Parents tell Taser inquest they hope son's death will bring change

July 19, 2013
Diana Mehta, The Canadian Press

MIDHURST, Ont. -- There's no doubt Aron Firman's death moments after he was Tasered by police was tragic -- all parties at the inquest examining the case of the mentally ill Ontario man agreed on that point.

But just how much of a role the electric stun gun played in the 27-year-old's death was the subject of much contention Friday before a jury retired to deliberate what's been described by Ontario's top pathologist as an "index case."

"There's clearly controversy around this case...specifically around the cause and manner of Mr. Firman's death," presiding coroner William Lucas said in his charge to the jury.

"The circumstances of the death of Mr. Firman have raised some questions."

Firman, a man with schizophrenia, died in June 2010 after an encounter with Ontario Provincial Police in Collingwood, Ont. Ontario's police watchdog cleared the officers of any wrongdoing, but said the Taser's deployment caused Firman's death.

Lucas suggested there were two possible ways to characterize Firman's cause of death -- "accidental," as Firman's family has suggested, or "undetermined," as Taser International has argued.

As he urged the jury to weigh all the evidence and testimony that has come before them, he warned the five-member panel not to resort to an "undetermined" cause of death as a matter of convenience.

"Finding a manner of death of "undetermined" should not be used simply as a means to avoid having to reach a conclusion which may be unpopular," he said.

The inquest, which has been sitting intermittently since April, has heard vastly different testimony from experts. Some have suggested that the use of a Taser on Firman was a key factor in his death. Others argued the stun gun had little to do with the fatality.

Firman's parents, who have maintained that their son would be alive if it hadn't been for the Taser, said they wanted his death to be a catalyst for change.

"I hope with all my heart that Aron's death will not be for nothing," father Marcus Firman said as he choked back tears. "My hope would be to come away from the inquest with a vision on how to go forward with dealing with mental illness."

Aron Firman was described by his father as a gentle, artistic and inquisitive man who was keenly aware of his "terrible illness." Both parents said their son's loss had left an aching void in their lives.

The lawyer for the Firman family suggested the jury deem Firman's death an accidental one in which the Taser was an important factor.

His argument was based largely on previous testimony from Dr. Michael Pollanen, Ontario's chief pathologist, who conducted Firman's autopsy and found the Taser was the "most immediate factor" in his death.

"If you find that the Taser was related in that death...the world will not end," lawyer Sunil Mathai told the jury.

"If you make that finding, you're not standing alone on that. You're standing with the chief pathologist of Ontario -- a man recognized worldwide as a leader in pathology."

Mathai also assured the jury that Firman's family was not seeking an eradication of Tasers.

"The family takes the position that Tasers have proper place in policing," he said. "This is not a Spanish Inquisition into Tasers. We are not seeking to remove them."

Meanwhile, the lawyer representing Taser International has suggested Firman could have died from cardiac arrhythmia brought on by "excited delirium" -- a condition sometimes cited as a cause of death in people using cocaine or those with severe mental illness.

David Neave urged the jury to label the cause of Firman's death as "undetermined."

"The preponderance of the evidence that is now before the jury is that the Taser played no role in his death," Neave told The Canadian Press outside the inquest.

"I don't think it's an index case...This case is not about Taser discharge. This case is quite frankly about the state of excited delirium that Mr. Firman was in and the medical conditions or medical changes that that syndrome causes."

The jury is now considering how it can characterize Firman's death and may put forward recommendations on what can be done to prevent similar deaths in the future. It is expected to return with a verdict next week.

The use of Tasers by police has come under increased scrutiny over the years, particularly in the high-profile death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, who died after he was Tasered several times during an altercation with RCMP officers at Vancouver's airport in 2007.

A public inquiry into Dziekanski's death has said multiple deployments of the Taser along with a physical altercation contributed to the circumstances that lead to Dziekanski's heart attack. The BC Coroners Service agreed with the conclusions of the inquiry.

Dziekanski's death led to a number of recommendations, which were implemented by all police officers working in British Columbia, including the RCMP. They included getting better training on Tasers, using the weapons only if there's a danger a suspect will cause bodily harm, and training officers in crisis management.

Firman's family made similar suggestions in 21 recommendations submitted to the jury on Friday.

They included asking the jury to recommend that Ontario Provincial Police provide annual, mandatory crisis intervention and resolution training, which would have input from mental health professionals and those with mental-health issues, and that the province appoint a co-ordinator for implementation of that training.

The family also wants the jury to recommend the OPP revise its use-of-force policy for conducted energy weapons so an officer is prohibited from using one unless satisfied that de-escalation or crisis intervention techniques haven't worked and no option involving less force will work to eliminate the risk of someone getting hurt.

Toronto police call for public debate/broader public discussion on arming more officers with Tasers

April 20, 2012
Natalie Alcoba, Postmedia News

TORONTO — Toronto police Chief Bill Blair is calling for a public debate about equipping officers responding to situations involving emotionally disturbed people with Tasers.

The chief made his comments following a police services board meeting Thursday in which residents, activists and people who have suffered from mental illnesses pleaded for changes to the way officers handle such incidents.

The death of Michael Eligon, who was shot by Toronto police after leaving the psychiatric ward of Toronto East General Hospital, has roused public outrage — to the point where one physician said she will now think twice about calling officers for someone in an agitated state.

Eligon, 29, was carrying two pairs of scissors at the time of the shooting in February.

"I can't say with some certainty — or any certainty — that Taser was the answer (in the Eligon case), I don't know," Blair said. "But I think it's worthwhile to have the broader public discussion about the use of conductive energy devices" or any technology that "would enable us to resolve these very difficult, very dangerous situations, as safely as possible."

Peter Cuthbert, executive director of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, said he's in favour of such a debate taking place.

"The CACP would welcome the opportunity to participate in that discussion," he said.

Cuthbert declined to comment on the operational policy of a specific police force, and said the organization would have its committee debate the issue before going public with a position on the matter.

In Toronto, only tactical officers and supervisors are equipped with Tasers. Cuthbert said the policy is similar for most police forces across the country.

An investigation into the death of Eligon, who had been roaming the neighbourhood in a hospital gown, socks and a toque, cleared the officer of any wrongdoing, but a coroner's inquest has since been called.

Police reported that of the two million calls officers responded to last year, 17,000 were for emotionally distressed people.

In all, 6,664 people were apprehended under the Mental Health Act.

The topic of Tasers did not come up during Thursday's board meeting. Speakers mainly called on Toronto police to move away from a "control" approach to one that "de-escalates" the situation and demanded better training.

Former Toronto mayor John Sewell, head of the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition, also urged police to expand its mobile crisis intervention teams, which pair nurses with police, so that they operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, instead of just part-time and in select divisions.

"Toronto police need to pay more than just lip service to de-escalation," said Douglas Pritchard, a witness to the shooting of Eligon, who has joined a group called Never Again. "Why are people still dying in Toronto for lack of appropriate crisis response?"

The board asked Blair to report back on recommendations by a mental-health subcommittee, and to review procedures used to respond to incidents involving the mentally ill.

Let Toronto cops carry tasers, deputy chief urges

January 10, 2012
Carys Mills, Globe and Mail

Front-line officers in Toronto should be allowed to carry tasers but provincial regulations prohibit them from doing so, said Deputy Chief Michael Federico in response to questions about how police respond to mentally ill people in crisis.

On Thursday, the Toronto police held a rare demonstration of how they are trained to deal with such situations. The news conference at the police college came less than a week after a man carrying two pairs of scissors and wearing a hospital gown was fatally shot on a street during an altercation with police. Police say they aren’t permitted to discuss that incident while it is being investigated by the Special Investigations Unit.

