Tasers used too often, too soon, investigator says

November 22, 2007
Gloria Galloway and Ian Bailey, Globe and Mail

OTTAWA AND VANCOUVER — The man who will head a review of the RCMP's use of tasers following the death of a Polish visitor in the Vancouver airport says he is concerned they may be deployed too quickly and too often. Paul Kennedy, chairman of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, said Wednesday that there have been instances “where I thought it was being used inappropriately at too early a level of intervention.”

Through the review ordered this week by Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, Mr. Kennedy said he wants to get a sense of whether RCMP “policy and their model in terms of recourse to force is appropriate.” And he wants to find out whether officers “have thought about other devices. Have they been told that this is either a last resort or should be used at the higher end in terms of intervention?”

The inappropriate use of tasers is not a new concern for Mr. Kennedy. In his annual report tabled in June, he said one taser-firing incident led him to conclude that a review of the weapons was necessary. Mr. Kennedy pointed to the case of an intoxicated woman – he didn't name her – who was tasered by an RCMP officer and taken to the police station.

“That was okay in the first instance,” he said. But then “she is in the station and the device is used against her again. It's a woman handcuffed in a station when there were other officers there. I said that is inappropriate in my belief. The commissioner agreed with me.”

The review, Mr. Kennedy said, will provide an opportunity to look at the full range of cases in which they have been used and determine whether the rules are clear and are being followed. Even before Mr. Day requested the broad look, Mr. Kennedy launched an investigation into the conduct of the four officers involved in the arrest of Robert Dziekanski. That probe is in addition to separate reviews being conducted by the Canada Border Services Agency, the B.C. coroner and the Vancouver Airport Authority, as well as a public inquiry that has been promised by the B.C. government.

Mr. Day has requested that Mr. Kennedy's initial report be filed on Dec. 12.

Mr. Kennedy's expressed concerns about taser use prompted the co-founder of the company that manufactures the device used on Mr. Dziekanski to question whether the commissioner might hold some preconceived biases about the devices. “Is he already developing an opinion without all of the facts?” Tom Smith of Taser International Inc. asked The Globe and Mail from his office in Scottsdale, Ariz. “Because my response would be this device has more accountability features built into it than any other system in the world. It records every time the trigger is pulled, the date and the time.” Mr. Smith also noted that police tend to file reports on taser use. And he said some of his company's devices are equipped with cameras to record incidents in which they are used, leaving a visual record for later examination.

Taser International holds the data download feature up as an example of the weapon's accountability. That feature failed miserably on the two tasers used on my brother.

RCMP: Trust in policing needs improved accountability

THIS BEARS REPEATING:

An Op-Ed released on September 26, 2007 by Paul Kennedy, The Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP (the civilian accountability tribunal which reviews the on-duty conduct of RCMP members), says - among other things:

"One case reviewed this year involved the use of the Taser gun, which administers an electric shock, against an intoxicated woman. She was tasered twice while handcuffed. The CPC found that, although the woman was not cooperative, she posed no physical threat to the officer. Therefore, according to the CPC, the use of the Taser was improper. The Commission recommended policy changes to ensure that the Taser is not used when a citizen's behaviour might be classified as uncooperative or resistant rather than combative. Uncooperative citizens should be controlled by less intrusive techniques that pose less risk than the Taser."

"One of the issues I address in the proposed legislation is public concerns about police investigating themselves. Citizens must have confidence that investigations into serious incidents that raise questions about the actions of the police are treated impartially and transparently. Even within the current review structure, we launched an innovative pilot project in collaboration with the RCMP's Office of Investigative Standards and Practices in B.C. It assigns Commission staff to observe and to assess the impartiality of RCMP investigations involving actions of its members when there is serious injury or death, and for other investigations that are high profile and sensitive in nature."

RCMP often rewrote critical reports, watchdog says

July 20, 2007
Tim Naumetz, CanWest News Service

In one case, however, where an RCMP officer used a Taser stun gun on a handcuffed woman in a police station, the RCMP commissioner of the day agreed with the commission's findings that use of the Taser in that situation was "totally inappropriate" and denied the officer access to Tasers until he finished a new training course in their use.

Taser use on woman like torture, lawyer says

January 25, 2006
CBC News

A prosecutor suggests a woman was tortured when two Halifax police officers used a stun gun on her.

Constables John Hope and Mark Galloway are on trial, charged with assault after using a Taser on Suzanne Silver while she was in a police holding cell in September 2004.

The officers arrested Silver in Eastern Passage, then took her to the holding cell at the Halifax police station. Silver was furious and unleashed a stream of profanity laden invective.

Then, in the cell, when she wouldn't let police take her handcuffs off, Hope used the Taser on Silver three times.

"She was lying on her back with both of her hands handcuffed behind her back and in that position she was burned, shocked with a Taser more than once. Was that reasonable?" prosecutor Darrell Carmichael said Tuesday as the trial wrapped up.

Carmichael said not only was it not reasonable, it bordered on torture.

"The torture section of the Criminal Code defines torture as intentionally inflicting suffering on another person in order to coerce or intimidate them," he said.

Pat Duncan, the defence lawyer representing Hope, said any talk of torture is "absurd."

"They weren't charged with torture. Torture had no application whatsoever in this case. The Taser is an approved instrument," Duncan said.

The defence argues the police officers did everything by the book and they were just trying to control an unruly prisoner. The Crown maintains the arrest was illegal in the first place and that police used excessive force.

It's now up to Judge Carole Beaton to decide. She'll bring down her decision in March.

Woman claims cops used stun gun on her

November 25, 2005
CBC News

What constitutes excessive force is a central issue at the trial of two Halifax police officers who are charged with assaulting a female prisoner with a Taser gun.

One night in September 2004, two police officers arrested Suzanne Silver for allegedly uttering death threats. She claims that veteran constables John Hope and Mark Galloway pushed their way into her mother's house and manhandled her.

By the time Silver was brought into the booking area at police headquarters, she was in a rage. As police surveillance cameras rolled, Silver launched into an uninterrupted tirade against the officers.

Then one of the officers threatened to use a Taser on her.

The hand-held stun guns deliver a jolt of electricity from up to 6.5 metres away. The shot can penetrate up to five centimetres of clothing, immobilizing the person targeted.

Silver was taken to a holding cell, where an altercation occurred. She claims she was hit with a Taser four times.

Galloway and Hope are charged with assault and committing an assault by carrying, using or threatening to use a weapon.

Crown attorney Darrell Carmichael says the case revolves around two questions:

"The first issue is whether the police officers entered that home lawfully and so were entitled to use force against Suzanne Silver, and the second issue is, if they were entitled to use force, did they use no more than reasonable force," he said.

One of the defence lawyers, Pat Duncan, says the officers acted properly.

"The defence will be advocating to the court that the arrest was lawful and that any use of force was appropriate to the circumstance," she said.

The trial has heard only the Crown's case. The two officers are expected to testify in their own defence when it resumes.