High profile Victoria police chief quits, discipline hearing cancelled

August 14, 2008
The Canadian Press

VICTORIA — Victoria is looking for a new police chief after the city's mayor announced the immediate resignation of embattled former chief Paul Battershill under mysterious circumstances.

Battershill has been on paid administrative leave since last October and was facing a disciplinary hearing next Monday, but what prompted the leave has never been made public.

Mayor Alan Lowe said Wednesday that Battershill's resignation means the hearing has been cancelled. Lowe wouldn't give details about what's behind Battershill's departure.

"I would like to announce today that the (Victoria Police) board has accepted the resignation of Paul Battershill effective immediately as a result of a loss of confidence in his leadership of the Victoria Police Department," said Lowe during a press conference at Victoria Police headquarters.

"The disciplinary hearing set for Aug. 18 will no longer proceed due to the resignation of Battershill," he said. "The police board will not be paying a severance to Battershill. We will contribute a sum of $15,000 towards Battershill's legal fees as part of the settlement agreement. The Victoria Police Board considers this matter closed."

But Lowe suggested the Battershill matter could still face public scrutiny. The office of B.C.'s police complaints commissioner is entitled to review the findings of an RCMP investigation it ordered and has the power under the Police Act to call a public hearing, he said. "A public hearing could be held if (the commissioner's) office believes that the issues are such that they are in the public interest," Lowe said.

Police Complaints Commissioner Dirk Ryneveld was not immediately available for comment.

Lowe said an RCMP investigation of the allegations, which were never made public, against Battershill found nothing criminal against the former chief. "The investigation completed by the RCMP did not find that Battershill had committed any criminal acts, had any involvement with any criminal activity, nor did it find any financial impropriety," he said.

Lowe did say the allegations against Battershill were a personnel matter, but refused to go further. Lowe said Battershill's annual salary was $167,000.

The mayor defended the actions of the Victoria Police Board, saying the board was looking to protect taxpayers with regards to the Battershill matter. "We as a police board have acted very appropriately and we are looking after the best interests of the taxpayers," he said. "There are some things within the last nine-and-a-half months that we are unable to disclose only due to the fact that we are bound by the settlement agreement at this time."

Lowe said he believes the police board had no other choice but to suspend Battershill.

Deputy Chief Bill Naughton will remain as interim chief, said Lowe, but the police board has already hired a firm to begin looking for a new chief, who should be hired by November. Naughton said the issues involving the chief proved challenging for the department's rank-and-file members, but the officers never wavered from their duties to the public. "This department has a long and proud history," he said. "The record of accomplishment since October speaks for itself," said Naughton, citing several successful police operations, including the arrest of suspects in connection with a deadly downtown shooting. Naughton said he has not seen the investigation reports on Battershill. He would not say if he will apply for the chief's position.

Battershill, a 20-year Vancouver city police veteran, became Victoria's chief constable in 1999. He was known for supporting innovative policing techniques and led high-profile reviews on the use of Taser stun guns by police and an investigation into alcohol-related incidents at the West Vancouver Police Department.

Ryneveld ordered the RCMP to conduct an investigation under the Police Act but refused to disclose the reason. The entire matter was under a news blackout until a sensitive legal document was leaked to the media last November.

Victoria lawyer David Mulroney said at the time he wrote a letter to the law firm that represents the police department suggesting possible conflicts of interest surrounding the police chief and his knowledge of freedom of information requests involving himself. Mulroney said he represents a client who filed several freedom of information requests that name Battershill and suggested a link between his client's information request and the RCMP's investigation.

The access requests targeted four areas, including the Victoria police department's dismissals without cause, suspensions with pay, expense accounts and employment contracts involving pay equity.

One package of documents Mulroney's client received revealed Battershill had credit card expenses of more than $90,000 since 2004. The documents also show the city paid up to $600,000 in severance to former police department members and officials. The request also asked for all expense and accounting records of the two high-profile reports compiled by Battershill. Mulroney has yet to receive those documents. He asked for all expenses and accounts from the Taser Technology Review conducted by Battershill and its preliminary recommendations in September 2004.

It also asked for all expenses and accounts relating to Battershill's investigation of Const. Lisa of the West Vancouver Police Department on behalf of the B.C. Police Complaints Commissioner.

