RCMP to test uniform-mounted cameras

February 25, 2010
Tonda MacCharles, Toronto Star

OTTAWA–Get out of the car with your hands up. You're on candid camera.

Liberal senators recommended this week that individual Mounties be equipped with miniature, uniform-mounted video cameras to enhance "transparency" in the problem-plagued force.

Now, the Star has learned that at least 20 police departments and detachments across Canada are already using the devices.

The RCMP says officers in detachments in Kelowna, B.C., and Moncton, N.B., (Codiac region) have been fitted with the uniform-mounted cameras as part of a pilot project that is also testing Taser-mounted cameras, made by Arizona-based Taser International.

The six-month pilot project was launched in January using VIDMICs, the trademarked name of a body-worn video and audio-recording device, said RCMP spokesman Sgt. Greg Cox.

Magdy Rafla, of MD Charlton Co. Ltd., the Canadian sales representative for VIDMIC, said the device has also been bought by several Canadian municipal forces, military police and private security firms.

Rafla said the device, which costs $850, has been used by nightclub "bouncers" and "they love it."

In all, Rafla estimates 225 devices are in use, and if the RCMP testing approves them for wider distribution to its members, the force has told the company it would acquire them for all Mounties – in what would be a huge contract for the Victoria-based company.

"(The RCMP) are trying 10 of them right now across Canada. Once they go ahead, they'll be for every RCMP officer. ... That's the plan," Rafla said in a telephone interview from Victoria.

Rafla said other buyers include police forces in Provost, Alta., St. Albert, Alta., and Merritt, B.C., as well as the Department of National Defence. His client list also includes B.C. Ferries, Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital security services and some fire departments.

Taser International produces the Taser Cam, and a different ear-mounted video recording system, known as Axon, which looks like a Bluetooth device. That device can record 12 hours of video – in other words, a police officer's shift. But right now, the Axon contract requires the data to be downloaded to a central data storage facility in the U.S., said Rafla.

Using authorized software, the video/audio devices can be downloaded in a police cruiser onto a laptop, or onto a police department computer. It cannot be transmitted wirelessly. Individual police departments set their own guidelines.

Rafla said the very act of cautioning a suspect that "you're being recorded" gives an advantage that works both ways.

Mounties testing Taser video cams

February 17, 2010
Jim Bronskill, Canadian Press

OTTAWA — The Mounties are making some videos, and you don’t want to be in them.

RCMP officers in Kelowna, B.C., and Moncton, N.B., are testing two kinds of cameras that will record Taser firings during six-month field trials.

Included in the tests are the Taser Cam, an accessory for newer-model stun guns made by Taser International, supplier to the RCMP, and the VIDMIC, an audio-video recorder that attaches to an officer’s belt radio.

Field testing of the devices in the two communities was slated to begin in December, say internal briefing notes on the project obtained under the Access to Information Act.

Results from the trials will be analyzed to determine whether one or both of the devices are used more widely by the RCMP.

The tests come amid growing concern about police accountability on use of stun guns, which deliver a powerful jolt that incapacitates suspects.

An RCMP complaints commission report on the case of Robert Dziekanski — who died after being hit with an RCMP Taser at the Vancouver airport — said there would have been a clear benefit” to video footage capturing the events from the officers’ perspectives.

Complementing stun guns with recording devices may be beneficial because documenting incidents can make police more accountable, said Micheal Vonn, policy director of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association. However, an important factor will be what happens to the video and audio after they are recorded, she said.

There should be protocols to ensure the digital recordings cannot be tampered with and are readily made available to police watchdogs, she said.

“We see a lot of video go missing that complainants say would support their side of the story.”

Vonn noted that a public tussle ensued over an amateur videotape of the October 2007 confrontation involving Dziekanski. The tape was returned to traveller Paul Pritchard, who shot the video and loaned it to the RCMP, after he threatened to go to court.

The RCMP rented a total of 10 Taser Cams and 10 VIDMICS for the trials, say the notes.

Laboratory testing of the Taser Cams by MPB Technologies revealed that one was not functioning properly and that the battery could not be charged more than 20 per cent.

The notes indicate the lab tests also raised questions about the reliability of the Taser when the camera is attached. The camera comes with its own power supply that replaces the standard Taser power pack.

