Taser expert: Rules bar stunning cops during training

April 21, 2009
The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER — A police Taser expert who analyzed the unit used on Robert Dziekanski says his department no longer uses the electric stun guns on its own officers in training.

Const. Craig Baltzer of the Delta police force told the public inquiry into Dziekanski’s death at Vancouver airport that he himself has been stunned multiple times but WorkSafe BC rules now forbid demonstrating the weapons on officers during training.

The inquiry has heard that the Taser was deployed five times the night four RCMP officers confronted Dziekanski in October 2007.

The RCMP officer who fired it has testified he deployed it several times because it didn’t appear to be working properly.

Baltzer earlier told the inquiry that he cannot tell how many times the shocks connected with Dzkiekanski.

Baltzer says he believed WorkSafe BC, the province’s workplace regulator, has had a rule in place forbidding the use of Tasers on officers for about three years.