. The question is to what extent the use of Tasers may be lethal if a person is in a weakened condition or is a heavy drug user. Mr. Bagnell, for instance, was shot with a Taser after a complaint that he had been screaming and destroying bathroom fixtures; he stopped breathing while being handcuffed and arrested. The toxicology exam found a potentially lethal amount of cocaine and other drugs in his body.

The best argument for Tasers is to consider the alternative. Pepper spray often proves inadequate. Bullets are predictably fatal and may hit bystanders. After the death west of Toronto last month of boxer Jerry Knight, who had been subdued with a Taser, Craig Platt of Peel Regional Police said, "If we take the Taser away, it's one less option that we have."

One option may be not to take the Taser away but to impose strict regulations on its use. If, for instance, officers are found to be using it less discriminately than they should because of its non-lethal reputation, authorities might choose to limit the Taser's use to situations in which there would otherwise be absolutely no alternative but a firearm. The conclusion of the B.C. investigation may help in this regard.