Tasers are an option all trained officers should have, Deputy Chief Federico said in an interview, but Ontario regulations set out that only supervisors and specialized units can carry them.

There’s a supervisor on the road during every shift, the Deputy Chief said. “Police officers are not completely without access to a [taser]. But again, situations may unfold too quickly for a supervisor to arrive.”

Tasers, conducted energy weapons, have been under scrutiny since the death of Robert Dziekanski after he was tasered five times at the Vancouver airport in 2007. But in some jurisdictions outside of Ontario, they are a non-lethal option for front-line police when a situation calls for use of force.

“We ought to equip our officers with all of the options that will help make a situation safe,” Deputy Chief Federico said. “That includes knowledge and skills and equipment.”

A spokesman for the ministry in charge of policing said in an e-mail that there are no plans to change regulations “because the current use of force regulations meet Ontario’s public safety needs.”

The RCMP, a federal force, allows front-line officers throughout the country to carry tasers as long as they have taken the appropriate training and meet other requirements. “We don’t discriminate between ranks,” said Corporal David Falls.

Regulations have been beefed up in British Columbia since Mr. Dziekanski’s death. Front-line police can still carry the weapons there as long as officers meet provincial standards.

Pat Capponi, a psychiatric survivor who co-chairs a mental health sub-committee of Toronto’s police board, said she’s unsure about broadening the use of tasers because of fatal incidents such as the one involving Mr. Dziekanski.

She said that whenever a mentally ill person is injured in a confrontation with police, it sends shock waves through the community of those with mental health histories. “That’s the feeling, we have nowhere to go if we’re in trouble,” Ms. Capponi said. She added she’s encouraged by the training she’s seeing of first responders in Toronto.

Following the deaths of two people – one disabled, and the other bipolar – last year, critics said Toronto police were not equipped to differentiate between a criminal threat and one originating from mental illness. The officers involved in both incidents were cleared by the SIU.

Deputy Chief Federico said all Toronto officers are guaranteed mental health training each year when they have two days of use-of-force training. Additional training varies by specific job and the year, he said.

Other police forces in Canada go further, offering officers week-long training specifically focused on dealing with the mentally ill. It’s a program that was developed in Memphis, Tenn., that has had success in several cities in the U.S., and was recently adopted by York Region police.

Deputy Chief Federico said Toronto police aren’t considering adopting the Memphis training model.

“Forty hours is a whole week of a police officer’s time off the front line,” he said. “I have to … make sure my police officers are on the road, delivering the service.”

As part of their response, Toronto police have teams of officers and nurses that respond to people in crisis, but because of potential danger, they only arrive after the first responders. These teams are not available in every division and have limited hours.

Smart move; EDITORIAL: Deputizing mental health professionals saves lives

August 29, 2011
Houston Chronicle
When law enforcement and mental illness collide, the results are often painful for both sides. Nationally, more than a half-million people with mental illness are behind bars. These unfortunate folks are often jailed for nonviolent offenses.
Even worse, sometimes the results are tragic, as in the local case of Steven Hayes, who died this June when Nassau Bay police shocked him three times with a Taser because he was shouting and pounding on a table. Hayes was bipolar, according to his family, who said he had never before been violent.
This is the sort of incident that makes us glad to see the recent decision of Harris County Commissioners Court to launch the Crisis Intervention Response Team (CIRT) program, which will introduce mental health professionals into the law-enforcement equation. The county plan, called for by Sheriff Adrian Garcia, is modeled on the Houston Police Department program in which mental health workers are deputized to ride with police officers. These mental health deputies take charge when responding to situations involving people with mental health issues.
As reported by the Chronicle's James Pinkerton and Mike Morris ("A plan to treat - not jail - the mentally ill," Page B1, Aug. 22), fewer than one percent of the people that HPD's CIRT teams encounter wind up in jail. Many incidents are dealt with at the scene, and around a third of the people go on to receive medical treatment, which the jails are obviously hard-pressed to deliver. These kinds of outcomes will now be possible outside the Houston city limits.
People who need help will get it, and the county will save money. Sheriff Garcia calculates savings of over $2 million annually in jail operations alone. And jail overcrowding will be eased. Unfortunately for Professor Edward Hayes of UH-Clear Lake, this new program comes too late to save his brother Steven's life. But Hayes supports the program: "I'm almost certain that had our law enforcement in Nassau Bay had such a team with them, my brother would be alive today."
Those are sobering words, which make us all the more grateful for the county's new program.

EDITORIAL: Trailblazing on tasers

June 15, 2011
The Halifax Chronicle

THREE years ago, a mentally ill man died in custody 30 hours after being Tasered at an HRM police station. Howard Hyde’s heart stopped and he had to be revived. The subsequent inquiry determined that it was a restraint hold — properly applied a day later by correctional officers — which caused his heart to stop forever.

Mr. Hyde’s death could have been avoided if he had been handled differently at every turn. Many Nova Scotians still suspect the Tasering was a contributing factor.

Ironically, they might be surprised to hear that many Quebecers were left wondering last week why Montreal police didn’t Taser a mentally ill man who allegedly charged them with a knife. Tragically, the suspect was shot dead instead, and an innocent bystander was killed in the crossfire.

We do not yet know the answers to these questions. If the officers believed they were in immediate, mortal danger, they would not have reached for a (generally) non-lethal weapon. Most likely, they were not armed with Tasers anyway — the Montreal force only has 42 stun guns on hand, compared to Toronto’s 700.

The use of Tasers, especially on emotionally disturbed people, is an emotional issue. But last week, Nova Scotia contributed something useful to the debate: the voice of reason.

In becoming the first province to clarify the rules of engagement in such circumstances, Justice Minister Ross Landry has found the right balance and created a model for other jurisdictions to follow.

We agree with Nova Scotia’s new guidelines that law enforcement officers should consider whether an agitated person is mentally ill and do everything in their power to de-escalate a confrontation, before deploying a stun gun.

We further agree with the precaution — although it’s not always practical — of calling paramedics to the scene before making the call to Taser a medically precarious or disturbed individual.

Most important, police as well as correctional and sheriff’s officers in Nova Scotia will be better trained to recognize signs of a mental illness.

The Hyde inquiry made the salient point that the jail guards didn’t know how to de-escalate confrontations. Better training is certainly the key to enforcing this province’s policy of minimizing harm to the mentally ill.

Councillors back crisis intervention team concept

June 9, 2011
By MORGAN IAN ADAMS, Enterprise-Bulletin

COLLINGWOOD -- Councillors have gotten behind the push to create team to deal with individuals in crisis.

The idea was presented to the town's police services board in January by Marcus Firman, whose son, Aron, was killed in a confrontation with police last June.

Aron Firman died after he was hit with a conductive energy weapon, commonly referred to as a Taser, after OPP officers were sent to a St. Marie Street group home to deal with a domestic disturbance.

Firman, who was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, attempted to flee when he was told he was going to be taken into custody. In doing so, Firman struck an officer ; when it appeared he was advancing on another officer, that officer discharged the Taser on the 27-year-old man.

Firman died at the scene of cardiac arrythmia brought on by the use of the weapon on an individual in an agitated state, according to the coroner.

The province's Special Investigations Unit has cleared the subject officer of any wrongdoing, though SIU director Ian Scott has pointed the blame for Firman's death on the use of the Taser.

Aron Firman's father, Marcus, says his son's death would not have happened had the OPP a mobile crisis intervention team in place.

