Inadequate reporting on the actions that lead to taser tragedies

Food for thought from a Concerned Canadian:

Up to 721 taser-related deaths?!  As sad as that is, there has been some positive progress in awareness and responsibility on the West Coast.  The Vancouver Police Department has fewer officers than ever signing up for Taser training. Perhaps they've read the long list of risks & warnings on the volunteer waiver?  It is anecdotal, but in Vancouver rank & file officers are rarely seen carrying them now. 

The Edmonton death will be interesting to watch.  The police there are already saying they believe the man  was on a "substance".  Yet he'd been in custody, awaiting a bail hearing. How was he able to imbibe, if he was in a supposedly secure jail?  By mentioning a 'substance" to the media, it is very much like Dziekanski and many other such deaths.  Villify the victim.

It is true no one - outside of the investigators and the involved officers - knows exactly what happened.  There were security cameras, so hopefully there will be some visual evidence. 

Also the Edmonton reporters have failed to ask CRUCIAL questions such as:

How many stuns?
Duration of stuns?
Number of weapons used?
What mode of use- drive stun or probe mode?
Where on the body were the shocks delivered?

Edmonton police don’t seem to be on top of recent rulings in the U-S courts, where the Taser is now considered a ‘deadly weapon’.  The manufacturer lost a significant product liability case (Turner in Charlotte, NC), where the jury found Taser International failed to warn about the risk of chest shots for nearly fours years, after health risks were discovered by their own scientists.  This is a far cry from what the company crowed about in the beginning, when its senior managers said Tasers are “safe to use on any assailant.”   Police have got to ask themselves whether they want to risk using a potentially lethal weapon as a compliance tool. 

This is made all the worse because no one in law enforcement anywhere is measuring Tasers for ‘output variance’, yet the few tests that have been done have revealed that not all Tasers perform the same way.  Despite what the company claimed early on, the current being emitted from Tasers is NOT uniform.  This poses risks to both the public and the police. 

Even more concerning, there is still no independent standard of measurment developed for Conducted Energy Weapons; the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) AND the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) are collaborating to create a scientifically valid test protocol.  As it stands now-- and it is difficult to fathom --  there is still NO electrical safety standard developed to measure invasive shocks. 

Concerned Canadian

Edmonton man dies

April 13, 2012
Calgary Herald

http://www.calgaryherald.com/Tasered+police+dies+Edmonton+hospital/6459321/story.html

A man who was struck with a Taser while in Edmonton police custody earlier this week died in hospital Friday, his mother says.

Simone Oatway told Global News on Friday that her son, Jeff, had serious mental health problems for most of his life, and struggled with drug and alcohol addiction.

The 34-year-old was struck with a Taser at least once in the basement of the downtown police station on Wednesday afternoon.

According to Edmonton Police Association president Tony Simioni, Oatway was being transferred from his cell to a holding area to await a bail hearing at the time.

He had been in the custody of one female police officer and two civilian safety officers when he became violent, Simioni said.

"It was sudden, unexpected and violent as hell," said Simioni. "In a pre-Taser world, in that kind of serious circumstance, when a person is that out of control and there is that much apparent strength, the first option would have been your gun."

Simioni said at least 12 police officers tried to restrain Oatway.

The Taser, he said, didn't seem to have much initial impact on the man.

"The medical episode took place after the Taser was deployed. When the Taser was deployed, it had no effect, none. The Taser did not get this person under control. It was not effective. He fought on."
An ambulance was called and officers made efforts to resuscitate Oatway.

Edmonton police spokeswoman Clair Seyler said no new information is being released about the incident, which now has been handed over to Alberta's Serious Incident Response Team for investigation.

Simioni has described the incident as "a massive struggle" that left a path of destruction through the area.

Speaking to Global News, Simone Oatway said her son's life was troubled and he had bounced between jail and the streets.

"I know he probably was very violent and was out of his mind, but couldn't there have been another way without Tasering him?" she said.

Man in coma after tasering at Edmonton police headquarters: media report

April 12, 2012
Globe and Mail

An Edmonton radio station is reporting that a man is in a coma and on life support after he was hit with a charge from a Taser gun during a struggle with police.

The station (CHED) says the man was being held at the downtown police headquarters awaiting a bail hearing Wednesday when he reportedly jumped a counter in the prisoner processing area.

He fought with a peace officer and an Edmonton police member before more than a dozen police officers responded to a panic alarm.

The report says the man, who is in his 30s, stopped breathing and had no detectable heartbeat after the electronic stun gun was used on him when he could not be subdued.

Officers worked to resuscitate the prisoner until emergency medical personnel arrived.

Homicide detectives are investigating and the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team has been notified.