Sister of dead Vancouver man targets police Taser accountability

May 30, 2012
Mike Howell, The Vancouver Courier

Next month marks an anniversary Patti Gillman wishes could be for a happier reason than learning about her older brother's death in a downtown hotel.

Eight years ago, 44-year-old Robert Wayne Bagnell died in the Old Continental Hotel at 1390 Granville St. after police attempted to arrest him in a washroom.

"It just brings a deep sense of loss and sadness," said Gillman, by telephone from her home in Belleville, Ont., who lost her brother June 23, 2004.

Vancouver police officers twice fired a Taser at Bagnell, handcuffed him and unsuccessfully used "zap straps" to tie his feet together before using a "triangular bandage" to restrain his legs.

He became unresponsive and died at the scene. To this day, Gillman doesn't believe a Taser was necessary in the arrest of her brother, noting he was 136 pounds and in medical distress when officers arrived at the hotel. "I don't think it helped," she said of the stun gun.

Gillman's belief and her crusade to make police officers more accountable for use of the Taser is detailed in a blog she started after her brother's death. The purpose of Truthnottasers is to track Taser-related deaths in North America and create public awareness about the weapon, said Gillman, who works for a non-profit association that supports people with intellectual disabilities.

Gillman contacted the Courier after reading a recent story posted on the paper's website that revealed the VPD had dramatically curtailed the use of the Taser since her brother's death.

Police have used the Taser only twice this year compared to a recorded high of 93 times in 2006. The year of Bagnell's death, police fired the Taser more than 20 times, according to incident reports posted on the VPD's website.

"Any time it's used by a police officer, it's a case of Russian roulette," she said. "With a gun you know what you're going to get, with a Taser you just don't."

In the lead-up to her brother's arrest, tenants heard incoherent yelling and the sound of porcelain smashing in the washroom. One tenant suspected Bagnell, who had a history of prescription and illicit drug use, of experiencing an overdose.

Dr. Laurel Gray, who conducted the autopsy on Bagnell, considered the role of the Taser, a stun gun that delivers a high-voltage electrical charge. But she concluded the cause of death was consistent with "restraint-associated cardiac arrest due to or as a consequence of acute cocaine intoxication and psychosis."

The details were revealed at a coroner's inquest in 2006 and 2007, which coincidentally was the same year Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski died at the Vancouver International Airport after RCMP officers fired a Taser at him several times.

Gillman has kept in contact with Dziekanski's mother, who bought Gillman a laptop so she could continue to write on her blog about police departments' use of the Taser.

Though stun guns are still used by officers, Gillman believes if her brother experienced the same breakdown today as he did in 2004, he might still be alive.

"I think at the time [the VPD] were so unclear about what the Taser could do or how it worked or what the outcomes could be," she said, noting the family dropped a lawsuit against the VPD because it cost too much. "He wasn't an angel, not at all, but he didn't deserve to die."

Vancouver cops credit 'clear guidelines' with Taser use drop

May 22, 2012

By Mike Howell, Vancouver Courier

 

The Vancouver Police Department has dramatically curtailed the use of its Tasers with officers having only fired the stun gun twice this year compared to 93 times in 2006.

 

Statistics show the VPD recorded seven incidents—three in one day in February—where the Taser was involved, with two cases where it was fired.

In the other five incidents, officers unholstered the Taser but did not have to fire the 50,000-volt gun to arrest a suspect, according to incident reports posted on the VPD’s website.

The dramatic decrease in Taser use began after the recorded high of 93 times it was deployed in 2006 dropped to 74 in 2007. Usage dropped further in 2008 to 27 times.

Const. Jana McGuinness, a VPD media relations officer, said the department has 101 officers trained and carrying the Taser, which is far fewer than in previous years.

“And those who do carry it are under tighter scrutiny,” McGuinness said in an email to the Courier. “The new Police Act sets outs very clear guidelines on when the [Taser] may be used, and the legislated usage is much narrower in scope than in 2007. Simply put, the [Taser] is not used in as wide a variety of circumstances as it once was. This alone will account for a decline in usage.”

David Eby, executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, said the decline is “good news” considering the battle his organization waged several years ago to get a moratorium on the use of Tasers in the province.

The civil liberties association requested the moratorium the same month Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski died in October 2007 at the Vancouver International Airport after RCMP officers fired a Taser at him several times.

“The only bad news about this is that Robert Dziekanski and others have had to die in order for us to get to this number,” said Eby, noting the high profile of the Dziekanski case and the subsequent inquiry into his death. “This is great news. I think that the police are now using the device much more carefully, as they should have been during the beginning.”

The first VPD incident this year requiring a Taser to be fired occurred Feb. 1 in the north lane of 13th Avenue and Ontario Street. Officers boxed in a car, whose occupants were suspected of robbery, kidnapping and a carjacking involving a knife.

Police said the driver attempted to escape.

“The Taser was deployed and the driver was pulled from the driver’s seat and arrested,” said the incident report. “He was assessed at Vancouver General Hospital and then taken to jail.”

In a March 9 incident, officers were called to check on the welfare of an “emotionally disturbed woman” inside a suite in the 1400-block of West 14th Avenue.