British Columbia's Police Complaints Commissioner wants tasers classified as firearms

June 25, 2008
CBC News

B.C.'s police complaints commissioner, Dirk Ryneveld, has told the Braidwood Inquiry that Tasers may be misclassified as prohibited weapons, as opposed to prohibited firearms, as defined under Canada's criminal code.

Ryneveld told the public inquiry on Wednesday the distinction is important because the classification determines how police use the controversial stun guns.

"If this is a prohibited firearm, it must be authorized for use. And if their paperwork is misclassified as a prohibited weapon, then the restrictions on its use, and the reporting and the training and the certification don’t apply to the Taser, whereas perhaps it should," said Ryneveld.

He also told the inquiry police need to use Tasers with an appreciation that they could be lethal, not with the belief that they are a safe, non-lethal alternative to a gun.

The inquiry heard Reyneveld’s opinion that Tasers have become a 'tool of convenience' and although the stun guns shouldn't be banned outright, they do require more study and training.

Reyneveld said he's had a long-standing concern with how stun guns are used by police forces, adding that issues about the weapon that were raised several years ago still haven't been resolved.

While he didn't recommend a moratorium, Ryneveld said the Taser needs to be placed higher on the use-of-force scale than it currently is. A national protocol should be devised to help all users understand when a stun gun should be used, he said.

The public inquiry was called in the wake of the death of Robert Dziekanski after he was shocked with an RCMP Taser at Vancouver International Airport last October. A report on the general use of Tasers by police is expected this fall.

British Columbia watchdog urges more care in taser use

June 25 2008
The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER -- B.C.'s police complaint commissioner says he doesn't advocate a moratorium on the use of Tasers but they have become a "tool of convenience" and more testing, study and training is required.

Dirk Ryneveld told a B.C. public inquiry Wednesday that he's had a long-standing concern with the Taser and how it's being used by police forces.

"Unfortunately, the Taser has become a tool of convenience in some situations, sort of a `Come along' device, `drop the beer. No? Zap,"' Ryneveld told the inquiry.

"In essence, it's being used in situations far short of an alternative to lethal force."

He said the Taser's use should be restricted to situations when people pose a threat to the public, an officer or themselves. Ryneveld, who investigated the death of Robert Wayne Bagnell, 44, after he was subdued with a Vancouver city police Taser in June 2004, said issues about the shock weapon were raised then and still haven't been resolved.

He said a report issued in the wake of Bagnell's death called for uniform training in the use of Tasers by police across the province.

Ryneveld said further study, independent testing and training is urgently needed.

"That was my view in 2004 and it still is today. Unfortunately, the issues we raised then are still unresolved and true independent study and testing hasn't been as actively or as timely pursued as I would have hoped," he told the commissioner.

Ryneveld said he doesn't have the jurisdiction to ban or even limit the use of the weapons. In any event, he said he doesn't recommend a moratorium. "I am ... not advocating a moratorium on its use in its entirety at this time, based on safety issues alone," he said.

"Apart from anecdotal accounts of inappropriate use of the Taser in situations where they clearly ought not be used, there is not, to my knowledge (apart from one U.S. civil case), a body of evidence or legal determination that directly connects Taser use with resultant death as its sole cause."

Ryneveld said the shock weapons need to be placed higher on the use-of-force scale than they currently are and a national protocol should be established so all users understand when they should be deployed.

The B.C. public inquiry was called after would-be Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski was hit with an RCMP Taser at Vancouver International Airport last October.

The inquiry has been so overwhelmed with requests from people to appear that it scheduled an additional day on Wednesday for submissions.

A report on the first phase of the inquiry, which is looking at the general use of Tasers by law enforcement in the province, is expected this fall. A second phase of the inquiry will look specifically at Dziekanski's death.

RCMP complaints commissioner vows to 'hold feet to the fire' on tasers

June 25, 2008
The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER — The commissioner for complaints against the RCMP says he's trying to "create enough heat publicly" to force the national police agency to change the way it uses Tasers.

Paul Kennedy, chairman of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, appeared before a B.C. public inquiry on the use of Tasers on Wednesday. Last week, Kennedy issued a scathing report on use of the shock weapons by the force.

He conceded outside the inquiry that none of his recent recommendations have to be implemented but he said it's his job to pressure the force to co-operate.
"Part of what I have to do is create enough heat publicly . . . to say, 'Look, this is what we want.' That's the bottom line," Kennedy told reporters.

