Taser a necessary evil?

April 28, 2010
JAN RAVENSBERGEN, Montreal Gazette

So many issues dog the use of Tasers that "the burden of proof should be put on police" to demonstrate that their stun guns need to be retained for Montreal Island's law-enforcement arsenal, city councillor Marvin Rotrand said yesterday.

Rotrand argued that local police should be ordered to follow in the footsteps of authorities in several major U.S. cities who have banned outright any use of stun guns by their officers.

Boston, Detroit, Washington and San Francisco are among major U.S. cities to have either dropped Tasers as a law-enforcement tool or refused to adopt them when proposed,

Rotrand told the island-wide public security committee.

He and others spoke at a hearing to examine Taser use as part of a coalition - which includes Ligue des droits et libertés - favouring a permanent ban on police taserings.

"The tide is starting to turn," with the stun gun also banned by many European forces, added Patrick Bolland, a member of the coalition.

Montreal police assistant director Marc Parent, the first to appear at the hearings, took the opposite tack.

He offered a defence of Tasers as a necessary police tool. They are needed in some instances as "an intermediate weapon" before officers pull out firearms, he said.

In other cases, they are the best option to bring incidents involving heavily disturbed individuals to a quick conclusion - even when police use of a firearm is not necessarily the sole alternative, Parent told Hampstead Mayor William Steinberg, a committee member.

There are 17 Tasers - all the M-26 model from Taser International - in Montreal police hands, Parent said, with about 100 officers trained in their use.

Montreal police discharged Tasers during a total of 11 incidents in 2009, Parent said, and also pulled them out without using them another seven times.

Police statistics show they were fired 11 times and used as a threat a further three times in 2008; fired 23 times and used as a threat 10 times in 2007; and fired 17 times and used as a threat 11 times in 2006.

During the three years following their introduction in 2001, Montreal police statistics show officers pulled out the stun gun a total of 14 times.

The Taser uses two barbed darts to deliver a jolt of up to 50,000 volts, intended to incapacitate the recipient. Its use jumped to 21 incidents in 2004 and dipped to 17 in 2005. Figures covering the initial five years of deployment don't differentiate between actual discharge and use of a Taser as a threat.

"If a new medicine caused as many deaths as Tasers, it would have been withdrawn very quickly," said Gaetan Laurendeau, another coalition member.

A November 2008 report by Amnesty International concluded that 334 deaths in the United States and 25 deaths in Canada have followed police use of a Taser.

Among the fatalities was Montrealer Quilem Registre. He died in hospital, age 38, four days after he received six Taser hits from local police in October 2007.

"The Taser leaves no biomedical marker that can be identified as mortal," coalition member Bolland said.

While cocaine and alcohol in Registre's system might have contributed, a report by coroner Catherine Rudel-Tessier concluded it was "difficult to believe (the taserings) played no role in his death."

"We are still waiting for justice," Augustin François Registre, 71, the dead man's father, said in a brief interview after a Black Coalition of Quebec presentation endorsing a full Montreal law-enforcement ban of the weapon.

Hearings examine use of Tasers by Montreal police

April 28, 2010
JAN RAVENSBERGEN, THE MONTREAL GAZETTE

Police across Montreal Island should follow the footsteps of authorities in several major American cities who have banned outright the use of stun guns by their police officers, the island-wide public security committee was told this afternoon by city councillor Marvin Rotrand.

Rotrand, speaking on behalf of a coalition favouring a ban that includes the Ligue des Droits et Libertés, was among the first to appear at committee hearings examining Taser-gun use in local law enforcement.

The hearings, held at the request of Montreal city council, began just after 1 p.m. and ran until 4 p.m. They are scheduled to continue during an evening session at Montreal city hall, to begin at 7 p.m.

Boston, Detroit, Washington and San Francisco are among the U.S. cities that have either withdrawn stun guns as a law-enforcement tool or refused to adopt them when proposed, Rotrand said.

Assistant Director Marc Parent of Montreal police opened the hearings with a defence of Tasers as a police tool, saying they are needed in some instances as a last resort – “an intermediate weapon” – before officers pull out firearms. In other instances, they are used to bring an incident to a conclusion quickly, he added, without police use of a firearm as the sole remaining alternative.