The woman made verbal threats, was armed with knives and indicated she had a gun. A VPD emergency response team stormed the suite after a six-hour standoff.

Police fired a Taser and Arwen gun when the woman confronted officers with knives in hand, said the incident report. The woman was taken to hospital for a mental health assessment and is facing weapons charges.

McGuinness noted that in about 75 per cent of incidents involving a Taser, the suspect surrenders after police unholster the stun gun so it is in plain view.

In June 2004, Robert Wayne Bagnell died at the scene after police fired a Taser twice at him during an arrest at the Old Continental Hotel at 1390 Granville St.

Dr. Laurel Gray, who conducted the autopsy, testified at a coroner’s inquest she considered the Taser’s role in Bagnell’s arrest but determined the medical cause of death “was consistent with restraint-associated cardiac arrest due to or as a consequence of acute cocaine intoxication and psychosis.”

The five-man jury agreed and gave no recommendations.

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

Fraction of VPD carries Tasers under new rules

"Tasers can still be used on seniors, children, pregnant women and the mentally ill, despite warnings from the manufacturer."

January 27, 2012

CTV BC

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Peter Grainger

The new standards for Taser use are set to come into effect next week, and they mean that just a fraction of Vancouver police officers are carrying the conducted-energy weapons.

The changes to B.C. policy were recommended by retired judge Thomas Braidwood, who led an inquiry into the death of Robert Dziekanski after being stunned multiple times at the Vancouver International Airport in October 2007.

The Vancouver Police Department is already complying with the province-wide standards, which require officers to undergo training before they can carry Tasers. But the department doesn't automatically send people to be qualified and officers have to volunteer.

Right now, only 107 officers carry a Taser, and a third of those are members of the emergency response team. As of December, there were 1,327 sworn officers in the VPD.

Some of the other new policies include:

• Tasers are only to be used on violent people
• Officers must give verbal warnings before shocking anyone
• They must use, or consider using, crisis intervention first
• They must avoid chest shots
• Shocks cannot last for more than five seconds

However, Tasers can still be used on seniors, children, pregnant women and the mentally ill, despite warnings from the manufacturer.

That is a concern for BC Civil Liberties Association director David Eby, who was the only civilian member of the implementation committee on Braidwood's recommendations.

"This device, still untested on those groups, is still being used by police officers and potentially on those groups. That is a potential major issue given the recent Tasering of an 11-year old in Prince George," he said.
"There may be some mistaken notion that now they're safe, now we know what the effects of them are, now we know when we can properly use them and when we can't. I don't think police officers have that information still."

New standards for Taser use go into effect in B.C. Monday Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/news/standards+Taser+into+effect+Monday/6060706/story.html#ixzz1khHd5Yj9

January 27, 2012
Mike Raptis, The Province

B.C. police agencies will soon be forced to comply with new provincial Taser standards following commissioner Thomas Braidwood's landmark 2009 recommendations.

The new standards — most of which will take effect Jan. 30 — will be binding on all police forces in the province, including the RCMP.

The Vancouver Police Department has already adopted the majority of Braidwood's recommendations, including new standards for use of force, equipment storage and electrical testing for the conducted-energy weapons (CEWs), police spokesman Const. Lindsey Houghton said Thursday.

Under the new provincial policing standards, all front-line police officers, recruits and cadets must now complete training in crisis intervention and de-escalation.

"Prior to the legislation, there was no provincial standard of training for CEWs," Houghton said.

There are 107 VPD members certified to carry the Taser on duty. Seventy-six are patrol officers and 31 are assigned to the emergency response team.

Seven transit police officers are certified to use the Taser. However, that number will grow, said Insp. David Hansen, as an unspecified number of transit police will soon undergo the provincial training regime.

In 2009, Solicitor-General Shirley Bond directed all police in B.C. to use de-escalation techniques with all persons, including the emotionally disturbed.

Provincial standards will require police officers who deploy a Taser to provide medical assistance and have an automated external defibrillator readily available.

Taser lawsuit dropped

March 28, 2011
Mike Bothwell, VANCOUVER/CKNW AM 980

The family of a man who died after being tasered is dropping their lawsuit against Vancouver Police. They did have a strong case according to Cameron Ward, the lawyer for Robert Bagnell's family. But they decided not go ahead because of the high cost of what was expected to be a six week trial.

The 44 year old Bagnell was tasered in police custody in June 2004. A coroner's jury later found he died of cardiac arrest related to cocaine intoxication.

Cameron Ward says BC law doesn't value the life of a son who is not a breadwinner. The family was faced with spending alot of money with little chance of winning a court award to cover those costs.

Top court upholds damages for charter breaches

July 23, 2010
CBC News

The Supreme Court of Canada has upheld $5,000 in damages against British Columbia for breaching the charter rights of a Vancouver lawyer strip-searched by police who wrongly thought he was going to throw a pie at Jean Chrétien.

However, in the unanimous landmark ruling Friday, the top court set aside damages of $100 against the City of Vancouver stemming from the seizure of lawyer Alan Cameron Ward's car.

The ruling means that people whose rights have been infringed can seek damages even if they suffered no actual loss and even if the authorities acted in good faith.

Ward was arrested in August 2002, when Vancouver officers thought he was going to throw a pie at Chrétien, then prime minister.