Kennedy pointed out that the national police force has 3,000 Tasers at its disposal across the country. In addition, they have many new recruits, a high turnover rate, an inadequate mentoring system, he said. And he said they don't have a system in place to monitor use of the weapons. "I'm hoping that if they look at that they'll realize, 'Whoops, we have a problem here. We didn't think it was being used in these kind of circumstances,"' he said.

RCMP have started to implement some recommendations, including appointing a national use-of-force co-ordinator, but overall Kennedy expressed dissatisfaction. "They have modestly implemented some," he said.

He said each division should have a use-of-force co-ordinator and there should be a national co-ordinator who is a commissioned officer.

"I'm trying to hold their feet to the fire. I'm giving them a model," Kennedy said of the report issued earlier this month.

The report echoed his interim call to limit Tasers to clashes where suspects are combative or risk serious harm to themselves, the police or the public. In the 78-page report, Kennedy urged tighter controls on a weapon the Mounties have drawn from their holsters more than 4,000 times since its introduction in 2001.

In his presentation to inquiry commissioner Thomas Braidwood, Kennedy decried the situation where the RCMP decides how to deploy the Taser and also decides what data it's going to release on its use.

Like others who have appeared, Kennedy said the Taser is being used in situations where it was never intended - known as "usage creep."

Earlier in the day, B.C.'s police complaint commissioner said he - like Kennedy - doesn't advocate a moratorium on the use of Tasers. But they have become a "tool of convenience" and more testing, study and training is required.

"Unfortunately, the Taser has become a tool of convenience in some situations, sort of a 'Come along' device; 'drop the beer. No? Zap,"' Dirk Ryneveld told the inquiry. "In essence, it's being used in situations far short of an alternative to lethal force." He said the Taser's use should be restricted to situations when people pose a threat to the public, an officer or themselves.

Ryneveld, who investigated the death of Robert Wayne Bagnell, 44, after he was subdued with a Vancouver city police Taser in June 2004, said issues about the shock weapon were raised then and still haven't been resolved. He said a report issued in the wake of Bagnell's death called for uniform training in the use of Tasers by police across the province.

Ryneveld said further study, independent testing and training is urgently needed. "Unfortunately, the issues we raised then are still unresolved and true independent study and testing hasn't been as actively or as timely pursued as I would have hoped," he told the inquiry.

The B.C. public inquiry was called in the wake of the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski after he was hit with an RCMP Taser at Vancouver International Airport last October. The inquiry has been so overwhelmed with requests from people wanting to appear that it scheduled the additional day for submissions on Wednesday.

A report on the first phase of the inquiry, which is looking at the general use of Tasers by law enforcement in the province, is expected this fall. A second phase of the inquiry will look specifically at Dziekanski's death.

Earlier report was prescient, inconvenient, and ignored

June 19, 2008
GARY MASON, Globe and Mail

REGINA -- As Dirk Ryneveld continued telling his story, you could see heads in the audience beginning to shake in that disgusted, isn't-that-just-typical sort of way.

The subject was tasers. The occasion was the annual meeting of the Canadian Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement, which included officials from police watchdog agencies across the country and around the world.

B.C.'s police complaint commissioner was telling the gathering about a wide-ranging investigation he held into the use of the tasers back in 2004. It was prompted by the in-custody death of Robert Bagnell after he was tasered by the Vancouver police.

The commissioner thought that conducted energy weapons needed a more thorough examination, so he had the Victoria Police Department carry that out on his behalf. A wide range of specialists were consulted. Later that year, Mr. Ryneveld issued an interim report.

It called for: standardized testing and training across police forces; mandatory reporting on deployment of the taser; and training for people dealing with what is known as "excited delirium" or cocaine-induced psychosis. It suggested police immediately call for medical assistance when a person had been hit by a taser.

In response to suggestions by medical experts that some people were likely dying from the holds police put them in after they were tasered, Mr. Ryneveld suggested law enforcement agencies introduce strict restraint protocols to reduce the chance of this occurring. He recommended that the taser be used on individuals exhibiting combative behaviour only. He urged police departments and the provincial government of B.C. to conduct further studies into the weapon.