There are 17 Tasers in the arsenal of the Montreal police force, he said, with about 100 officers trained in their use. Montreal police discharged an M-26 stun gun from Taser International against suspects in a total of 11 incidents during 2009, Parent said. The stun guns were pulled out and their use threatened – although they were not discharged – a further seven times last year, he added.

Police statistics show they were used 11 times and threatened a further three times in 2008; used 23 times and threatened 10 times in 2007; and used 17 times and threatened 11 times in 2006.

Police statistics from their 2001 introduction show that in their first three years of availability, Montreal officers pulled out a stun gun a total of 14 times. Those figures also don't differentiate between actual discharge or use as a threat.

Use of Tasers jumped to 21 in 2004 and dipped to 17 in 2005, again without a differentiation provided. Montreal police handle about 1.2 million 911 calls every year, a figure that has remained stable since 2001.

“If a new medicine caused as many deaths as Tasers, it would have been withdrawn very quickly,” Gaetan Laurendeau, another coalition member, told the committee from a public microphone.

A November 2008 report by Amnesty International concluded that 334 deaths in the United States and 25 deaths in Canada have followed police use of a Taser, said Patrick Bolland, another coalition member.

Among them was the death of Montrealer Quilem Registre, who died in hospital after he received six distinct Taser hits from local police in 2007.

"The Taser leaves no biomedical marker that can be identified as mortal," Bolland said.

A coroner's report, by Catherine Rudel-Tessier in October 2007, on Registre's death concluded that Taser use by officers could not be ruled out as a causal factor in his death.

The taser will be a permanent part of police arsenal

March 4, 2008
Henry Aubin, Montreal Gazette

The videotape of RCMP officers' gratuitous and fatal use of a Taser against a man in Vancouver last fall prompted a nationwide eruption of public horror over police forces' use of this weapon. In the wake of that incident, many law-enforcement officials have voiced concern and reviewed their use. So, problem over, right? Wrong.

Don't let officialdom's regretful tone fool you. Now that the Vancouver affair has blown over, Tasers are creeping back in much of the country.

Let's start with Quebec.

Although the incidents drew little attention because they were not videotaped, two men died in Quebec last year in the days after police shot them with the electric-shock device.

Quebec City police tasered a 32-year-old translator, Claudio Castagnetta, after they stopped him for loitering and, according to witnesses, he resisted being placed in a patrol car by making his body rigid.

In Montreal, police tasered 38-year-old Quilem Registre after they stopped him for erratic driving and, they say, he became aggressive.

Quebec's public security ministry, which oversees police forces across the province, issued a report on Tasers in mid-December. The ministry immediately accepted all the report's recommendations for restricting the police's use of Tasers, but those restrictions are slight.

For example, the province's earlier rules, apparently ignored by the officers who zapped Castagnetta with impunity, barred tasering people who were only "passively resisting" arrest. The new rules say officers can use the Taser on people whose "resistance represents a significant risk to the safety of the officer or anyone else." Despite the change in wording, the versions differ little in their practical application.

Indeed, the new rules also say officers should assess a person's "potential for violence." The word "potential" is a loophole giving officers enormous discretionary power. Officers might claim after the fact that even mild-mannered individuals had given them reason to believe they would become aggressive.

The report also cavalierly dismissed France's practice of clipping a camera (made by the Taser's manufacturer) onto the weapon and recording all the action in video and audio. The report says current training "conditions police to place their hands (on the Taser) in a way that would obstruct the camera's view."

The panel that wrote the report had 26 members and associates, of whom 25 are from the world of law enforcement -- that is, from the police departments, the police academy or the ministry. (The exception is a doctor employed by the province.) So much for taking into account the broad public interest.

Incidentally, Montreal could set tougher rules for its own force. So far, however, the current administration has given no sign of concern.

Elsewhere in Canada, it's much the same lethargy.

After the Vancouver incident, the Commission for Public Complaints against the RCMP made recommendations for changes. The RCMP, however, rejected a key one: The elevation of Tasers from the category of "intermediate weapon," a relatively humdrum status that includes pepper spray, to the serious category of "impact weapon."

