Head of RCMP complaints body says taser-use study could mean fewer deaths

October 2, 2006
TERRI THEODORE VANCOUVER - Canadina Press via Macleans.ca

The chairman of the RCMP Public Complaints Commission believes a comprehensive report on police use of the Taser could save lives.

Paul Kennedy told a convention on police oversight he has concerns over how the 50,000-volt device is being used and how early into a police confrontation the stun gun should be put into action.

“I’m not saying Tasers (Nasdaq:TASR) are bad, because the officer also carries a gun,” he told the crowd Monday. “You give me the option between being hit by a Taser and hit by a bullet, I’ll tell you which I’ll select,” he said as the group chuckled.

While Kennedy said the device is used less frequently in Canada than it is the United States, he said a comprehensive report would be a good tool for Canadian police officers.

“And if we do it right, then maybe we’ll have fewer deaths,” he added.

Kennedy suggested his commission and all the other provincial civilian police oversight bodies pool their funds to pay for the report.

He was speaking at the start of the conference of the Canadian Association for Civilian oversight of Law Enforcement.

The use of Tasers by police has become an increasingly controversial subject in Canada. Across Canada, at least six people have died after being shocked by Tasers, which fire two barbs attached to a wire that deliver a 50,000-volt shock on contact for up to five seconds.

The weapon is meant to immobilize aggressors by shocking their muscles.

Manufacturers of the Taser guns, now used by more than 50 police and correctional services across Canada, say their weapons have never been held directly responsible for a death.

In a 2005 letter made public last month, Victoria’s police chief told British Columbia’s police complaints commissioner that he had “philosophical concerns about whether police ‘by themselves’ should be defining where the Taser belongs on the force continuum.”

“As various studies rapidly evolve, it may be necessary to change placement in the continuum and I am not convinced this can be done by police ‘by themselves,”‘ said Chief Paul Battershill.

Amnesty International has called for suspension of the use of Tasers until an independent study can be done. The group’s Hilary Homes welcomed Kennedy’s suggestion, as long as the study is independent.

Kennedy said there isn’t a consensus among police forces on the use of the weapon.

“They’re almost being used as a come-along tool. That’s my concern, where you put it on stun mode, (ask people to) move along. . ., and then you get zapped with this thing,” he said.

Lawyer Cameron Ward, who has represented many people in police-related assaults, said it’s worse in some places. “The reality is that police are using these devices not as an alternative to lethal force, but rather as an easy tool to incapacitate someone. In some cases we’ve seen circumstances where they’ve been used to wake people up, to get them to comply with a demand to be handcuffed,” Ward said.

Homes pointed out the Taser was originally introduced as an alternative to lethal force, but now it’s in the mid-level range of police force. “It’s very easy to use,” she said. “You can take any piece of police equipment and misuse it. But some things are easier to misuse than others and Tasers certainly fall into that category.”

Tasers came into use by Canadian police forces in the late 1990s.

Ward said he is astonished the weapons are being used without any independent safety testing. “There’s a real question as to whether or not these are safe for use on all people.”

Most Canadian coroner’s inquests have ruled out Taser use as the cause of death, instead ruling the death was set off by drug overdose and mental illness, or a condition called excited delirium, evident by aggressive, violent and confused behaviour.

“My concern is who is actually telling the officer how to use these things,” Kennedy said outside the conference. “Now police are doing their best. It’s a valid tool, but I’m not sure if it’s being taught as to when you recourse to it.”

A coroner’s inquest is underway in Vancouver over the death of a man who died after being zapped with a Taser. Police were trying to subdue him after he went on a violent rampage in a burning hotel’s washroom in Vancouver in June 2004.

In Alberta, a police officer is on trial in Edmonton for assault over the use of a Taser.

And in Ontario, a Chatham-Kent police officer faces assault charges after being accused of improperly using a Taser on a man who was being booked at police headquarters on July 6.