The crisis team proposed by Marcus Firman is similar to what has been put in place in other jurisdictions such as Toronto and Hamilton; the Toronto Police Service created such a team in the wake of a coroner's inquest into the death of Edmund Yu, a mentally-ill man shot and killed by Toronto police officers in 1997. The team would most likely consist of a mental health nurse and a plainclothes police officer, who would also preferably be unarmed.

The team could be called out to de-escalate situations where police have been called to an incident involving a person in crisis.

On Monday night, Collingwood councillors threw their unanimous support to petition the province to establish a provincial team, or consider a funding model that would allow health organizations and police services to establish local or regional crisis intervention teams.

Marcus Firman applauded council's decision.

"I think it's great that the council is being proactive in supporting the police services board in this initiative," he said. "It's the right thing to do.

"In 18 days time (June 24), it will be the one-year anniversary of Aron's death, and for sure that death would not have happened if there had been a crisis intervention unit in place at the time.

Firman is expecting the coroner to announce an inquest into his son's death -- though when that announcement could occur is anyone's guess; coroner's inquests are typically called when an individual dies in police custody.

"No doubt, in my mind, that the inquest would recommend the institution of an intervention unit," said Firman. "I think council is doing what they can with the province and the OPP to try and move (the concept of an intervention team) forward.

Remembering Aron Firman

Please see April 27 is Aron Firman’s birthday

More thought, less force - Cops defend Tasers; mental-health official has doubts

March 21, 2011
Gabrielle Giroday, Winnipeg Free Press

Local police used their Tasers some 61 times last year, according to a record obtained by the Free Press.

More than three years after Robert Dziekanski died after RCMP officers stunned him in a Vancouver airport, the use of the weapon is still under scrutiny.

Police say stun guns help officers save lives, but Nicole Chammartin, the Canadian Mental Health Association's Winnipeg region executive director, says she's concerned police can improperly turn to stun guns instead of other crisis-intervention techniques.

She'd like to see more training of police in non-violent crisis-intervention techniques instead of using Tasers.

"In the past, I think the police services had to use their heads a lot more in terms of how to intervene and how to use communication skills, and I think more and more, we're seeing less of that and more use of Tasers and other levels of force," she said.

The Winnipeg Police Service has about 203 Taser X26s, according to a record obtained through a Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) request.

RCMP D Division also has 237 stun guns, called "conducted-energy weapons," or CEWs, according to figures provided last week by the Mounties.

Chammartin said people with mental-health issues are more likely to encounter stigmas and are more likely to deal with police.

"Because (Tasers) are seen as non-lethal, our concern would be that the police are going to, in their busy lives, start to more and more rely on that, as opposed to standard non-violent crisis techniques," she said.

Sgt. Jason Anderson of the Winnipeg Police Service said Tasers are used in a "minute" amount of calls. He estimated about 160 Tasers are available for officers to use and about 40 are in for servicing, training purposes, independent testing or repairs.

"A Taser offers some significant tactical advantages for us that we don't necessarily have with our other weapons," Anderson said.

"So if we didn't have a Taser, that tactical advantage is taken away from us, and I would guess that we would see a significant increase in injuries to officers, bad guys, and just the regular public.

"I have no doubt in my mind that without a Taser, there are some incidents that might end even in death without the Taser there."

Anderson said that for officers, "our first option is always talking.

"These incidents happen so fast, so the goal with the Taser and any of our weapons is to get the situation dealt with as quickly as possible, trying to minimize the risk of injury to everybody," he said.

The Taser issue will come under further scrutiny after an inquest is held into the death of a Winnipeg teenager after he was stunned in a William Avenue back alley.

The family of 17-year-old Michael Langan has filed a lawsuit against members of the Winnipeg Police Service and Taser International in regard to his death in July 2008 after he was stunned by police pursuing him.

An autopsy report said Langan died of "cardiac arrhythmia (ventricular fibrillation) due to deployment of electronic control device," but noted Langan had a heart abnormality that contributed to his death, as did running from police. Police said they warned Langan repeatedly to put down a knife he was brandishing. Taser International filed a statement of defence that strongly rejected his death was due to their product.

How often are police using Tasers?

2011
Police have used Tasers six times so far this year (as of Feb. 14)

2010
Police dispatched to 162,678 calls for service, used Tasers 61 times2009
Police dispatched to 162,394 calls for service, used Tasers 73 times 2008
Police dispatched to 154,097 calls for service, used Tasers 68 times

Father calls for OPP crisis team

January 19, 2011
By QMI AGENCY

COLLINGWOOD -- The father of a man who died after being Tasered by a Collingwood OPP officer wants to see the detachment create a team to deal with people in crisis.

Aron Firman, 27, died last June after an officer sent to investigate a disturbance call used a Taser on him.

Firman was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic.

His father, Marcus, says his son's death would not have happened had the OPP had a mobile crisis intervention team in place.

On Monday, he and solicitor Julian Falconer pitched the idea of a team to the Collingwood Police Services Board. The board accepted the recommendation in principle and will see whether the idea could work.

"It's baby steps, and putting in place (what's needed) to make it happen," Firman said after his deputation to the board. "It's better to be proactive than reactive, because if they're reactive, then what's the risk and liability of not doing something?

"This is not about guilt, this is about putting something in place to protect the most vulnerable people."

The concept presented to the board would be to have a two-person team, one a plainclothes officer, and the other a mental health nurse. The team could be called out to de-escalate situations where police have been called to an incident involving a person in crisis.

Firman pointed to the crisis intervention team created by the Toronto Police Service as a result of the Edmund Yu inquest -- Yu was a mentally-ill man shot to death by police on a TTC bus in 1997 -- that dealt with more than 300 cases in 2010, "all of which were resolved without the use of violence."

Firman also asked the police services board to approach the G&M Hospital to participate.

Falconer, who has been hired by the family to represent them at any future inquest, and has worked on behalf of other families in similar circumstances, told the board the need to implement the team is "a human need to prevent future tragedies."

He also pointed to the deaths of two other individuals -- Doug Minty and Levi Schaeffer -- that occurred around the same time as Aron Firman's, "and each one suffered from a mental disability."

None were criminals, said Falconer, and died as a result of "a misperception of what was happening," because of their disabilities.

In the Firman case, the province's Special Investigations Unit found there weren't grounds to charge the officer who used the Taser and the use of the device was justified by the situation.

"This is not a one-off, this is not a fluke," said Falconer. "You have the opportunity to make an important change. This is not about doing battle (legally), but about an opportunity to institute a change.

"Had the mobile crisis team been available (for Aron Firman), it would have made a tremendous difference," he said. "We ask a lot of our police, but they don't sign up to be counsellors or psychiatrists -their primary focus is to enforce the law... and expecting them to (get involved) in complicated matters when they're not specialized is unrealistic."

Board chairman Paul Montgomery noted the pair "made a compelling case in principle . . . (but) implementation is another question.

"Obviously it's a good idea; I just don't know whether or not it would be possible."

The municipality might have to review its contract with the OPP.

"It deserves an examination," added Collingwood OPP detachment commander John Trude.

EDITORIAL: Homeless, possibly mentally ill, shot dead

A tragic and terribly familiar path leads to another fatal shooting by Portland police

Here we go again. Investigators, the news media, the public will scrutinize every second, every choice, every move made by the two Portland police officers who shot dead a homeless man who apparently came at them with a knife Sunday afternoon.

All the focus, all the questions will be about the last moments of the man's life. Why didn't he follow their commands to drop the knife? Why didn't the Taser fired by police stop him? Did police have no other choice but to use lethal force? Why the four-hour delay in reporting the shooting to the public?

