Weapon use down among Cobourg (Ontario) officers

March 2, 2011
By VALERIE MACDONALD, NORTHUMBERLAND TODAY

COBOURG -- Local police are using their hands more than their weapons when dealing with "resistant/assaultive" individuals, Cobourg's police service board members learned last week.

For the past two years no officers of the Cobourg Police Service have used conducted-energy weapons, commonly referred to as tasers, Police Chief Paul Sweet reported. Town police officers also didn't discharge their guns in the course of dealing with the public during 2009 and 2010, nor during the same two-year period did they use impact weapons referred to as batons, according to the annual Use of Force report the chief gave on Feb. 24 to the Cobourg Police Service Board.

A Use of Force report must be submitted by each officer when a firearm is drawn in public, is pointed at any person, when a weapon is used on another person, when a taser is pointed at someone or when physical force results in an injury requiring medical attention.

Intermediate weapons are the "most effective when dealing with actively resistant/assaultive subjects," Sweet's report states. Intermediate weapons mean physical activity such as an officer using his hands to choke, hold or restrain a person, Sweet explained during an interview. There were four reportable incidents in 2010 and three in 2009.

At the same time as the reported use of guns, tasers and batons has declined, the total number of use-of-force officer reports increased from 10 in 2009 to 13 in 2010. In addition, the number of suspects using weapons themselves during these incidents increased 40% between 2009 and 2010. There were two incidents of suspects using weapons in 2009 and six in 2010.

Five officers and 24 suspects sustained injuries in 2009, according to the use-of-force report, but last year there were no injuries at all.

Aerosol (pepper spray) wasn't used at all last year and only once the year before, according to the chief's report.

Police board delays new taser use policy

July 9, 2008
By Jennifer O'Meara, Northumberland News

COBOURG (Ontario) - A police Taser use policy from the Cobourg Police Services Board has been delayed. The board has decided it wants to look at establishing a policy regarding Taser use," said chairman Bryan Baxter. "We've deferred it because there are two or three studies underway."

The police board decided it needs a police policy on Taser use, after an April report on the state of Tasers in Canada from the Canadian Association of Police Boards.

The report recommended police boards work with the service's management staff to make sure training and policies are regularly updated with the latest information; ongoing monitoring is in place so those in charge of policy know how Tasers are being used; and those making the policy are kept up to date on medical research into in-custody deaths.

The board has decided to hold off on forming a Taser policy until several current Canadian studies are completed, especially the Ontario government report due this fall.

"We decided to defer it until we have the benefit of the provincial report," said Mr. Baxter.

Conducted energy devices (CED), or Tasers, are an electro-shock weapon used to stun someone from a distance. According to the report, the device has a great appeal to police because it can incapacitate subjects from a distance, limiting injuries to the officer and suspect. After several high profile deaths of suspects who were shocked, including the man who died immediately after being shocked in Vancouver's International Airport in late-2007, Taser use has become controversial.

Cobourg police senior officers do have a policy for Taser use, said Mr. Baxter. In the local police force, only Cobourg police sergeants and their second-in-command carry Tasers. All Cobourg officers who carry Tasers are retrained every year and have to re-qualify to carry the weapon.

A policy for Taser use and training is expected to come back to the Cobourg Police Service Board later this year.

"We thought it would be prudent to wait," said Mr. Baxter.

Police board to review local taser use

May 1, 2008
By Jennifer O'Meara, Northumberland News

COBOURG - The Cobourg Police Service Board is asking Acting Chief Paul Sweet to look into the police service's policy on Taser use, after a report on the state of Tasers in Canada from the Canadian Association of Police Boards came to the board.

"Reading this report it's obvious the board does have an oversight role to play in this issue," said police board member Greg Kay.

The report recommends police boards work with the service's management to make sure training and policies are regularly updated with the latest information; monitoring is good so those in charge of policy know how Tasers are being used; and those making the policy are keeping up to date on medical research into in-custody deaths.

Conducted Energy Devices (CED), or Tasers, are an electro-shock weapon used to stun someone from a distance. According to the report, the device has a great appeal to police because it can incapacitate subjects from a distance, limiting injuries to the officer and suspect. After several high profile deaths of suspects after being shocked, including the man who died immediately after being shocked in Vancouver's International Airport in late-2007, Taser use has become controversial.

In the local police force, only Cobourg police sergeants and their second-in-command carry Tasers, said Acting Deputy Chief Dave Cromlish.

All Cobourg officers who carry Tasers are retrained every year and have to re-qualify to carry the weapon, added Chief Sweet.

Tasers were first brought into the Cobourg police force at the end of 2006 and Deputy Chief Cromlish does not believe the new equipment was used that year. In 2007 officers used the Tasers twice and so far in 2008 police have used a Taser once, he added.

"No injuries have been reported," said Deputy Chief Cromlish.

Chief Sweet will bring more details on Taser policy and training by local police to the police board at the next board meeting on May 29.