Saskatchewan Police Commission to review research on Tasers
October 31, 2009
Regina Leader-Post
REGINA — The Saskatchewan Police Commission is expected to meet in December to review its research on Tasers as a use-of-force option for front-line police.
“The work that we are doing by way of research — pulling materials together — will be taken to the commission in December. They will then review that and make some decisions on how they will move forward on approval or not approval of the usage of Tasers,’’ said commission executive director Murray Sawatsky.
In July of 2008, the commission, which oversees and regulates the province’s 14 municipal and First Nation police forces, placed a moratorium on the general use of CEDs by front-line officers in response to the controversies surrounding several high-profile Taser-related deaths and the lack of technical and medical information tied to their usage.
The commission, which has been tasked with developing policy and protocol on the usage of the conducted energy devices (CEDs), is expected to make its decision by the end of the year or early 2010.
Currently, under existing rules Tasers can only be utilized by special weapons and tactics team (SWAT) members in Saskatchewan.
As part of its research, the commission will be examining the recommendations in the Braidwood Report, which was released in July and setting up stringent standards for the use of CEDs by British Columbia police, and will be looking at independent medical information and submissions by interested parties.
1 comment:
They should not only "review the research", they should carefully consider the gap between what Taser International claims and what has been concluded by everyone else (Braidwood Inquiry, Amnesty International, American Medical Association, ACLU, UN, RCMP, and many more).
And they should consider the relatively high rate of failure, both due to poor QA and due to operational realities. What other policing weapon gets away with such random results?
It would be an oversimplification to the point of being incorrect to determine that the taser "...is just another policing tool.". It clearly isn't. It is a dangerous and potentially-deadly weapon being marketed by a company that claims it is essentially safe. That single fact is sufficient to disqualify the company and its products from consideration.
Post a Comment