Of course, those questions need to be pursued. However, by now, after all the recent police shootings involving people on the street who had suffered from mental illness, Portlanders ought to know that focusing solely on the police response -- their training, their procedures, their decision-making -- only takes a community so far.

And it's not far enough.

Why not widen the lens, consider the years, months, days, minutes, before the officers confronted the homeless man at the abandoned carwash in Southeast Portland and pose hard questions too seldom asked: Why was he living on the streets? How long had he been homeless? Did social service agencies have prior contact with him? What was done, if anything, to find housing for him? Did he suffer from a mental illness? If so, had his illness ever been diagnosed or treated? Was he on medication? Was he taking it?

Moreover, what led him to twice threaten to kill a security guard at a business near the carwash? Had he ever made violent threats before? What set him off? What, if anything, did social workers, mental health professionals, anyone with any public agency, know about him? What had they done in response?

Again, this is not an argument against police accountability and thorough scrutiny of every police shooting. Rather, it is an acknowledgement that such tragic shootings will continue as long as Portland requires its police force to be the one -- and too often only -- response to the people that all of us see wandering the streets with untreated illnesses.

Sunday's shooting reminded us of a conversation we had with Police Chief Mike Reese shortly after his appointment to lead the Police Bureau last year. Reese talked about transforming police training from a "fear-based model" to one founded on "competency and confidence," where a mentally ill man isn't treated like a bank robber. He also pledged to continue a pilot program in which an officer is paired with a mental health care crisis worker to locate and get help to people who may have fallen through the mental health system or are off their medication.

Reese also described driving downtown with his wife and discovering a man standing in the middle of a street raging at the trees in the Park Blocks. "Give him a lot of room," he advised his wife, who was driving.

And that, in one sentence, describes what this city, what all of us, have too often done with the homeless and mentally ill. We keep our distance, we give them a whole city of room, until something snaps, a threat is made, a weapon is displayed.

And then we send in the police to confront them and their illness.

There has to be a better way.

No Tasers, no rise in Rockford (Illinois) police injuries

December 31, 2010
Chris Green, Rockford Register Star

ROCKFORD — When Rockford police officers began carrying Taser guns, advocates touted the less-than-lethal weapons as a means to reduce physical confrontations between officers and offenders.

But the Tasers were taken away in October 2009 after the manufacturer issued a nationwide warning advising against shooting someone in the chest. The bulletin said it opens the officer, the agency and TASER International to liability if heart damage, such as sudden cardiac arrest, or death occurs.

Critics predicted a spike in the number of injuries to officers as offenders, without the threat of a Taser, resisted arrest.

Fourteen months later, that has not been the case for Rockford officers.

In fact, charges of resisting and obstructing an officer have decreased each year since 2008 when 823 such incidents were recorded, followed by 440 in 2009 and 313 as of Dec. 1, 2010. The same downward trend was evident in cases of aggravated battery to a police officer: 75 in 2008, 58 in 2009, and 56 as of Dec. 1.

In a year that saw more than 160 deaths of on-duty law enforcement officers nationwide — compared with 117 in 2009 — Taserless Rockford officers have for the most part managed to stay safe.

Deputy Chief Greg Lindmark said Rockford officers are armed with something just as useful as a Taser and their service weapon, and that’s additional training on how to defuse a potentially volatile situation.

“Our Crisis Intervention Team has been called out 13 times this year,” he said. “That’s more than we’ve ever had.”

Deputy Chief Lori Sweeney also said every officer in the department this year has undergone at least eight hours of crisis intervention training.

“Good communication skills are key,” she said. “The first resource should be communications, and you work your way up the levels of use of force until you get the compliance that you need.”

Sweeney said basic CIT training entails teaching officers verbal skills and techniques to gain compliance, and how to be aware of a person’s behavior and any signs that may suggest mental illness and homelessness.

However, verbal commands are not always going to be the appropriate initial response by an officer.

“It’s the suspect’s actions that will create a reaction from an officer,” Sweeney said. “Sometimes the situation is so that you are automatically at deadly force.”

As of Dec. 30, deadly force was something Rockford officers did without in 2010. The last time officers used deadly force was the shooting of Mark Anthony Barmore in August 2009 inside a downtown day care center.

“The Barmore case did open up a lot of communications and awareness (between police and the community) to try to understand what happened,” Sweeney said.

In 2008, deadly force was not used, but that summer three people died after altercations with police: One, a Loves Park case, involved physical restraint and pepper spray; the other two cases involved the use of Taser guns.

In 2007, Rockford police used deadly force four times; three of the scenarios resulted in the death of a suspect.

While the use of Tasers is still being scrutinized as is TASER International’s request that the guns be fired at someone’s back or other parts of the body other than the chest, Sweeney said the weapons are still another viable option that officers should have to subdue a subject.

“We’ve been working with our city legal and union about the prospects of reissuing them,” she said.

Major recommendations from inquiry report into death of Howard Hyde

December 8, 2010
Charlottetown Guardian

HALIFAX - Major recommendations contained in the Nova Scotia fatality inquiry report into the death of Howard Hyde:

Stun guns should not be applied to people in a state of agitation due to an emotional or psychological disturbance except as a last resort once it has been determined that crisis intervention and de-escalation techniques have not worked.

The province's Justice Department should overhaul the manual it uses for stun gun training to significantly reduce, if not eliminate, the reliance on Taser International resource materials.

Crisis intervention training should be provided to all correctional officers at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility.

Video surveillance cameras should be installed in health care segregation cells to ensure that correctional officers are able to more readily identify that a prisoner is in crisis.

Training should improve for front-line police officers, correctional officers and physicians on a variety of fronts, from note-taking to the preparation of health information transfer forms.

The province's justice minister should conduct an annual review on the implementation of these recommendations.

Braidwood commission lawyers refute Taser challenge

July 9, 2010
The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER — Lawyers for the B.C. government say weapon's maker Taser International's legal action against its commission is baseless and an abuse of process.

In a written submission to the court, government lawyer Craig Jones, says Taser is "manipulating the courts" by saying its stun gun holds no risk of death in Canada, while asserting the reverse in the United States.

Taser wants a B.C. Supreme Court judge throw out the part of Commissioner Thomas Braidwood's report that concludes the weapons can kill.

Braidwood's inquiry was called in the months after Robert Dziekanski was jolted by an RCMP Taser and died on the floor of the Vancouver airport.

Lawyers for the Arizona-based company and province wrapped their arguments Friday before Judge Robert Sewell, who reserved his ruling without giving a date for his decision.

Tasers shouldn't be used on mentally ill: inquiry

June 9, 2010
CTV

HALIFAX — Tasers should not be used to restrain people known to be suffering from a mental illness or showing signs of emotional disturbance, the lead counsel for an inquiry into the death of a schizophrenic Nova Scotia man recommended Tuesday as the probe drew to a close.

Dan MacRury, in his closing submission, said the inquiry heard expert evidence that Howard Hyde's death in a Halifax-area jail cell on Nov. 22, 2007, was not linked to the repeated jolts he received from a stun gun while in police custody 30 hours earlier.

However, MacRury said a decision by Halifax police to repeatedly use a Taser on Hyde when he tried to flee a downtown police station only served to enrage a man who needed psychiatric treatment instead of incarceration.

"The use of the Taser on Mr. Hyde had the opposite effect than the officers had anticipated," MacRury told the inquiry, noting that police were told by Hyde's common-law wife that he was suffering a psychotic episode and had not been taking his medication for months when he allegedly assaulted her.