Police placed Ward in handcuffs and escorted him to a police van. A cameraman from a local TV station filmed the arrest, and the footage was later broadcast on the evening news.

Ward was well known within the court system and had built a respected career representing people who have accused police of misconduct, often for free.

He spent several hours in jail and, despite his objections, was strip-searched. He sued both the province and the city.

In an interview with CBC News, Ward said Friday he was relieved that his "eight-year odyssey is finally over" and was pleased with the decision.

'Charter rights really have some meaning'

"It is an important decision that makes it clear that charter rights really have some meaning, and in certain cases when they're violated people can recover a meaningful remedy."

The decision may have application in a variety of contexts, Ward added.

"Recently we've all heard about the G20 arrests, and if people are able to prove that they were wrongly detained or arrested or in some cases perhaps even strip-searched, they may be able to recover monetary compensation, which would also act as a deterrence in certain cases. It may also have application, for example, to people who were wrongly convicted and have faced terms of imprisonment."

Ward recalled the day he was arrested as "very upsetting."

He said he had been willing to settle the whole matter with an acknowledgement by the authorities of a mistake and an apology. Instead the province and city "dug in their heels," Ward said. "They must have spent … hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and legal time fighting this case over the last eight years."

Ward said he is grateful for the top court decision, and it is sufficient in lieu of an apology now.

Officers said they thought Ward was going to throw a pie at then prime minister Jean Chrétien, pictured above, in 2002. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)
In the ruling, Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin wrote that the strip search violated Ward's charter rights, and compensation was required.

Strip searches 'degrading'

"Strip searches are inherently humiliating and degrading and the charter breach significantly impacted on [Ward's] person and rights. The correction officers’ conduct which caused the breach was also serious," McLachlin wrote.

"With respect to the seizure of the car … the object of compensation is not engaged as [Ward] did not suffer any injury as a result of the seizure."

In January 2007, B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled Ward's charter rights were infringed for wrongful imprisonment, the strip search and the unreasonable search of his vehicle.

The court ordered the province to pay him $5,000 for the strip search and Vancouver to pay for wrongful imprisonment and the unreasonable seizure of his vehicle.

The B.C. Court of Appeal refused to overturn the award, saying the strip search "amounted to a significant charter breach."

The city and the B.C. government appealed the damages to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Taser use by Vancouver police has declined

July 19, 2010
Laura Baziuk, The Province

Vancouver police are not using Tasers as much as they used to, says a new report released Monday.

Taser usage declined in 2008, with officers discharging one 33 times, compared to 86 times in 2007, the report suggests.

Based on that trend, usage is expected to also have declined in 2009. In the first quarter of that year, only four Tasers were discharged.

“Subjects appear to comply more often when they are confronted or challenged with a Taser,” the report says. “In turn, officers use the Taser less often as a pain compliance tool or an incapacitation device.”

A Taser was presented, but not discharged, in another 67 incidents in 2008, compared to 80 incidents in 2007.

Though she said it’s difficult to speculate, Vancouver Const. Jana McGuinness says a more stringent selection and training process could be reasons for the decline in usage, as well as previous media coverage and recommendations that have been made on the tool’s use.

Taser use is still under-reported, the report also says. A report was submitted for only 20 out of the 26 times when a Taser was discharged, the report says. A report was filed only half the time when a Taser was deployed but not used.

“Patrol members were responsible for most of the unreported incidents where a Taser was presented but not discharged,” the report says.

The report further suggests that the discrepancy exists because emergency responders have their own report system on Taser use. Taser usage must be reported to detect training gaps, equipment malfunctions and any lack in accountability, it says.

Man beaten by Vancouver police to sue

This is not a story related to tasers, but I have to say I'm pleased that Mr. Wu has retained our own lawyer, Cameron Ward, to take his case forward. Mr. Ward will see that Mr. Wu is compensated for the damages he suffered at the hands of Vancouver's finest, who ought to be sweating bullets. You GO, Mr. Wu.

January 29, 2010
Jane Armstrong, Globe and Mail

A Vancouver man beaten by undercover police in what was later described as a case of mistaken identity has hired a well-known civil-rights lawyer who has warned that his client will sue the city.

Yao Wei Wu, 44, was beaten by two plainclothes police officers who came to his home last week to investigate a report of domestic violence. But they got the wrong home.

Mr. Wu suffered fractures in the bones around an eye as well as bruises to his knees and back. His wife and children witnessed the attack.

A letter sent from lawyer Cameron Ward to the city clerk states that he has been retained by Mr. Wu. “Please be advised that Mr. Wu will be commencing a claim for damages for personal injury against the City of Vancouver and those responsible,” the letter says.

The missive also alleges that police repeatedly visited Mr. Wu’s home to “try discourage him” from hiring Mr. Ward.

“Please ensure that this inappropriate conduct ceases immediately,” the letter says.

Mr. Ward was not available to comment. The letter was released by a group of Chinese Canadians who have been assisting Mr. Wu.

Initially, police said Mr. Wu resisted arrest, but Chief Jim Chu later retracted the statement.

Mr. Wu, a married contractor with two children, speaks little English. In an interview with CTV news last week, Mr. Wu said through a translator that police rang his doorbell in the middle of the night. When he opened the door, the officers yanked him outside and beat him.