As an independent officer of the B.C. Legislature, Mr. Ryneveld could not order his recommendations into law. And they covered only municipal police forces in the province anyway. Nearly 70 per cent of B.C. is policed by the RCMP. It was up to the B.C. solicitor-general to follow through on the changes Mr. Ryneveld had proposed.

So what happened?

Nothing. The report and all its fine research and proposals were thrown in a filing cabinet somewhere and forgotten.

"You can lead a horse to water," Mr. Ryneveld said yesterday. You could hear groans in the audience.

Years after Mr. Ryneveld issued his report, the taser-related death of Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport would prompt a mass overreaction by politicians and give birth to a number of different investigations and inquiries. Yesterday, the head of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP issued his final report on the use of the taser. The similarity between many of Paul Kennedy's recommendations and Mr. Ryneveld's are unmistakable.

In fact, Mr. Ryneveld must be wondering why his name wasn't on the report too.

And there is no doubt that many of the recommendations that former judge Thomas Braidwood makes when he wraps up his inquiry in Vancouver will also duplicate those of the B.C. police complaint commissioner.

Isn't there something all too typical about this? Good and valuable reports ignored by our political leaders because they're simply not a priority at the time or, in the case of Mr. Ryneveld's report, because it would mean stepping on the toes of a group of people politicians generally don't like to upset: the police.

Well, at least until it becomes politically necessary to do so.

When, for instance, someone dies after being tasered and the whole ugly affair is caught on camera and produces international outrage and the public is demanding that something be done.

Then, amazingly, our politicians find courage.

Mr. Ryneveld was remarkably restrained after his speech. He refused to indulge in any shots at those who ignored the alarm he sounded on tasers years ago. And when asked about the amazing parallels in his recommendations and Mr. Kennedy's, he would offer only a tight, wordless smile.

Doubts linger over business ties of taser's champion in Canada - Victoria police officer Darren Laur

December 11, 2007
OMAR EL-AKKAD and JESSICA LEEDER AND CAROLINE ALPHONSO, The Globe and Mail

B.C. sergeant who shaped police views about weapon had stock options in its U.S. maker

Perhaps no one is more responsible for tasers coming to Canada than Darren Laur. The veteran Victoria police officer played a pivotal role in a 1998 pilot program that led to his force adopting the weapons permanently. A subsequent research paper he wrote - which concluded that tasers were safe and effective - laid the groundwork for the devices' spread to police departments across the country.

But questions linger about his motivations. Sgt. Laur has received several payments from Taser International since 1999, documents show, including expenses to travel to its training courses and to train two U.S. police forces to use tasers. In 2001, a private company that Sgt. Laur co-owns with his wife designed a holstering system for Taser, which paid the couple by issuing them 775 stock options days after Taser International went public.

The Globe and Mail's investigation reveals Sgt. Laur's financial dealings with Taser International recently caused his own police department to recommend that officers be prohibited from business relationships with outside weapons manufacturers. The British Columbia police complaint commissioner also concluded that Sgt. Laur should not have been selected to conduct a high-profile 2004 review of tasers, one that advocates use of the weapon and that the company itself often cites.

Despite this, there has never been a comprehensive review of Sgt. Laur's early influence on the myriad of Canadian pro-taser studies, including a highly lauded review from the Canadian Police Research Centre.

In December, 1998, the Victoria police became the first in Canada to launch a six-month pilot program to test stun-gun technology on patrol. This caught the attention of police departments across Canada. At the time, Sgt. Laur was the department's top use-of-force expert, and he was the first Canadian officer to travel on Taser's expense to its Arizona headquarters to be trained as what the company calls a "master instructor."

After the pilot program ended in the summer of 1999, Victoria police decided to add tasers to their toolkit, and a report by Sgt. Laur was circulated to police departments nationwide.

"I have been inundated with phone calls from Canadian police departments and correctional agencies wanting information on the TASER and the results of our study," Sgt. Laur wrote in the report. "As I predicted, the floodgates in Canada for the use of TASER technology have opened up."

Victoria's self-described success with the weapon seemed to prompt other departments to launch pilot projects. At the end of 2000, forces in Edmonton, Ottawa and Toronto were all testing tasers.

By then, Sgt. Laur was also being paid to train some U.S. police forces on behalf of Taser International.

Neither Sgt. Laur nor Taser International responded to requests for comment yesterday.

