August 23, 2004
Graham F. Scott, Macleans
EARLY LAST WEEK, high and paranoid on cocaine, Samuel Truscott barricaded himself in his Kingston, Ont., bedroom with a knife and a baseball bat, threatening to hurt himself. Police were called, and when pepper spray failed to subdue the 43-year-old man, he was zapped through an open window with a Taser -- the sophisticated stun gun that disrupts muscle control and is used by more than 5,000 police forces worldwide. After being disarmed and searched, Truscott was taken to hospital for an evaluation of his mental health. Within hours he suffered a seizure and died.
Two days later, Ontario's deputy chief coroner reported the cause of death was a drug overdose -- not the stun gun. Still, Dr. James Cairns made it clear he was not yet ready to dismiss Tasers as a factor. How could he? Truscott was the fifth Canadian to die in the past year after being shocked with a police Taser. Formal investigations and coroner inquiries are ramping up in Brampton, Ont., as well as in Vancouver.(In both instances, drugs seemed to have played some role.)And now the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police has asked for a full review of the science and techniques of Taser use in Canada and around the world.
All this heightens a controversy that has been on the boil in the United States, where more than 50 deaths have been associated with the device over the past four years. Amnesty International and other human rights groups have issued calls to suspend their use. But Steve Tuttle, VP of communications at Arizona-based Taser International Inc., says such doubts are groundless, citing the more than 50,000 incident-free uses in the field as proof the devices are safe. "Our technology is explicitly designed not to cause fatalities," he says. "We've still not been listed as a direct cause of death."
That's true -- in only a few cases has a Taser been tagged as a contributing factor in a police suspect's death, and it's never been labelled the direct cause. But there is also little scientific consensus on the actual safety of the device, particularly when it's used on addicts or people with heart disease or pacemakers. Dr. Andrew Podgorski tested several early-model stun guns in 1989 at Canada's National Research Council. He found that pigs with implanted pacemakers could die from the electrical shocks. "I published this in a report," says Podgorski. "We suggested to police that maybe they shouldn't use the stun guns because nobody knows who has an implanted pacemaker."
Taser International says it has made significant improvements since then. And police forces believe in the Taser in part because standard training encourages officers to test the jolt on themselves. "It made me feel like I had no control over anything," wrote one officer of the experience, "I could not fight back." Another simply wrote, "Hurt like hell. Dropped like a stone." Edmonton police are one of 62 Canadian forces, including the RCMP, employing Tasers. Const. Shawna Goodkey, who works in the Officer Safety Unit, says the device "actually decreases injury for our subject and our officers out there because they can control somebody within five seconds."
Tasers work by shooting two small metal probes, attached to wires, into the body from up to six metres away. If both probes make contact -- even through several layers of clothes -- then the circuit is completed and the person's muscles are immobilized by 50,000 volts of electricity. That sounds like a lot -- it is -- but a Taser jolt is not the same as sticking your finger in a light socket and receiving a continuous shock. The Taser's zap is intermittent, and lasts five seconds -- just enough to force muscles into a rigid state.
The argument for Tasers is that they're a preferable alternative to guns, at least in situations where suspects are not armed. But police allow there are no silver bullets. Any time force is used, something bad can happen. The question where it comes to stun guns: when is it worth the risk?
Tasers in Canada
The Main Users
RCMP 640
MUNICIPAL FORCES
Edmonton Police Services 134
Vancouver Police Department 36
Ottawa-Carleton Regional Police Services 24
CORRECTIONAL SERVICES
B.C. Sheriff's Service 55
Court Services Branch, Federal Ministry of Attorney General 53
Alberta Solicitor General's Correctional Branch 18
NUMBER OF POLICE AND CORRECTIONAL SERVICES DEPLOYING
Tasers in Canada: 62, In U.S.: over 5,400
Number of devices in use in Canada: 1,193
In U.S.: over 100,000
NUMBER OF DEATHS ASSOCIATED WITH TASER USE:
Five in Canada, 50 in U.S., over four years
[SOURCE: Taser International Inc., media reports]
August 11, 2004
CBC News
The Canadian Association of Police Chiefs has commissioned a review of data and research on the use of Taser guns in the wake of two fatal incidents involving the high voltage stun devices.
"The Taser has undergone extensive research and has a solid track record for safety," said Jim Cessford, chairman of the association and chief of the Delta, B.C., police department.
"We have noted many instances in which the Taser has prevented injuries and saved the lives of private citizens and police officers. However, we understand the interest in this enforcement tool now that it is more widely utilized,'' he said.
The review will be conducted by the Canadian Police Research Centre – a coalition of the police chiefs association, the RCMP and the National Research Council.
The police chiefs association said it has commissioned "a unique and comprehensive review of scientific research, field reports, and data on the use of Tasers in police work in Canada and around the world.''
Tasers emit a jolt of 50,000 volts that interrupts the body's electrical impulses, causing involuntary muscle seizures. Last year, Tasers were blamed in about 50 deaths in the United States. In Canada, at least five people have died after being shot by Tasers.
The Arizona-based manufacturer of the weapons, Taser International, says the weapons are safe. It says none of the deaths have been directly attributed to a shot from a Taser.
Last week, B.C.'s Police Complaints Commissioner ordered an investigation into the use of Taser guns a month after a man died when he was shot with one in a hotel room in Vancouver.
In Ontario in July, a man died when police used a stun gun to immobilize him at a hotel in Mississauga. The hotel receptionist had called police to report a man breaking things in his room.
On Monday, Ontario's coroner said a Kingston, Ont., man who died Sunday just hours after being shot with a Taser by police was killed by a drug overdose.
Amnesty International has called for a ban on Tasers until further safety tests are done.