After the television interview aired, police said they had personally apologized to Mr. Wu, adding that a senior Cantonese-speaking police sergeant and an inspector visited the family and listened to Mr. Wu’s account of events.

An internal investigation was also launched and one of the officers who arrested Mr. Wu was reassigned to desk duties.

A Vancouver police spokeswoman said Thursday that police would not comment on the letter.

Meanwhile, a Vancouver Chinese social agency, SUCCESS, will hold a joint news conference Friday with Chief Chu and Stan Lowe, the B.C. police complaint commissioner. SUCCESS spokeswoman Eileen Lao said the social services agency’s goal is to provide the Chinese community with information on how to complain about potential police misconduct.

Ms. Lao also rejected accusations from some members of the Chinese community that the agency has sided with police in the Wu case.

A group of Chinese Canadians, led by Gabriel Yiu, rallied to Mr. Wu’s defence after the attack.

Mr. Yiu said SUCCESS should be concerned with assisting Mr. Wu, providing him with translation and helping him find a lawyer – not holding news conferences with the police.

Mr. Yiu said Mr. Wu has psychological wounds from the attack. He also said Mr. Wu told him that police invited him to Friday’s news conference.

“It’s totally inappropriate,” Mr. Yiu said.

Letter to the Editor - When taser used, police transparency a must

Letter to the Editor

Published in today's edition of my local paper - The Belleville Intelligencer

I believe The Intelligencer was right to publish Mr. O'Sullivan's account of his November ordeal with the Belleville Police Service. With the nationwide escalation of interest in the use of Tasers by police in recent years, Canadians are demanding more -- not less -- transparency from police.

And when the Belleville Police Service is unwilling to provide even the basic facts in an open and timely manner, instead delaying disclosure for an inconceivable seven weeks, we in the court of public opinion are left to ponder what they had to hide.

It should be noted that, in 2004, the Vancouver Police Department was roundly criticized for waiting a mere four weeks before disclosing that a Taser was used on my brother, Robert Bagnell, the night he died.

That serious error in judgement prompted the British Columbia Police Complaints Commissioner to order an external investigation into the matter, due in part to "concerns regarding delays in disclosure to the family, media and public which created an adverse perception of the ability of the VPD to conduct an impartial investigation."

In the end, the VPD was forced to change its disclosure policy.

Regardless of how events unfolded on the night in question, Mr. O'Sullivan is extremely fortunate to have lived to tell his side of the story.

Twenty-seven Canadian men have died in Canada due to Taser use (at least 467 in North America). We -- the Belleville Police Service's "partners in the community" -- can only hope that we will eventually be subjected to the truth about what happened during this incident.

And it will be interesting to see whether the facts really are so different from Mr. O'Sullivan's account. If we are to rely on recent Canadian history, though, police have been considerably less than forthcoming when Tasers have been used and have even gone so far as to fabricate the truth to suit themselves (who can forget the RCMP testimony re: Robert Dziekanski?).

This cynic looks forward to knowing what prompted the BPS to resort to Taser use in the first place and why they waited so long to publicize it.

Patti Gillman

See also Story should be told say Intelligencer readers

See also Editorial: Police political two step

See also Police bash the Intel

See also Former Olympic Boxer says he was beaten - BELLEVILLE POLICE: Have much different version of Shawn O'Sullivan's story

New warnings from taser manufacturer

October 8, 2009
CTV BC
With files from CTV British Columbia’s Peter Grainger

The manufacturer of Taser guns has posted a new training bulletin on its website recommending that officers avoid aiming at the chests of suspects.

The bulletin says it is not possible to predict or test whether Tasers do or don’t affect the human heart.

“In order to increase the safety margin and since field experience shows that (Taser) discharges are effective when deployed to the large muscles of the back, abdomen, legs and pelvic triangle, users should aim for the back or (when practical) toward the mid lower abdomen and avoid intentionally targeting the chest area,” the bulletin states.

The lawyer representing the family of Robert Dziekanski, who died after being hit in the chest by a Taser at Vancouver International Airport and whose death spurred a public inquiry, said the warning comes too little, too late.

“The inquiry in the first phase did find that there could be direct capture of the heart, as a result of the use of the Taser. That is something that has always been denied,” said Walter Kostecky.

M-P and B-C's former Attorney General Ujjal Dosanjh agrees this is an overdue but welcomed development, “Now Taser by implication is admitting that it causes death, that it is a very serious weapon and that it should be used under more strict guidelines.”

Police in Vancouver say they have already notified their officers about the warning.

There is no word yet from B.C.’s solicitor general or the RCMP on whether this will become a province-wide policy.

Meanwhile, Dziekanski's mother filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging excessive force and "cruel and unusual" treatment by the four RCMP officers who stunned her son with a Taser.

Zofia Cisowski is suing the four officers, the Canadian and British Columbia governments, and the Vancouver airport, where Dziekanski collapsed and died after being stunned by Mounties in October 2007.

The lawsuit alleges everyone involved failed Dziekanski in some way.

"Mr. Dziekanski died as a result of injuries he sustained in the assault and physical restraint by the RCMP members," says the statement of claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court on Wednesday.