Victoria police documents show that in April, 2000, the Laurs' private company was retained by the Jackson County sheriff's department "to provide training in TASER's weapons system." Taser paid for Sgt. Laur to make the trip. In 2001, Sgt. Laur's company designed a "holstering system" for the M26 Taser. In exchange for the design rights, the company issued 775 stock options, worth about $5,000. Sgt. Laur sold the shares on Nov. 7, 2003, when the stock traded at between $5.04 and $5.39.

The public wouldn't learn of Sgt. Laur's investment until 2005, when the officer was asked to conduct an impartial review of tasers after a Vancouver man, Robert Bagnell, was shot a year earlier with the weapon and soon died. Four days before his 45th birthday, police found Mr. Bagnell behaving erratically at a Vancouver residential hotel. He was high on cocaine and had barricaded himself in a bathroom on the fifth floor. They tasered the struggling man. His heart stopped.

After Mr. Bagnell's death, the B.C. office of the police complaint commissioner ordered two investigations. One was an examination of taser use in B.C. The investigating team - which included Sgt. Laur - issued two reports, both of which advocated the future use of stun guns.

The first report in September, 2004, made no mention of Sgt. Laur's financial dealings with Taser International. However, in the ensuing months, Bagnell family lawyer Cameron Ward learned about Sgt. Laur's investments and raised the issue with the Vancouver police and the police complaint commissioner.

When the final report was issued four months later, it included a disclaimer on its final page: "Darren Laur held stock in TASER International and provided training to two external agencies at the request of those agencies."

In an interview yesterday, B.C. police complaint commissioner Dirk Ryneveld said he didn't know about Sgt. Laur's stock options when he was assigned to the review. "I probably would have preferred that no one who had any relationship with Taser [be involved]," Mr. Ryneveld said. He added that any conflict of interest was "perceived" and not actual, and didn't undermine the validity of the report.

U.S. court documents show Sgt. Laur and five other U.S. police officers - most of whom promoted Taser's products or urged their cities to buy them - got stock options between 2001 and 2003.

The revelations in 2005 about Sgt. Laur's financial relationship with Taser led Mr. Bagnell's sister, Patti Gillman, to log a formal complaint with the police complaints commissioner. That sparked Victoria police to launch an internal investigation into whether Sgt. Laur had violated the force's conflict-of-interest policy.

"I do consider Sgt. Laur to have been in an apparent and perceived conflict of interest by reason of having held a financial interest in TASER through his stock options," the investigator, Inspector Cory Bond, wrote in her report. Insp. Bond concluded that Sgt. Laur did not specifically violate the conflict-of-interest policy at the time, because the force had no procedure for conflict-of-interest disclosure.

Insp. Bond recommended that the force review its policy and develop specific restrictions on relationships with weapons manufacturers. "Such an interest might be seen to influence or impair police officers in the exercise of their duties," she wrote.

Victoria police officer Darren Laur's "apparent or perceived" conflict of interest

In August 2005, I lodged a complaint with the British Columbia Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner (OPCC) to iterate my concern that, while engaged in permanent full-time employment as a peace officer with the Victoria Police Department, Sgt. Darren Laur was also employed by, and accepted financial benefits from, Taser International and that his acceptance of financial benefits from that company placed him in a conflict of interest. It was my belief that this conflict of interest compromised Sgt. Laur's participation in the "Taser Technology Review" and an external investigation into the circumstances of my brother's death, both commissioned by the OPCC.

On September 24, 2005, Robert Anglen - a reporter for The Arizona Republic - published an article entitled "Taser defends giving stock options to police." Mr. Anglen wrote: "Another officer who received Taser stock options is Darren Laur of the Victoria, British Columbia, Police Department. Laur has been a staunch advocate for Taser for years and helped write a report in 1999 that helped usher Tasers into Canada. According to court documents, Laur was given 750 stock options in 2001 for helping to design a holster for the Taser. Taser said he sold the options in 2003. In his deposition, Taser President Tom Smith said he did not believe any of the options granted to police officers represented a conflict."

On October 5, 2005, Victoria Chief Constable Paul Battershill clearly identified this issue as a public trust issue in a presentation to the Canadian Association of Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement National Conference. During his presentation, Chief Battershill noted that "Conflict of interest is now arising with police use of force people who privately contract. Ethics combined with declaration of conflicts. (Kerek [sic], Laur, etc.) This is going to get problematic unless very clear conflict guidelines are followed."