August 10, 2004
CBC News
Ontario's chief coroner has ruled the death of a 43-year-old Kingston man was not caused by a Taser gun. Dr. Jim Cairns said the death of the man, who died hours after being shot with a Taser Sunday morning, was caused by a drug overdose.
"I can state categorically that the Taser did not play any role whatsoever in his death," Cairns said.
Police were called Sunday to a home in Kingston where a man had apparently overdosed on drugs and was threatening to harm himself.
He'd barricaded himself in a bedroom and was armed with a knife and a bat. Police first tried using pepper spray to subdue him without success. They then used a Taser gun.
The man was taken to Kingston General Hospital where he suffered a seizure and died several hours later.
Tasers emit a jolt of 50,000 volts that interrupt the body's electrical impulses, causing involuntary muscle seizures. Last year, Tasers were blamed in about 50 deaths in the United States. In Canada, five people have died from Taser shots.
Last week, B.C.'s Police Complaints Commissioner ordered an investigation into the use of Taser guns a month after a man died when he was shot with one in a hotel room in Vancouver.
In Ontario in July, a third man died when police used a stun gun to immobilize him at a hotel in Mississauga. The hotel receptionist had called police to report a man breaking things in his room.
Amnesty International has called for a ban on Tasers until further safety tests are done. The Arizona-based manufacturer of the weapons, Taser International, says the weapons are safe.
August 10, 2004
JAMES RUSK, Globe & Mail
Kingston suspect subdued by officers died from a drug overdose, coroner rules
Ontario's police watchdog called off an investigation yesterday into the weekend death of a Kingston man after an autopsy concluded that police use of a Taser gun played no role in his death.
The Special Investigations Unit, which automatically reviews deaths in which police are involved, had been called in on Sunday after Samuel Truscott, 43, died in Kingston General Hospital.
His death occurred about two hours after Kingston Police Service officers subdued him using pepper spray and a Taser gun.
After the autopsy in Toronto yesterday morning, Ontario deputy chief coroner James Cairns said the cause of death was a drug overdose.
"After a review of the medical record and the autopsy findings, I can state categorically that the Taser did not play any role whatsoever in his death.
"The death was due solely to the drug overdose," Dr. Cairns said.
He also said that the police needed to use the Taser to subdue Mr. Truscott, who was armed with a knife and baseball bat.
"The Taser worked appropriately. Mr. Truscott walked unaided to a police cruiser and was immediately taken to hospital, where he died approximately two hours later despite medical care."
SIU director James Cornish said in a statement that the investigation had been terminated because "there is no basis to believe that any criminal act on the part of any officer caused or contributed to the man's death."
Even though the coroner concluded that the use of a Taser did not play a role in Mr. Truscott's death, its use remains controversial.
At least 50 people in North America have died after being shocked by Tasers, which administer five-second shocks of up to 50,000 volts of electricity.
The British Columbia Police Complaints Commissioner ordered an investigation into the case of Robert Bagnell, a Vancouver man, who died in June after being stunned by a Taser.
The SIU is investigating the death in July of Jerry Knight, a Brampton man, after Peel Regional Police used a Taser to subdue him.
Once the SIU investigation in the Knight case is finished, Ontario will conduct a coroner's inquest.
Dr. Cairns said that the inquiry will look at whether the use of a Taser played a role in Mr. Knight's death and, more generally, the issue of Taser safety.
"I don't want any confusion that I'm stating that Tasers haven't got an issue," he said.
"I'm purely looking at the facts of this one [the Kingston case], and the facts are easily obtained and quickly obtained and are irrefutable in this case. . . . I did not want this one running away when you have absolute, clear evidence that it had no role."
August 10, 2004
Globe & Mail
The Taser has been described as a non-lethal alternative to guns for police officers facing an aggressive suspect. This was evidently the case in the death in Kingston Sunday of Samuel Truscott, who was shot with a Taser when pepper spray failed to subdue him and who then walked unaided to the police cruiser to be taken to hospital, where he died. Ontario deputy chief coroner James Cairns announced after yesterday's autopsy that the Taser had played no role in Mr. Truscott's death; he died of a drug overdose.
However, Dr. Cairns said he wasdrawing no conclusion about the use of Tasers in general. Enough people have died after the use of the stun gun -- more than 50 to date in the United States and Canada -- that the "non-lethal" tag is ripe for re-evaluation. After the death in June of Robert Bagnell, a B.C. man who had been subdued with a Taser, provincial Police Complaints Commissioner Dirk Ryneveld asked Victoria Police ChiefPaul Battershill to investigate the use of Tasers.
The Taser shoots barbs at people as far as six metres away. The barbs are on wires connected to a battery. The more powerful Tasers administer 50,000 volts for five seconds, causing temporary loss of muscle control. The question is to what extent the use of Tasers may be lethal if a person is in a weakened condition or is a heavy drug user. Mr. Bagnell, for instance, was shot with a Taser after a complaint that he had been screaming and destroying bathroom fixtures; he stopped breathing while being handcuffed and arrested. The toxicology exam found a potentially lethal amount of cocaine and other drugs in his body.
The best argument for Tasers is to consider the alternative. Pepper spray often proves inadequate. Bullets are predictably fatal and may hit bystanders. After the death west of Toronto last month of boxer Jerry Knight, who had been subdued with a Taser, Craig Platt of Peel Regional Police said, "If we take the Taser away, it's one less option that we have."
One option may be not to take the Taser away but to impose strict regulations on its use. If, for instance, officers are found to be using it less discriminately than they should because of its non-lethal reputation, authorities might choose to limit the Taser's use to situations in which there would otherwise be absolutely no alternative but a firearm. The conclusion of the B.C. investigation may help in this regard.
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