It claims the four RCMP officers had no reasonable grounds to detain Dziekanski or stun him multiple times with a Taser after being summoned to the airport to deal with an agitated Dzieksanki.

Cisowksi's lawsuit also alleges that RCMP failed to notify of her son's death -- that was left to an airport employee when she returned to the airport to find him -- and then "knowingly misrepresented her son's conduct and the cause of his death."

In the statement of claim, she says she it wasn't until she saw a witness' video of the confrontation her son had with the four RCMP officers that she realized how he had died. Cisowski says she saw the video prior to it being released to the media.

The lawsuit alleges the airport and federal border officers also failed Dziekanski, by not providing translation services or adequately helping Dziekanski, either when he was making his way through customs or after he began throwing furniture in a public area.

These officials also failed to provide Cisowski any "meaningful" assistance, and she left the airport while her son was still waiting inside the customs area.

A Justice Department lawyer confirmed that the federal ministry has been served but no statement of defence has been filed and the department declined to comment Thursday.

Vancouver police kill knife-wielding man after TASER FAILS

Vancouver police kill knife-wielding man
Last Updated: Saturday, September 19, 2009 11:39 AM PT Comments54Recommend28CBC News

A knife-wielding man was shot dead by Vancouver police after a Taser stun gun failed to stop him.

Police said they responded to a domestic violence call at an apartment in the 2500 block of Birch Street at about 9:30 p.m. PT Friday night

Emergency-call operators reported hearing a woman screaming and shouting that her life was being threatened.

When police officers arrived at the scene, they forced their way into a suite and confronted a man who they say was threatening a woman at knifepoint.

"The interaction resulted in the officers deploying a Taser, which at that point was ineffective," said RCMP Sgt. Peter Thiessen, speaking for the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, or IHIT.

"The interaction then escalated to where the officers discharged their firearms, subsequently killing the suspect."

The man's name has not been released.

Police plan to release more details Saturday afternoon.

Vancouver police use Tasers less often: Study

September 14, 2009
Metro News Vancouver

Vancouver police officers use stun guns less frequently than other large Canadian jurisdictions. A report to the police board Wednesday ranks Vancouver as eighth out of 12 jurisdictions in terms of Taser use.

In 2008, VPD used the Taser only 33 times, about once every 11 days. They also showed the weapon, but did not deploy it, another 67 times. By comparison, Toronto police used Tasers 367 times in 2008. Edmonton police used the stun guns 91 times, Calgary 73 times and Winnipeg 68 times.

At the bottom of the scale, Halifax police used Tasers only five times. Victoria police used theirs 20 times and Hamilton police 25 times.

The report also notes that five jurisdictions, including Montreal and Surrey RCMP, did not return the survey.

Vancouver cops should be kept apart after police-related deaths: ethics advisor

June 17, 2009
By Carlito Pablo, Georgia Strait

Cops involved in police-related deaths of civilians shouldn’t be comparing notes with each other, according to the ethics advisor for the Vancouver police board.

Advisor H.A.D. Oliver suggested in a report to be received for information by the board today (June 17) that it is important to segregate police officers so they won’t come up with a “sanitized” version of such fatal incidents.

Oliver said that the importance of this procedure was recognized by retired B.C. Supreme Court judge William Davies, who conducted an inquiry into the death of Native man Frank Paul.

In his interim report, released in March, Davies recommended the creation of a civilian-based Independent Investigation Office with a mandate to probe “a wide variety of factual circumstances, including (but not limited to) a death in a police department jail cell, a death resulting from an officer’s use of force or a motor vehicle, or a death arising from some other form of police interaction with the deceased”.

As part of this recommendation, Davies proposed that “pending arrival of the IIO at the incident scene, the chief constable must ensure that the scene is secured and that officers involved in the incident are segregated from each other”.

Davies also stated in his report that “officers involved in the incident must not communicate with each other about the incident, except as authorized by the IIO”.

In his report, Oliver told the Vancouver police board that pending possible legislation related to Davies’s recommendations, there is a need to place “appropriate emphasis” on the “importance of segregation and non-communication” in the training of police officers.

In putting forward this proposal, Oliver also referenced the incident involving the Taser-related death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, who died after a confrontation with four RCMP officers at the Vancouver International Airport.

The video evidence presented at the inquiry by retired B.C. Court of Appeal judge Thomas Braidwood contradicted written reports filed by the RCMP officers. It has been shown that Dziekanski was tasered multiple times, and that he fell to the ground after the first zap of the stun gun.

“The effectiveness of a police force in a democratic and civil society depends very largely on the respect in which its members are held by the public at large,” Oliver stated.

“That respect can be severely damaged and the reputation of the force largely destroyed in the eyes of the public where it is shown or reasonably suspected that a number of police witnesses have conferred after the incident but before reporting or testifying with a view to producing a sanitized version of the incident in question,” Oliver added.

Knife-waving woman in serious condition after Tasering

June 2, 2009
By Kelly Sinoski, Vancouver Sun

VANCOUVER — A 55-year-old Vancouver woman is in serious condition in hospital after she was Tasered by police and struck her head while falling to the ground.