"The Taser, rather than being a debilitating influence, escalated the level of agitation, strength and mental disturbance of Mr. Hyde."

The inquiry, which started last July, heard that Hyde's sudden burst of strength could be attributed to a condition known as autonomic hyperarousal or excited delirium.

The condition is characterized by several traits, including incoherence, paranoia and suddenly intense, violent behaviour marked by profuse sweating and an elevated heart rate. In some cases, individuals die suddenly. Researchers have yet to determine why this happens.

In Hyde's case, police testified that they believed his heart stopped when he was eventually tackled and restrained in a hallway of the station.

Hyde, a 45-year-old musician, was revived by paramedics and later taken to hospital where he was given anti-psychotic medication. But he was released several hours later on the condition he get psychiatric help once he appeared before a judge.

But that never happened.

He died the next day as guards at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility wrestled him to the ground after he refused to walk down a hallway, saying he thought there were "demons" at the other end.

The medical examiner ruled that the cause of Hyde's death was excited delirium due to paranoid schizophrenia with three contributing factors: restraint, obesity and heart disease.

MacRury said police in Nova Scotia should be told to stop using Tasers on mentally ill people, or those showing symptoms, because of the increased risk of serious injury and death, particularly for those in a state of excited delirium.

The recommendation was one of 62 MacRury submitted to the inquiry.

"The evidence is clear: crisis intervention techniques do work and the application of Tasers do not," MacRury said.

However, the lawyer representing Nova Scotia's attorney general said the provincial government can't support MacRury's recommendation.

Dana MacKenzie said that police, sheriffs and corrections officers would be put in the awkward position of having to guess whether or not a threatening person is mentally ill.

"It would be incredibly difficult to implement," she told the inquiry.

Later, MacRury stressed that the inquiry's focus was not on the use of stun guns.

"This is an inquiry on how we treat the mentally ill when they come in contact with the system," he said.

Most of MacRury's other recommendations called for improved training and communication systems for those who encounter the mentally ill within the criminal justice system and the health-care sector.

The inquiry heard that there were numerous miscues and persistent confusion among health and justice officials as Hyde's case moved through the system.

Information about his mental illness and previous scrapes with the law was not passed on and there was confusion about the use of a key health form and the proper use of various psychiatric assessments.

"From the first contact with Mr. Hyde by police, it is clear that there was a need for mental health training and better communications," MacRury said.

He said a senior official at the deputy minister level should be appointed as director of mental health in criminal justice to oversee the province's mental health strategy and manage a committee that would help implement the inquiry's recommendations.

As well, MacRury recommended:

-- Expanding the role of the province's mobile mental health crisis team, transforming it into a 24-hour service.

-- Providing training for police to recognize and handle people suffering from mental illness, including the addition of classroom instruction and role playing.

-- Requiring all police, sheriffs and correctional officers to take part in crisis intervention training.

-- Training emergency room doctors about the court system and the role of forensic psychiatric assessments and their options under the Involuntary Psychiatric Treatment Act.

-- Appointing two Crown attorneys who specialize in mental illness.

"Mr. Hyde suffered from schizophrenia which, in itself, should not be a death sentence," MacRury told the inquiry.

"However ... it is the fervent belief that as sad and needless as Howard Hyde's death may have been, it will serve as a catalyst to improve our institutions and the community for people suffering from schizophrenia."

The inquiry, described as one of the biggest of its kind in Nova Scotia history, heard from 86 witnesses during 54 days of hearings, creating 12,000 pages of testimony.

The head of the inquiry, Judge Anne Derrick, is expected to hear 196 recommendations from inquiry lawyers before she turns her attention to writing a final report.

Final submissions are expected to wrap up Thursday.

RCMP Taser policy a positive development

OTTAWA, May 4, 2010/CNW Telbec/

The Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP (CPC) is encouraged by today's RCMP conducted energy weapon (Taser) policy announcement. The policy changes represent a significant improvement in RCMP protocols governing the use of the Taser.

The key change is the definition provided for situations where a trained RCMP member might use a Taser, namely: "situations where a subject is causing bodily harm or the member believes on reasonable grounds that the subject will imminently cause bodily harm."

"This clearly defined threshold requirement for Taser use should help reduce the risk of 'usage creep,'" said Ian McPhail, Interim CPC Chair. "This change, along with the recognition that additional precautions must be taken before using the weapon, is a prudent move on the part of the RCMP."

In addition to the revisions to policy, discussions are continuing to address outstanding CPC recommendations, including the need for mandatory medical attention after every Taser use, as injuries may not be visible or apparent to the RCMP member, nor will the member necessarily be aware of any underlying medical conditions of the subject. There also remains the recommendation to generally limit the CEW to members with five years or more of experience (except those on specialized teams).

The CPC will be following up with the RCMP on its CEW training and how this new policy will be implemented throughout the RCMP over the coming months.

In the coming weeks, the CPC will release its analysis of the RCMP's usage of the CEW during 2009.

EDITORIAL: Talk, not action

April 23, 2010
Salt Lake Tribune

Standing along State Route 59, dealing with a delirious man who ignored his every order, Hurricane police officer Ken Thompson relied on his training. Trouble was, he didn't have the right training. And within minutes, 32-year-old Brian Cardall, a promising research scientist who was suffering a mental health episode, lay dead.

Crisis Intervention Team training is considered the national standard for teaching law enforcement officers to deal effectively with the mentally ill. The program emphasizes an empathetic approach, scenario-based training, site visits to mental health facilities, interaction with mental health patients and instruction from mental health professionals. Officers are taught to identify characteristics of mental disorders and utilize de-escalation tactics and techniques to provide a safer intervention. In Utah, the week-long training program is conducted by the Salt Lake City Police Department, and graduates are certified by the Utah Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health.

Despite the proven effectiveness of the program -- injuries and deaths are reduced, clients are less likely to repeat offenses and more likely to see the inside of a treatment clinic than a jail cell -- only 11 percent of Utah law enforcement officers are certified. Hurricane officers have now taken the course, belatedly. And the Cardall incident has become the poster case for acquiring this essential training.

It was clear, by his behavior as well as information provided to police by his wife, that Cardall, who was bipolar, was experiencing a mental health episode. He was naked. He had been attempting to direct traffic on the road. And he refused Thompson's loud and repeated orders to "get down on the ground."

Then, just 42 seconds after arriving on the scene, Thompson shocked the unarmed Cardall with a Taser, twice. An autopsy determined that the stun gun caused or contributed to the death. But investigators found that Thompson adhered to both his department's use-of-force policy and Utah law, and no charges were filed.

Still, it's clear to all involved that this situation, and similar situations, call for a lot more talk and a lot less action. And now there's evidence to back up that contention.

Researchers writing for Schizophrenia Bulletin , a medical journal, have unveiled a study that proves what CIT advocates already knew. The training works. Officers who are CIT-certified are less likely to use counterproductive force when dealing with individuals with mental health issues.

For police chiefs and municipal governments, the course should be clear. A CIT training course and biennial refresher courses should be mandated for all of their officers.

The CMHA weighs in on tasers

June 2008

Issue
Canadian Mental Health Association, Ontario is concerned about the use and safety of Tasers, as well as the propensity of law enforcement officials to deploy Tasers on people experiencing a mental health crisis or demonstrating signs of emotional distress.