On October 6, 2005, Chief Constable Battershill wrote to advise me that my complaint did not disclose a recognized Public Trust; Service and Policy; or Internal Discipline default. To which I and lawyer Cameron Ward responded that Sgt. Laur committed a Public Trust default, and possibly a Service and Policy default, by placing himself in such a conflict of interest, and that Chief Battershill was obligated to characterize this complaint. We requested that the investigation proceed without further delay. Another letter from the Victoria Police Department confirmed that their position remained unchanged and my complaint was referred back to the OPCC for consideration and decision.

On January 9, 2006, the OPCC formally characterized my complaint as a "compound complaint" with both Public Trust and Service and Policy components and advised all parties, including Darren Laur, Chief Constable Paul Battershill and Mayor Alan Lowe (Chair of the Victoria Police Board). An investigation began.

Because Chief Constable Battershill was considered a "witness" in the investigation, Chief Constable Paul Shrive of the Port Moody Policy Department was named Discipline Authority for the complaint, with a mandate to review the final report and determine a course of action to follow.

On June 12, 2007, almost two years after the complaint was lodged, I received a letter from Alan Lowe, Chair of the Victoria Police Board, who said that the Board reviewed my complaint pertaining to the Service and Policy component and determined that the current policy did not adequately address current conflict of interest issues, nor did it meet public expectations of conflict of interest guidelines and disclosure processes. As a result, "significant recommendations to the Victoria Police Department Conflict of Interest policy were made that reflect the serious manner with which we consider the issue."

On July 3, 2007, I received a letter from Chief Constable Paul Shrive who found that no Public Trust complaint against Sgt. Laur was substantiated. He did, however, say that there was an apparent or perceived, but not an "actual" (what the hell's the difference?) conflict of interest given Sgt. Laur's past association with Taser International and he agreed that, in the circumstances, Sgt. Laur ought not to have been selected to participate in the Taser Technology Review.

He further expressed his view that, while it was beyond the ambit of his delegation, this matter was of great significance and should be addressed promptly. And while the inspector in charge of the investigation recommended that the Victoria Police Department or Chief Constable Battershill acknowledge to me and the public that Sgt. Laur was in a position of apparent or perceived conflict of interest and ought not to have been selected to participate in the Taser Technology Review, he found that this also fell outside the ambit of his delegation and said he must leave that matter to the discretion of the Victoria Police Department and Chief Constable Battershill. (To the best of my knowledge, neither Chief Constable Battershill nor his department has ever acknowledged this publicly. You read it here first.)

On July 6, 2007, Chief Constable Battershill sent copies of the Executive Summaries of the complaint investigation to me. In his covering letter, he agreed with the determination that Sgt. Laur was in a position of apparent or perceived, but not an "actual" (again, I fail to see the difference) conflict of interest and that in retrospect Sgt. Laur ought not to have participated in the Taser Technology Review. However, he felt it was "evident" that the perceived or apparent conflict of interest posed by Sgt Laur's previous dealings or associations with Taser International did not compromise the Taser Technology Review or the investigation into my brother's death. He noted current standards of public expectation with conflict of interest issues associated to public bodies, and where it is a reasonable expectation to not have had Sgt. Laur's participation.

Finally, he said that the implementation of policy change based on the recommendations from the Victoria Police Board would bring forward a consistency with public expectations on the issue of conflict of interest which police in general have not adequately addressed.

In a final letter from the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner, the Deputy Police Complaint Commissioner wrote that one of the recommendations from the investigation was that the OPCC recommend that consideration be given to amending the BC Police Act to include a section dealing with conflicts of interest. He noted that the Ministry of the Solicitor General and Public Safety is currently undertaking a review of the Police Act and that separate correspondence would be forwarded to them with respect to this issue.

He noted that it was his view that the issues involving police officers and conflict of interest have not been previously or adequately dealt with and the types of policy changes seen as a result of this investigation are worthy of other police departments to take note of. He concluded by saying that this topic was placed on the agenda of the Canadian Association of Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement National Conference.

As I noted earlier, Taser President Tom Smith did not believe any of the options granted to police officers represented a conflict. It would seem that not everyone agrees.