Vancouver police said they first encountered the distraught woman waving a large knife on East Hastings Street about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday. Police said officers repeatedly told the woman to drop the knife while directing pedestrians away from her. The woman then swore at police and challenged them to shoot her, Const. Jana McGuinness said in a statement.

Officers had to step back as the woman came toward them aggressively. The standoff continued until a man in the crowd ran at the woman and grabbed at her arm, ignoring police calls to stop. Fearing for the man’s safety, officers fired the Taser at the woman, police said.

Vancouver Police Taser woman 'wielding knife'

June 2, 2009
ctvbc.ca

Only a day after the B.C. government ordered hundreds of Tasers removed from circulation for failing to meet manufacturer's specifications, a woman is in serious condition in hospital after being Tasered by Vancouver Police and hitting her head.

Cst. Jana McGuinness says the "distraught" 55-year-old was carrying a large folding knife on East Hastings St. when she was approached by police around 11:30 Tuesday morning. McGuinness said the woman was waving the knife in an "aggressive stance," and police fired the Taser when a man intervened and they feared for his safety. The woman fell to the ground, still clutching the knife, striking her head on the ground.

She remains in serious condition in hospital with a head injury, and the VPD Major Crimes Unit is investigating.

The incident comes on the heels of a call to ban all Tasers in British Columbia. On Monday, B.C. Solicitor General Rich Coleman pulled 650 older Tasers after recent testing revealed an 80 per cent failure rate, more often than not delivering less electrical output than expected.

"They failed, so we pulled em," Coleman said.

In a statement to CTV Monday night, the Vice President of Public Relations for Taser International, Peter Holran, said "the safety of the devices was never in question" when the M26s were ordered removed. "Those devices which pass testing can be returned to service, according to the Solicitor General," he wrote.

But NDP Public Safety Critic Mike Farnworth disagrees. He says Tasers that are under-performing can be dangerous. "If you're delivering a lower dose of voltage than expected and an individual is not responding, the way you expect, and you just keep Tasering them, zapping them, that's not safe because we don't know the accumulative effects," Farnworth said.

Farnworth is also concerned that no one seems to know what the life span is of any Taser. "If there's an estimated 650 in B.C. being pulled at $1,000 bucks a pop, that's a lot of money," he said. "If all you're doing is replacing them with new Tasers, which we don't know the shelf life is or deterioration rate is -- in essence, you're throwing good money at bad."

Taser international didn't respond to CTV News but the Solicitor General's office did say some of the malfunctioning Tasers may be beyond repair and will have to be destroyed

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Peter Grainger

Police wince at media spotlight as they push for more surveillance cameras

April 11, 2009
The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER, B.C. — Police routinely call the media together for a show-and-tell display of video or pictures of the latest brazen criminal act, but lately, a similar spotlight has been shining on police and the picture isn't pretty.

A Vancouver news photographer summed it up as the "Robert Dziekanski syndrome" after police twisted his arm behind his back and seized his camera as he tried to take shots of a police-involved shooting.

Dziekanski, a Polish immigrant who was behaving erratically, died at Vancouver's airport after RCMP Tasered him several times in October 2007.

The death went mostly unnoticed until it exploded onto the national stage after a bystander's video of the incident showed officers using the weapon on the agitated man armed only with a stapler. A public inquiry which has been further embarrassing to the RCMP is currently underway.

Since Dziekanski's death, New Brunswick police have been chastised by a court for not only arresting a blog photographer, but deleting a picture from his camera.
In December 2007, just weeks after the Dziekanski video was released to the public, Vancouver television cameraman Ricky Tong arrived to the scene of a police-involved shooting minutes after the gunfire and started filming.

He was held after refusing to give up his video and only released after the station sent a live truck to the site so a copy of the video could be made on the spot.
After a fatal police shooting on the street last month, Adam Smolcic, told a Vancouver officer he had taped the incident on his cell phone.

He said he gave the officer his phone and when it was returned, the video had been erased. The phone is now with experts in the United States to see if the video can be extracted from the phone's memory.

Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu has apologized to both Payne and Tong.

"My personal feeling is this is the Robert Dziekanski syndrome," said Payne, a news photographer for more than a decade.

"If that person hadn't of videotaped what happened in Vancouver airport the inquiry probably wouldn't be going on."

Payne said he was threatened with arrest. "And I really thought they were going to do it."

The Vancouver incidents have prompted a formal complaint from the B.C. Civil Liberties Association to the Vancouver Police Board.

Chu has admitted police held on to the photographer's camera an hour longer than they should have.

"The officers were acting in good faith, they were acting in the heat of the moment," he said.

This comes at the same time as the City of Vancouver considers beefing up it's surveillance during the 2010 Winter Olympics with street cameras and the B.C. government invests $1.8 million to put video systems in police cars.

It's an irony not lost on David Eby, of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.

"It's almost like the police only want the cameras turned in one direction. That is on the citizens and not on the police," said Eby.

"But the reality of cellphone cameras and surveillance cameras is that they capture everybody equally."

No one, including police, should have the expectation of privacy in a public place, said Simon Fraser University criminologist Neil Boyd.

He agreed it appears recent police actions indicate they're concerned about public perception.

"Whether this is true or not is a question - but the images do suggest that they're more interested in how police are portrayed than using this material in the course of a police investigation," said Boyd.