Background
Conducted energy weapons (CEWs), commonly referred to as Tasers, were introduced to Canadian law enforcement agencies starting in 2001. Tasers are hand-held weapons that send a jolt of electricity intended to stun and temporarily incapacitate an individual's motor nervous system. The charge is delivered through a pair of wires, weighted with barbed hooks, that can be fired from up to 10.6 metres away and will penetrate clothing up to five centimetres thick.1

The Taser is one of several use-of-force weapons that police officers may use to subdue or restrain an individual, to reduce the risk of injury or death to both the individual and the responding officer. The Taser is often represented as an alternative to the use of lethal force by police.

According to a recent backgrounder by the CBC, Tasers are being used by 73 law enforcement agencies across Canada. Most mid-size police forces use these stun guns between 50 to 60 times a year on average, reports the CBC, based on figures compiled by the Canadian Police Research Centre.1 The RCMP has 2,840 Tasers and has trained 9,132 officers to use them. They have been deployed more than 3,000 times since December 2001, in either drive stun mode (when electrodes on the Taser transmit electrical energy on contact with a subject's body) or in full deployment (when darts are fired at a subject).2 Following a pilot study by the Toronto Police Service, Ontario's Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services approved the Taser for use by Ontario police services in January 2005. In 2007, Tasers were used 264 times in Toronto, in either drive stun mode or full deployment,3 up from 97 times in 2006.4 The Taser was used an additional 140 times in 2007 as a "demonstrated force presence," a deterrent measure where a spark is generated or the laser sighting system activated without any contact to the subject.

It is estimated that there have been 270 deaths worldwide, including 17 Canadian deaths, proximal to Taser use since 1999.5 It is not possible to accurately count deaths, as there is no independent central registry in existence to monitor incidents and adverse events, and there remains controversy, as there is no conclusive proof that Tasers directly cause death. Many police services, coroners and researchers are suggesting Taser-associated deaths may be related to a condition referred to as "excited delirium," but no conclusive evidence has yet been established. The Canadian Police Research Centre describes excited delirium as a potentially fatal state of extreme mental and physiological excitement that is characterized by extreme agitation, hyperthermia, hostility, exceptional strength, and endurance without apparent fatigue.6 This condition was first described as early as 1982, when investigators were examining unexplained deaths due to physical restraint by police.7 It has been hypothesized that excited delirium generates an extreme state of physiological arousal that places individuals at greater risk of death.

The symptoms associated with excited delirium, while not a true mental health condition included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), appear to be similar to some of the behavioural symptoms exhibited by individuals experiencing a mental health crisis.

Ontario's Use of Force Continuum
All police officers in Ontario must have basic training in use of force. The Ontario Use of Force Model (2004) directs that officers shall continuously assess each encounter and select the most reasonable option for action, relative to the circumstance.8 The use of force continuum provides guidelines to incremental increases in use of force. The five stages of the continuum are: officer presence, verbal communication, physical control, intermediate weapons (using non-lethal chemical, electronic or impact weapons on an individual) and lethal force (using any force likely to cause permanent injury or death).

Ontario's Use of Force Model does not make allowance or offer guidance to police officers when encountering individuals who may be experiencing a mental health crisis and by virtue of their condition may not appear cooperative, due to hallucinations, delusions or other symptoms. However, other options are available, and mental health crisis intervention is the preferred approach for police to de-escalate such encounters.

Excessive Use of Force
Complaints have been issued against the RCMP and other police services claiming deployment of Tasers to subdue or gain compliance. The Commissioner for Public Complaints Against the RCMP has identified that Tasers are being used to subdue resistant subjects who do not pose a threat, and has referred to this expanded and less restrictive use as "usage creep."9

In January 2007, the South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority Police Service announced that it would arm police patrolling Vancouver's TransLink public transit system with Tasers.10 After reviewing ten cases of Taser deployment on the transit system, accessed under freedom of information legislation, the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association identified four cases where there appeared to be no significant threat to individual or public safety. One case involved the use of a Taser when the suspect attempted to flee for fare evasion.11 This practice is concerning and may set a precedent in other provinces.

Each police service in Ontario is currently governed by different protocols and policies concerning the number of times a Taser may be deployed. However, the Canadian Police Research Centre noted in their 2005 study that "...police officers need to be aware of the adverse effects of multiple, consecutive cycles of CEDs [Tasers] on a subject..."12


Taser Use Is Not Publicly Reported
There are no comprehensive national or provincial records regarding how many police officers are carrying Tasers. Most police services are not publicly reporting incidents involving Taser use and outcomes.

Amnesty International indicates that international standards and codes of conduct for law enforcement officials prescribe that the deployment of non-lethal weapons require standard evaluation and control of use protocols.13


Research on Tasers Suggests Caution
Research on the safety of Tasers has primarily been conducted on animals, rather than humans. When research has been conducted on humans, they have been deemed medically healthy. While Tasers may be used without injury on some individuals, there are vulnerable populations on whom Tasers should be used with caution. A 2004 review of Taser technology by British Columbia's police complaint commissioner indicated that risk factors for death by Taser include drug-induced toxic states (cocaine, alcohol, etc.) and "acute psychiatric decompensation."14

In reviewing the available literature, the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP examining RCMP use of Tasers determined:

...that there is a distinct lack of research nationally and internationally that thoroughly examines the connection between CEW use, excited delirium and the likelihood of death. Medical research is still in the early stages of reviewing this condition. What little is known of this condition suggest the need for a more conservative course of action with respect to the deployment of CEWs against vulnerable populations (people experiencing mental health crises, those suffering from drug toxicity and those exhibiting symptoms of excited delirium). The research suggests that these populations have a higher likelihood of death, not necessarily as a result of the use of force or restraint employed, but because of the mental or medical condition of the person at the time of police intervention.15
A May 2008 review published by the Canadian Medical Association Journal contradicts previous assertions that "stun guns" manufactured by Taser International and others are unlikely to impact with deadly force. The authors reference three independent investigations that have found that stun guns may, in some circumstances, stimulate the heart and potentially result in adverse consequences.16 They recommend that additional research with human subjects is required.

This finding is especially significant given increased cardiovascular vulnerability among people with serious mental illness. People with a mental illness appear to be at greater risk of developing irregular heartbeats (arrhythmia)17 and coronary heart disease.18 In addition, people taking antipsychotic medication have been found to have a 2.4 times greater risk of sudden cardiac arrest and death.19

Crisis Intervention Approaches for People with a Mental Illness
Some people with a mental illness who are in crisis will come in contact with police officers. Section 17 of Ontario's Mental Health Act, R.S.O. 1990, gives police officers the authority to bring someone to a medical facility for assessment if the officer has "reasonable and probable grounds" to believe a person has acted in a "disorderly manner" if the person is believed to have a mental disorder, has threatened or attempted to harm themselves, has behaved violently or caused someone to fear bodily harm, or has shown an inability to care for themselves.20

A number of barriers have been identified that pose challenges to police dealing with people who have a mental illness.21 These include not having advance information from dispatch that the person may have a mental illness, or what they might expect upon arrival at the scene. More fundamentally, lack of adequate education about mental illness is a reality that impacts police officers' ability to carry out their work with this vulnerable population. Police require customized training regarding how to identify situations involving mental illness, as well as how to communicate and intervene so as to minimize the use of force and maximize the likelihood that individuals with a mental illness are able to access the services they require. Evidence suggests that identifying a specific group of police officers to receive training and respond to mental health crisis is most beneficial, as these individuals will then have the mandate to utilize and update their skills on a regular basis.22

Some police services in Ontario have received training and participate in mental health crisis intervention teams. These teams consist of police officers and mental health workers acting together to respond to individuals experiencing a mental health crisis. This partnering offers the expertise of both professions.