When the batteries were depleted to a level of 25 per cent with the camera in place, the Taser worked within tolerance 77 per cent of the time. When the same depletion test was done with the standard battery, the stun gun functioned within tolerance 92 per cent of the time.

The force believes six months is long enough to gather sufficient data and to see how the recording devices fare in cold weather and when officers are wearing winter gloves.

The RCMP didn’t respond today to questions about the status of the tests.

Taser hopes new products will reduce legal costs

August 3, 2009
Phoenix Business Journal - by Mike Sunnucks

Taser International Inc. is rolling out new technology and weapons that executives hope will reduce the company’s legal bills by as much as 50 percent and decrease Taser-related litigation against its police customers.

On July 27, Taser CEO Rick Smith and Chairman Tom Smith unveiled the Axon tactical computer system, which features a “headcam” the size of a Bluetooth earphone. The device can be worn by police officers and operates much like the cameras mounted on police cars.

The Axon system, which will be field-tested and rolled out later this year, includes audio and video recording technology and links to a new data- and evidence-management system, Evidence.com, which Taser also is launching.

The Smith brothers said the systems allow police to track Taser use better and will give an accurate view of incidents, taking away the “he said, she said” scenarios that accompany wrongful-death and police-abuse lawsuits.

Tom Smith said the Scottsdale stun-gun manufacturer could see its litigation discovery costs cut in half because police will have video and audio of incidents. Taser would not disclose how much it pays in legal fees each year.

“The more data we can supply about what actually happened, the better off we will be,” Rick Smith said. “The new audio-video records should dismiss many of the false allegations right up front. For those that go to trial, the costs of discovery will be greatly diminished as there will be an indisputable record of events, rather than conflicting testimony.”

Taser and police have faced numerous lawsuits related to Taser use, including wrongful-death suits brought by families of those who have died after being tased. The company was the subject of 42 lawsuits during the first quarter, according to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

More than 330 people have died after being tased by police in the U.S. since June 2001, according to Amnesty International.

Terry Cushing, a litigation attorney with Jennings Strouss & Salmon PLC, agreed that video evidence reduces discovery costs and can help avoid trials and unnecessary lawsuits. However, he said video and audio evidence will cut both ways for Taser if lawsuits go to trial.

“This type of reliable evidence may work both for and against Taser. A video, for example, may tap into the jurors’ raw emotions and may give the appearance that the use of a Taser is either dangerous or an exertion of force that is too great for the given circumstances,” Cushing said. “Alternatively, a video may reveal the very reason why law enforcement’s use of a Taser adhered to protocol or was appropriate under the circumstances. ... These powerful images may quickly sway jurors in one direction or another.”

Rick Smith said that while the company sells its products to more than 14,000 police departments and agencies, fewer than 150 have been sued over Taser use.

“We get the lawsuits dismissed because the science is on our side. That’s the short answer,” he said. “We don’t settle cases, either. We believe in standing up for what is right, and the strategy is working.”

During a second-quarter earnings call, Rick Smith said 91 cases against Taser have been dismissed.

Taser has been largely successful in having lawsuits against it dismissed, but in 2008 a California jury sided with the family of a man who died after being tased by police. The jury originally awarded his family $5.2 million in punitive damages plus $1.7 million in attorney fees and other damages. Taser is appealing that decision, and the $5.2 million punitive award has been tossed out.

Taser also has been in legal battles against competitors and other companies, including patent cases against rival Stinger Systems Inc. Officials at Tampa, Fla.-based Stinger did not respond to a request for comment.

The Smith brothers also showed off Taser’s new X3 stun gun at the company’s annual conference this week in Fountain Hills. The X3 allows police to take three shots without reloading and carries less of an electrical charge than its predecessor, the X26 single-shot model.

The X3 emits 63 micro-coulombs — a measure of electrical current — compared with 110 micro-coulombs from the X26. The X3 also emits a more intimidating warning charge that those about to be tased can see.

The Smiths said the warning charge should result in police having to use stun guns less often.

Howard Hyde

My heart breaks anew. Today, I received the following message from the sister of Howard Hyde, along with her permission to post it here:

"I am writing to you immediately following the hearing of the audio of the tape, for the first time, of my brother Howard Hyde getting tasered by the Halifax Regional Police. It was horrifying. That is the only description I can come up with, other than I feel that it is evidence of police brutality."