After his apology, Chu denied that was the goal of his officers.

"If you want to go on YouTube and search Vancouver Police there's tremendous amounts of video footage and we know that. We're not out there trying to stop people from doing that at all."

The department also sent out a bulletin warning officers they can't take cameras or video equipment from members of the public or the media. It says officers can only take equipment in the instances where there is an arrest, a warrant, or officers have a reasonable concern that the person might destroy the evidence.

Eby said police often use the potential destruction of evidence as an excuse to seize the tape.

"The issue is control of the videotape and who gets to see it and more importantly who doesn't get to see it."

He said he can't think of a member of the public who would videotape a police-involved death and then erase it.

"More likely they would sell it to a media outlet or they would put it up on YouTube. The concern that the police have is that the videotape would be distributed and there would be people criticizing their conduct," he said.

Eby said it was no coincidence that the conflicts between police and media concerned police-involved shootings.

"I think the Dziekanski video really drives home the sensitivity that police have around these things."

All four officers involved in the Taser incident told the inquiry into Dziekanski's death that the man was aggressive and waving a stapler when they arrived on the scene and that the officers had to wrestle him to the airport floor.

All the officers later admitted after watching the video during the inquiry that those statements were incorrect.

Vancouver cops tied for second in Canada in Taser usage

March 16, 2009
Mike Howell, Vancouver Courier

The Vancouver Police Department tied for second with Niagara Regional Police Service for the number of times a Taser was fired in 2007.

Out of eight departments in Canada, including Montreal, officers from Vancouver and Niagara fired the Taser 74 times each. Edmonton topped all departments with 89. Victoria officers fired the Taser 71 times, with Greater Sudbury (55), Halifax (38), Waterloo Regional (33) and Montreal (32) rounding out the eight departments. The report did not include statistics from Toronto, which has one of the largest police departments in Canada.

The statistics are contained in a brief report that goes before the Vancouver Police Board March 18. The report also included statistics for 2008, but only four departments are listed.

The VPD's use of the Taser in 2008 dropped to 27 times from 74 in 2007. Greater Sudbury's force also saw a decrease in 2008, with 23 firings from 55 in 2007. The report lists statistics for two other departments but didn't name them. The report's author, Drazen Manojlovic, said the two unnamed departments haven't publicly released the statistics.

But Manojlovic, who is the VPD's director of planning and research, said the departments-which fired their stun guns 91 and 73 times respectively in 2008-are of comparable size to the VPD.

Manojlovic said it was "unlikely" that the other departments represented in the report had similar decreases to the VPD. He didn't explain the reason for the decrease.

In February, the Courier attempted to determine why the VPD saw such a dramatic decrease in use of the stun gun since 2005. In 2006, the VPD fired the Taser 93 times and 66 in 2005.

Const. Jana McGuinness, a media liaison officer with the department, said the VPD couldn't point to a definitive reason for the decrease. McGuinness also told the Courier in February that there was no directive from Police Chief Jim Chu to curtail the use of the controversial weapon.

Manojlovic noted in his report that his analysis of the statistics "to be blunt, only scratches the surface." Other factors, including how many officers are authorized to use a Taser and departments' policies around Taser use were not included in the report.

"If more comprehensive analysis is required, then the VPD would need to formally canvass comparable police departments later in 2009 to obtain more data, enquire about the factors listed above, and obtain approval to publicly release such information," Manojlovic wrote.

The Canadian Association of Police Boards released a report Feb. 24 on stun guns, or conducted energy weapons. The association agrees in theory that a Taser can be a valuable force option for police.

"However, [the association] would like to see more evidence and discussion to clarify the conditions under which use of [Tasers] does not pose risk of injury or death," the report said.

At last count, the VPD had more than 120 Tasers, which are made in the United States by Taser International. The stun gun resembles a handgun and releases 50,000 volts of electricity through two probes into clothing or skin.

Vancouver police fired tasers 27 times last year

March 16, 2009
By Carlito Pablo, straight.com

Vancouver police officers fired their tasers 27 times in 2008, according to a report to the Vancouver police board.

These “Taser applications” were 64 percent lower than the 74 times that stun guns were used by members of the Vancouver Police Department in 2007, stated the same report prepared by the VPD’s planning, research, and audit section.

No explanation of why taser use dropped was provided.

The report, on the agenda for the police board’s Wednesday (March 18) meeting, noted that it is “unlikely that other jurisdictions experienced such a similar decrease”, but then again no explanation for that statement was offered.

It recalled that last year, Vancouver police responded to about 189,000 “dispatched calls for service”, of which 41,000 were “combined violent and property crimes”.

“It is worth pointing out that, in this context of volume of work, the VPD used a Taser, on average, only twice a month,” the report stated.

Based on the 2008 data cited by the report, police in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, fired tasers 23 times. Greater Sudbury has a population of about 162,000.

The report said that in comparison to Greater Sudbury, it is “significant” that VPD members used tasers only four more times while policing a city with a population of over 611,000.

Cops shouldn't investigate cops: Frank Paul report

March 13, 2009
By Suzanne Fournier, The Province

“Alone and Cold” is the title of Commissioner William Davies’ scathing report detailing how Vancouver police and the justice system failed Frank Paul, who died after police dumped him soaking wet in an alley in 1998.