There are a variety of ways in which the police and the mental health system can work together to manage first-response situations, in which the police are called to deal with an incident involving a person who appears to be mentally ill:

Comprehensive advanced response model: all police officers receive training related to working with individuals with mental illness and are expected to be able to handle most situations.

Mental health professionals co-response model: mental health professionals from another agency with whom the police have some kind of working agreement would respond to a police call at the request of the police, generally after the police have responded and assessed the situation.

Mobile crisis team co-response model: the police and the mental health workers are co-employed, sometimes by having mental health workers employed by police services and sometimes by having police officers seconded to community mental health agencies.

Crisis intervention team (CIT): specially trained officers respond to problematic situations. These officers are assigned to other duties (such as traffic patrol) from which they may be pulled as needed.

Telephone consultation model: police have a toll-free number to a mental health unit or hospital psychiatry floor which is staffed 24/7, which they may call for advice and direction whenever there is an incident.23

The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police has prepared guidelines for police programs and services for people with mental illness and the mental health system, that include, but are not limited to, developing effective and compassionate crisis response.24


Recommendations from the Canadian Mental Health Association, Ontario Regarding Conducted Energy Weapons (Tasers)

June 2008

A group of specially selected officers in every police service in Ontario be trained in mental health crisis intervention and other appropriate de-escalation techniques.
Police services in Ontario co-develop and participate in mental health crisis intervention teams to serve the needs of their community.

Police services in Ontario limit their use of Tasers to situations where the alternative would be use of deadly force. Tasers are only used as a last resort and after all other de-escalation techniques have proven unsuccessful.

Police services monitor and publicly report the incidence and outcomes of Taser use.
Independent research is conducted into the safety of Taser use, including the effects on persons experiencing a mental health crisis.

References
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, "Taser FAQs," CBC News Online, May 13, 2008, www.cbc.ca.

Canada, "RCMP Use of the Conducted Energy Weapon (CEW): Interim Report," Commission for Public Complaints Against the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, December 11, 2007, www.cpc-cpp.gc.ca.

Toronto Police Services Board, Minutes of the Public Meeting, March 27, 2008, www.tpsb.ca.

Toronto Police Services Board. Minutes of the Public Meeting, April 26, 2007, www.tpsb.ca.

Bruce Stuart and Chris Lawrence, "Report on Conducted Energy Weapons and Excited Delirium Syndrome," Royal Canadian Mounted Police, October 29, 2007, www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca.

Drazen Manojovic et al., "Review of Conducted Energy Devices," Canadian Police Research Centre, Technical Report TR-01-2006, August 22, 2005, www.cprc.org.

M. Pollanen, D. Chiasson, J. Cairns and J. Young, "Unexpected Death Related to Restraint for Excited Delirium: A Retrospective Study of Deaths in Police Custody and in the Community," Canadian Medical Association Journal 158, no. 12 (1998): 1603-7.

Ottawa Police Service, "Use of Force Annual Report - 2007," February 19, 2008, www.ottawa.ca.

Canada, "RCMP Use of the Conducted Energy Weapon (CEW)."

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, "SkyTrain Transit Police to Get Tasers," CBC News Online, January 22, 2007, www.cbc.ca.

British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, "Letter to the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner for British Columbia, Re: TransLink Police Use of Tasers," April 17, 2008, www.bccla.org.

Manojovic et al., "Review of Conducted Energy Devices."

Amnesty International, "Canada: Inappropriate and Excessive Use of Tasers," International Secretariat, May 2007, www.amnestyusa.org.

British Columbia, "Taser Technology Review and Interim Recommendations," Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner, September 2004, www.opcc.bc.ca.

Canada, "RCMP Use of the Conducted Energy Weapon (CEW)."

K. Nanthakumar et al., "Cardiac Stimulation with High Voltage Discharge from Stun Guns," Canadian Medical Association Journal 178, no. 11 (2008): 1451-57.

J.G. Reilly et al., "QTc-Interval Abnormalities and Psychotropic Drug Therapy in Psychiatric Patients," The Lancet 355, no. 9209 (2000): 1048-52.

D.L. Evans et al., "Mood Disorders in the Medically Ill: Scientific Review and Recommendations," Biological Psychiatry 58, no. 3 (2005): 175-89; D.C. Goff et al., "A Comparison of Ten-Year Cardiac Risk Estimates in Schizophrenia Patients from the CATIE Study and Matched Controls," Schizophrenia Research 80, no. 1 (2005): 45-53.

W.A. Ray et al., "Antipsychotics and the Risk of Sudden Cardiac Death," Archives of General Psychiatry 58, no. 12 (2001): 1161-67.

Ontario, Mental Health Act, RSO 1990, c. M.7.

Canadian Mental Health Association, British Columbia, "Study in Blue and Grey. Police Interventions with People with Mental Illness: A Review of Challenges and Responses," December 2003, www.cmha.bc.ca.

R. Dupont and S. Cochran, "Police Response to Mental Health Emergencies: Barriers to Change," Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law 28, no. 3 (2000): 338-44.

Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, "Working Together - How?" Canadian National Committee for Police/Mental Health Liaison (no date), www.pmhl.ca.

Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, "Contemporary Policing Guidelines for Working with the Mental Health System," Police-Mental Health Subcommittee, July 2006, www.pmhl.ca.

Getting Tased - Part 2: Beware of the 'excited'

June 13, 2008
By Molly Priesmeyer, The Minnesota Independent

Tasers were originally created as a firearm alternative—a weapon that didn’t kill, supposedly. But Tasers have become a popular police tool to use on suspects suffering from what Taser International calls “excited delirium," a term coined in the 1980s after cocaine use become more widespread. According to the Minneapolis Police Department, all officers on the Crisis Intervention Team, which mostly deals with unarmed persons who are on drugs or mentally ill, carry a Taser. Experts say "excited delirium" is a mythical condition used to boast Taser sales, and that its increasing rationale in Taser use is leading to more deaths.

Since the firm Taser International went public in 2001, deaths from stun guns, or Tasers, have grown steadily. In fact, the increase has been so profound that the National Institute of Justice is conducting its own study on the weapons, to be released in 2009. There is no way to get accurate reporting before 2003 on deaths occurring during arrest, since, oddly enough, there was no central documentation of such deaths until a law passed in 2000 created the Deaths in Custody Reporting Program.

Even after its passage, the reporting program acknowledges huge gaps in departments reporting deaths from Tasers and/or stun-guns. What we do know is that at least 34 people have died in the United States this year after being Tased, two of them in the Twin Cities.

Here’s how one of those cases unfolded:

On Jan. 15, 29-year-old Mark Backlund is driving to the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport from New Brighton to pick up his parents during rush hour. Backlund crashes into a minivan on Interstate 694. Five Minnesota State Patrol officers, two of them in training, immediately arrive on the scene. About eight minutes later, Backlund is unresponsive after being Tased three times. He is pronounced dead at the hospital.

According to video released by the State Patrol, Backlund appears to slowly, confusedly reach for the ignition when an officer approaches his open passenger-side window. The image, which lasts about four seconds and came from a camera-equipped Taser, is the only close shot of Backlund the State Patrol recorded. The video cuts to a car-mounted video that records an officer asking “Sir, are you all right? Are you diabetic?” The officer tells the other two uniformed patrol offices that Backlund won’t respond to him.

Backlund then tries to swing at one of the officers, the State Patrol says. He is Tased once. Seconds later, Backlund is dragged from his car and laid face down on the shoulder of 694 while three officers restrain and Tase him at least two more times. Backlund struggles and screams for five minutes before falling silent.