Taser technology review - final report

June 14, 2005
Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner

One of the authors of this review was Sgt. Darren Laur, a former Taser Shareholder

Better Taser training needed, says B.C. report

September 30, 2004
Canadian Press

VICTORIA — Police in British Columbia should continue using the Taser as a weapon of force despite four deaths, but better training is required, says a report released Wednesday. "Our analysis of the field usages and the medical literature suggests appropriate use of the Taser presents an acceptable level of risk to subjects being controlled,'' concludes an interim report ordered by B.C. Police Complaints Commissioner Dirk Ryneveld.

But, while the B.C. Civil Liberties Association said the report was positive, the watchdog group said the technology is still evolving and must be monitored.

The report, written by the Victoria police chief, includes five recommendations for police across British Columbia.

They are:

A standard provincewide police Taser training course.
Mandatory reports of all Taser uses.
Moves to new technology.
Better training for officers with regards to drug abuse behaviour.
Elimination of a police restraint method that involves handcuffing hands and ankles behind the back.

"We believe that more can be done to ensure uniformity of training across the province to provide enhanced levels of accountability and to decrease the risk to those groups most at risk from sudden and unexpected death associated to restraint, whether or not the Taser is used,'' said the report.

Ryneveld ordered the Taser use probe following reports of the June 23 death of Robert Bagnell of Vancouver. Bagnell, who was high on cocaine and other drugs, was hit by the high-voltage charge of a police Taser in a Vancouver hotel room. He died at the scene. Vancouver police waited a month before confirming one of its Tasers hit Bagnell.

Victoria police Chief Paul Battershill was appointed to lead the probe that included investigating the Bagnell case and reviewing the use of the Taser by police officers in British Columbia. The interim report issued Wednesday only examined Taser use in British Columbia. Four people have died in B.C. in the past 15 months in circumstances where police used a Taser. Each incident, including Bagnell's death, is the subject of a coroner's inquest, all of which are expected to be completed in six to eight months.

The four B.C. cases involved individuals suffering from excited delirium, a condition known to be caused by psychiatric illness or overuse of street drugs, primarily methamphetamine and cocaine.

At a press conference in Victoria, Battershill said police can expect to encounter people in states of excited delirium more frequently as drug use increases.

The report recommended the creation of a standard police course on interpreting signs of excited delirium to all police officers, new recruits and current members.

"That appears to be under-recognized in both the police and medical communities right,'' Battershill said.

Training in Taser use must be standardized across British Columbia because inconsistencies between police departments were discovered as were reporting deficiencies, he said.

All Taser uses must be reported, Battershill said.

Police were also advised to switch to new Taser weapons that emit lower levels of electricity, but provide better control and information storage.

B.C. Civil Liberties Association spokesman Murray Mollard said the only negative aspect to the recomendations is that they should have been made five years ago.

"They're late in coming but now that they're here, it's a good thing," he said. "This is an interim report so we're going to hear more. The technology is new enough that they're going to have to keep doing this." And, Mollard added, evidence out there doesn't support removing Tasers. "We've always said this is an important addition to the use of force spectrum but it must be used appropriately," Mollard said.

At least six people have died in Canada after being shocked by Tasers.

The devices fire two barbs attached to a wire that deliver a 50,000-volt shock on contact for up to five seconds. The weapon is meant to immobilize aggressors by shocking their muscles.

Police like the Taser because it offers a less than lethal option for dealing with dangerous and unstable people. But critics say the weapon is sometimes lethal.

Amnesty International has said the weapon should be banned until more tests are done to determine its safety. The human rights group says the guns can be deadly when someone is in a weakened state because of heart problems or drug use.

About 50 people have died after being shot with Tasers in North America, most in the U.S. The B.C. report examined 4,500 Taser uses across North America and Europe, said Victoria Police Insp. Bill Naughton. Of the 4,500 uses, four deaths were reported, he said. The B.C. deaths were not part of the current probe because they are still subject to a coroner's investigation, said Naughton. He said the Taser is effective 94 per cent of the time. Naughton said the report would have recommended banning Taser use if it found the risks outweighed the advantages. "I don't think we took anything off the table,'' he said. "We would have banned it.''

Ryneveld said he will give a copy of the interim report to Rich Coleman, B.C.'s Solicitor General and the minister responsible for policing in British Columbia.

Taser technology review and interim recommendations

September 2004
Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner

Six police officers authored this report. One of the authors was former Taser Shareholder, Sgt. Darren Laur of the Victoria Police Department.