If Tasers were in the latter group, they could be used only against people who are "combative" or otherwise dangerous.

In New Brunswick, police chiefs ordered a review of Taser use, and have concluded no substantive changes are needed.

As for Toronto, its police chief is certainly demanding change -- but it's not in the direction that reformers would like. He wants to buy 500 additional Tasers.

The devices are supposed to be substitutes for firearms. Too often they are substitutes for talk.

In Montreal, a coalition of critics that includes two councillors from the city's ruling party -- Warren Allmand and Marvin Rotrand -- is asking to suspend the use of Tasers until impartial research is in on how these 50,000-volt guns affect people with various health problems or who are high on drugs.

Twenty people in Canada have died after being tasered, says Amnesty. If governments require the pharmaceutical industry to test its wares for health effects before selling them, why not ask the same of Taser International?

The company is poised to launch later this year a new model that will make the current one look like a peashooter. The current handgun-style model zaps people as far away as eight metres. The new model is a 12-gauge shotgun with a range of 30 metres.

Unless politicians suddenly wake up, we ain't seen nothing yet.

Montreal police used tasers inappropriately in one in five cases

February 14, 2008
Irwin Block, Montreal Gazette

MONTREAL - Reports that Montreal police used Taser guns inappropriately in 11 of 53 incidents over two years add urgency to calls for a moratorium on their use, critics of the weapons say. Internal police studies obtained by Radio Canada found that officers did not follow operational instructions in one in five cases where the Taser was used in the past two years.

"These reports increase our concern about how this weapon is used," said Anne Sainte-Maire, spokeperson for Amnesty International's francophone branch. The group is part of a coalition, including the Ligue des droits et libertés and Montreal city councillors Warren Allmand and Marvin Rotrand, that has called for a Taser ban pending an independent study of its effects.

Montreal police can only use the Taser if the person to be apprehended represents a high risk of violence or there is a high risk he'll be injured or cause injury to police or bystanders. But police reports indicated the weapon was used in cases where a subject refused to obey instructions or offered passive resistance.

Police officials declined an interview request yesterday, but stood by a comment Inspector René Allard gave to Radio Canada where he said the department will not tolerate inappropriate Taser use. "There may have been cases where people did no use it (the Taser ) adequately. For us, this is not acceptable," Allard said. "Is there a need for training? Is it because the (Taser) user was surprised by the type of situation he faced and perhaps exercised a lack of judgment?" he asked.

The Quebec coroner's office is investigating the cause and circumstances of two deaths that followed police firing Tasers at them. Montreal police used a Taser to subdue 38-year-old Quilem Register on Oct. 18. He died four days later of multiple heart attacks. Claudio Castagnetta, 32, an Italian immigrant who was walking around Quebec City barefoot and refused to leave a shop, died in a police cell in September two days after police used a Taser three or four times to subdue him.

Quebec government faces calls to suspend taser use

February 8, 2008
RHÉAL SÉGUIN, The Globe and Mail

QUEBEC CITY -- The Quebec government is under increasing pressure to impose a moratorium on the use of tasers until an independent study can verify whether the weapons are safe for use by the province's police forces. The Parti Québécois said yesterday it will use parliamentary tactics to force Premier Jean Charest's minority government to reverse an earlier decision and impose a moratorium. "At the opening of the session, we will deploy a precise strategy to make sure all the light can be shed on this issue," said PQ House Leader François Gendron.

Furthermore a new coalition that includes Amnesty International, the Ligue des droits et libertés, various politicians and advocacy groups demanded a moratorium yesterday citing the deaths last fall of Quilem Registre in Montreal and Claudio Castagnetta in Quebec City as examples of the unsafe use of the weapon.

Tasers were used in separate incidents during the arrests of Mr. Registre and Mr. Castagnetta. Three other Canadians died last fall following multiple discharges of the electroshock weapon, including the well-publicized case of Robert Dziekanski at the Vancouver airport.

"People are worried and we need a moratorium while independent experts study the safety of this weapon," said Dominique Peschard, president of the Ligue des droits et libertés. "We also need an inquiry to determine if the taser gun contributed to the deaths of Mr. Registre and Mr. Castagnetta."