At this point, at about eight minutes into the video, the trainees are laughing at an answer to a question that’s unintelligible. Then one asks, “Did you get a good Taser video?” He looks back at the flashing cop car. Backlund is still silent. About 30 seconds pass until someone says, “He is not responsive.” No one administers CPR.

“He’s got blood all over his face,” someone mentions on two occasions as cops and paramedics hover over him, presumably clean up his face, and place him on a stretcher. Almost three minutes go by between the moment Backlund is announced as “unresponsive” and the time he is placed in the ambulance that has been on the scene the entire time.

Later, an autopsy on Backlund will be inconclusive. According to the report, he also had cocaine and prescription drugs in his system.

At one point in the video, an officer says that when he arrived on the scene, before Backlund was Tased, that Backlund appeared “stunned.” Indeed, Backlund appears like he’d just been in a car accident.

A serious disorder or a serious con?

Canadian police psychologist Mike Webster says using Tasers on suspects who appear confused or agitated is fairly common. Even those behaviors are what Taser International calls “excited delirium,” an unexplained hysteria that can cause death, as Taser has claimed in court.

Webster has trained officers for more than 30 years in crisis intervention. He’s consulted with both the FBI and RMCP in Canada in conflict disputes and dealing with suspects in crisis situations. He says “excited delirium” is not a real psychological diagnosis, but a cunning way of turning common behaviors cops encounter every day into an affliction that turns people into unpredictable monsters possessed by the unknown. “There’s no reputable medical or psychological or psychiatric association that recognizes it as a disorder,” Webster says.

Webster says Taser International’s marketing has served to create an expectation in police officers that the only way to deal with someone in that situation is with a Taser. “When you see someone who is exhibiting these behavioral characteristics—they’re agitated, they’re incoherent, they’re sweating profusely, they’re aggressive—immediately the police person thinks, this is ‘excited delirium.’ Can’t deal with them. I need to Taser them.”

According to Webster, police departments have simply replaced crisis intervention tactics with Tasers. “Crisis intervention training or first-response training teaches officers to assist people in regaining their mental balance by speaking in calm tones, adopting neutral body postures. That’s not happening. And if the only tool you have in your tool box is a hammer then the whole world starts to look like a nail. Soon, everybody looks like they’re suffering from excited delirium.”

Call it ‘usage creep’

Minneapolis Police Department spokesperson Sgt. William Palmer says that all 135 officers on the department’s Crisis Intervention Team, which deals primarily with mentally ill persons, are required to carry a Taser. In 2006, a Taser was deployed in 232 Minneapolis police encounters. (Palmer was unable to supply numbers for 2007 and 2008.)

“Tasers are not really designed to be used against persons who are armed,” he says. “It can be done, and is taught with the addition of lethal backup, but this training is primarily for persons armed with edged weapons, not firearms. We use the Taser many, many more times on persons who are not armed. The Taser is a tool primarily to be used on persons who exhibit physical resistance to officers.”

Palmer says that officers on the Crisis Intervention Team can use the Taser if the person is physically resistive to officers. “The Taser is the restraint tool of choice for persons who are under the influence of mood-altering substances or who are in mental health crisis, as it is not a pain compliance tool,” Palmer says. “Persons in these conditions often do not feel pain and other pain compliance tools and techniques are not as effective.”

Webster challenges this notion. “To me, that is unacceptable, “ he says. “The initial, permissible usage scenario did not include using the weapon as a come-along or a time-saver. That is usage creep. There has been a tremendous creep away from the original, permissive usage scenario for this weapon, which was to prevent grievous bodily harm.”

A Taser monopoly

One of the biggest proponents of Tasers who has become a de facto spokesperson for “excited delirium” is John G. Peters, founder of the Institute for the Prevention of In-Custody Deaths—an organization dedicated to training officers in recognizing and managing “excited delirium.” Peters is also is an adjunct faculty member in the Taser Training Academy.

But that’s not the only specious connection Peters –- who has been called to testify on “excited delirium” — has to Taser International. Peters—whose résumé lists a B.A. in criminal justice, an M.B.A. and a Ph.D. in applied management from various colleges—also bills himself as a litigation consultant and expert witness who charges $5,000 for case development with an expert report and $2,000 per day for depositions and testimony.

At a recent public inquiry into the use of Tasers by police in Vancouver, B.C., Dr. Zian Tseng, a San Francisco cardiologist and electrophysiologist, told the panel that the Taser creates serious risks to the heart. Tseng began studying Tasers three years ago, and found the device could induce cardiac arrhythmia.

And though Minneapolis police tend to use the Tasers more on people on “mood-altering substances” than not, according to Palmer, Tseng said the risk of death from the Taser shock is far greater if there is adrenaline or illicit drugs coursing through the body or if the person has a history of heart or other medical issues.

When Tseng first announced to a San Francisco journalist that he was studying the weapon, he was immediately contacted by Taser International, which offered him a grant to pay for his research. Unlike Peters, Tseng declined Taser International’s offer.

Webster finds Taser’s response to Tseng chilling. “Taser has a monopoly on this,” he says. “Taser created the instrument. Taser manufactures the instrument. Taser trains people on the instrument. Taser pays for studies. They’ve got an entire monopoly.

“If we know the device was safe, it’d be one thing," he says. "But we know people are dying from it.”

And so far, Taser International has only lost one wrongful death suit of the at least 69 filed against the company. Backlund’s family is still looking into the cause of his death.

Canada 'brainwashed' by taser manufacturer, says police expert

May 13, 2008
By Suzanne Fournier, The Province

A police psychologist who has trained Vancouver police, RCMP and the FBI to defuse crises like hostage-takings for over 30 years says Canada has been "brainwashed" into buying the Taser and being trained by the manufacturer.

[Dr. Michael] Webster told the Braidwood Inquiry into Tasers Tuesday morning that "the police, in an attempt to justify their use of the weapon in many cases, have taken to citing the hypothetical disorder... excited delirium."

Both Webster and the first witness Tuesday, Vancouver psychiatrist Dr. Lu Shaohua, said the controversial phenomenon does not exist nor does it appear in any medical textbooks as a legitimate diagnosis.

Yet Webster noted Taser actively bombards medical examiners with pamphlets about "excited delirium" to cite as both a provocation for Taser use and even cause of death.

"Canadian law enforcement, and its American brothers and sisters, have been 'brainwashed' by companies like Taser International," said Webster.

Taser sales experts "have created a virtual world replete with avatars that wander about with the potential to manifest a horrific condition characterized by profuse sweating, superhuman strength and a penchant for smashing glass that appeals to well-meaning but psychologically unsophisticated police personnel," said Webster.

Webster noted Taser "has successfully defended itself against at least eight lawsuits in which it was alleged that the victims died of Taser shocks. The company argued that the cause of death was "excited delirium" and not the Taser.

Webster said he was "shocked" and "embarassed" to see the video of the RCMP Tasering Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski at the Vancouver airport last Oct. 14, after the man had wandered around for eight hours without food or drink, lost, suffering from a language barrier and likely from the dehydrating effects of a long-haul flight.

"It is neither humane nor logical to inflict crippling pain on someone who has lost his mental balance," said Webster.

Webster, who trains police services all over the world, including Vancouver police in a one-week crisis management course, said that the safety of the Taser is still not resolved and it is crucial to give Canadian police more thorough training on crisis management skills before they resort to the Taser.

"If the Taser proves to be safe, its use in Canada (should) be restricted to only those situations involving a significant risk of death or grievous bodily harm; and that Canadian law enforcement be provided with crisis intervention skills during their basic training."