“I’ve been very critical of some of the police officers that did handle Frank Paul and of the police investigating themselves ... and the manner in which they conducted their inquiry” into both internal discipline charges and possible criminal charges against the officers, Davies said in making his report public Thursday morning.

On Feb. 11 Davies, a former judge, gave his report to B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal and its release has been demanded for weeks by B.C. aboriginal leaders and the New Democrat opposition in the B.C. legislature.

Davies said the timing of the report’s release — and the fact that Frank Paul’s family in New Brunswick did not get the courtesy of an advance briefing as they requested — was up to the B.C. government.

Davies, handing out his report just across the hall from where the Braidwood inquiry is being conducted into the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, acknowledged “some of the issues we dealt with have arisen at the Braidwood inquiry.”

A key issue, noted Davies, is “the public has lost confidence in the fact the police are investigating themselves.”

He admitted “there may be others who don’t share my view” but stressed he didn’t write the report to gather dust.

“I’ve recommended far-reaching changes,” said Davies, including a citizen investigation of all police-related deaths.

Paul, a New Brunswick Mi'kmaq, was dumped in a eastside Vancouver alley in December 1998 after Sgt. Russell Sanderson refused to admit him to the police drunk tank or take him to detox and instructed a junior officer to “breach” Paul.

Paul died of hypothermia and his New Brunswick family was told he died in a hit-and-run accident. Paul's cousin Peggy Clement, who testified at the inquiry, said the Mi’kmaq people did not learn the truth until three years later.

Davies was critical of Vancouver police but particularly of Sanderson, saying his evidence had to be “rejected in its entirety.”

Davies noted the VPD failed to properly investigate the death and the B.C. Coroners Service failed to properly notify Paul’s family.

Davies recommends B.C. “develop a civilian-based criinal investigation model for the investigation of police-related deaths occurring in the municiipalities policed by the 11 municipal police departments.”

Davies said “the independent investigaiton office” would be led by a civilian director, but investigators would have the status of police officers and, once advised of a police-related death, would take charge of the scene and become the lead investigative agency.

“The director would recommend to the Criminal Justice Branch whether criminal charges should be laid and, if so, which charges involving which officer or officers.”

Aboriginal leaders, who fought hard for the inquiry into Paul’s death, praised the Davies report this morning.

Tl’azt’en Grand Chief Ed John of the First Nations Summit said the report “shines a bright and clear light” on the failure of the Vancouver Police Department to safeguard Frank Paul’s life, the lack of services to aboriginal homeless people, an inadquate police investigation and the failure to lay any criminal charges in Paul’s death.

United Native Nations president David Dennis said Paul’s death was “a tragedy . . . and we have documented many, many more deaths of aboriginal people in police custody, yet no police officer in B.C. has ever been charged in connection with even one death.”

Dennis said he hopes the VPD and the B.C. government will pay attention to Davies’ sweeping recommendations.

“Just two years ago Chief Stewart Phillip and I sat in [former Vancouver police] Chief Jamie Graham’s office and he said to my face, ‘There will never be an inquiry into the death of Frank Paul.’

“Today we feel very vindicated and we are confident that Frank Paul’s family will feel vindicated as well.”

Said Davies in his conclusion: “It is important to understand that this is not just a case of investigation of one police-related death a decade ago which was done poorly.

“What this inquiry’s review has revealed is systemic flaws in the manner in which the Vancouver Police Department conducted criminal investigations of police-related deaths at that time, which continue today.

“These systemic flaws are grounded in conflict of interest — the police investigating themselves.

“I am persuaded that nothing short of a wholesale restructuring of such investigations would suffice.”

Vancouver police Chief Jim Chu issued this statement in response to the report.

"With the conclusion of the Frank Paul inquiry, I want to take this opportunity to once again apologize to Mr. Paul's family and to the community," said Chu.

"We deeply regret the loss of life caused by the mistakes our officers made, who had a duty of care for Mr. Paul. Since that tragic event we have strengthened and modified certain policies, our procedures and training have been reinforced, and we continue to work closely with our public health partners to further safeguard the lives and well being of those in our care.”

VPD spokeswoman Const. Jana McGuinness said of Paul's death: “It was a tragic and regrettable event and everyone knows it shouldn’t have happened.”

She also said VPD has made changes to its policies and procedures, particularly those regarding jail, transport and reporting of those in custody.

“We’re certainly going to look closely at this report,” she said.

“How our society deals with chronic alcoholics is inadquate,” said the Davies Commission report.

While Davies noted that many police, ambulance and emergency ward staff treat such people with compassion, “the reality is that these current services amount to little more than revolving doors.”

Davies recommends:

• A civilian-operated sobering centre.

• An enhanced civilian-based detoxification program.

• Davies also urged, “Permanent low-barrier housing designed for the specific needs of chronic alcoholics which would offer, if needed, palatable alcohol substitution and managed alcohol programs.” (Alcohol substitution is a harm-reduction appoach that involves gradually weaning alcoholics off health-destroying choices such as Chinese cooking wine or Lysol, in favour of lower-alcohol choices such as wine or beer.)