Friends and relatives of the Registre and Castagnetta families have urged the government to release all information from the Sûreté du Québec's investigation into the deaths of the two men. "It's been five months since Mr. Castagnetta died and we've received nothing from the police investigation," said Jesse Zimmer, a close friend of Claudio Castagnetta. "In Ontario, independent inquiries are conducted into deaths involving police officers. Here in Quebec the police investigate the police. That has to change."

Jacques Dupuis, the Quebec Minister of Public Security, reiterated yesterday that his government was open to all new information regarding the safety of tasers, but categorically refused to impose a moratorium. A study released last December conducted by experts and senior members of Quebec police forces recommended improved training on the use of tasers, but stopped short of recommending a moratorium.

The coalition questioned the report's neutrality noting that new information from tests conducted on animals have shown that tasers could cause heart damage.

"It is a weapon that has been denounced as a weapon of torture by a United Nations committee," Amnesty International spokeswoman Anne Sainte-Marie said yesterday.

Sister of Quilem Registre and Montreal groups want moratorium on taser use

January 7, 2008
The Canadian Press

MONTREAL - The sister of a man who died after an altercation where police zapped him with a stun gun joined a chorus of activists and politicians Thursday calling for a moratorium on the use of the Taser.

Chantal Registre sat quietly during a news conference where the Quebec League of Human Rights, Amnesty International and others decried the use of the weapon to subdue suspects police deem unruly. The groups argued too little is known about the medical risks posed by stun guns and what they do to elderly persons, psychological patients or people on drugs.

Registre said she believes police improperly use stun guns and that cops should use the training they get at the police academy to subdue suspects. "I think they think it's a toy," she said after the news conference. "It's not a toy. It's really not a toy. I have the proof it's not a toy," she said. "I don't have a brother any more."

Her brother Quilem Registre was stopped by Montreal police in October 2007 for driving erratically. Police said he was intoxicated and aggressive and they used a stun gun - which emits a 50,000-volt electrical charge - to subdue him. He died in hospital several days later of liver and heart failure after his condition deteriorated.

"We're upset, the whole family is upset," Chantal Registre said, adding that her family is still awaiting an explanation of what happened to her brother. "We're always waiting for answers but we don't get them."

Quilem Registre's death came days after an incident in Vancouver that put stun gun use by police on Canadians' radar and sparked a widespread debate on the issue. RCMP used Tasers on Robert Dziekanski, 40, who had flown to Canada from Poland to join his mother. The Polish-speaking man became distraught after being stuck in the airport for several hours and police said they needed the zapper to control him. He died within minutes of the police intervention, which was captured on video.

Manufacturer Taser International maintains the deaths cannot be blamed on the device, which immobilizes suspects with an electrical shock. Since 2003, at least 17 Canadians have died following stun gun incidents.

Warren Allmand, a former federal solicitor general and past president of the International Centre for Human Rights, said a full, independent medical and technical review of all models of stun guns is needed. "What is the lethal potential of these weapons and how should they be categorized in relationship to other weapons and control mechanisms?" Allmand said. "What are the alternatives? It is only when we have the answers to these questions that the government can draft appropriate guidelines or directives for the use or non-use of Tasers."

Marvin Rotrand, a Montreal city councillor, said he is still trying to get a copy of the guidelines for use of stun guns by city police although he has been assured it is infrequent. He said he has been told the Montreal force only has 13 Tasers compared to 500 in Toronto. He's concerned that there is a push by police forces in Canada to make stun guns an everyday part of the street cop's arsenal.

"We find that very, very scary," Rotrand said. "We want there to be extremely strict rules if this is even going to be used by police. We want to know in advance whether this is a valid alternative to lethal force or this is something that is going to create a situation that many of us are going to regret afterwards."

(A report in today's Montreal Gazette says: The National Congress of Italian Canadians supports the moratorium and public inquiry call in connection with the death of Claudio Castegnetta, 32, in Quebec City in September. The Italian immigrant was a visibly disturbed man, wandering around barefoot when he refused to leave a Quebec City store. He died in a police cell two days after he was hit three or four times by a police Taser gun.)