Police, experts grapple over Taser guidelines following teen's death

July 25, 2008
Jordana Huber, Canwest News Service

TORONTO - Police say Michael Langan was armed, dangerous and ignoring orders to drop his knife moments before he was Tasered in a Winnipeg back alley.

The car-theft suspect became the latest Canadian, and the youngest according to Amnesty International, to die in a Taser-related incident.

The subsequent controversy has thrust police in the Manitoba capital into the spotlight of the ongoing debate about Taser safety, and has provided more ammunition for opponents of the "electronic control device" who have long called on law-enforcement agencies to suspend its use.

Frank Addario is president of the Criminal Lawyers' Association, which has called for a moratorium on the use of the weapon pending an inquiry into its safety He said officer training lacks uniformity and follow-up procedures are either ineffective or incomplete - making it difficult to determine whether police are strictly limiting Tasers to situations where subjects pose a probable threat of serious injury to themselves or to others.

"This is not about whether one supports the police or whether one empathizes with their abilities in managing unruly suspects," Addario said. "This is about whether the weapon, as designed, is delivering what it promised, and if it is not, police forces in Canada ought to stop using it until better training can occur or the weapon can be modified."

Tasers are billed by police forces and the device's manufacturer as an effective weapon that can save lives and reduce injury to officers and suspects.

Critics warn there is no medical consensus on their safety and say public confidence in Tasers as a "non-lethal" use of force is increasingly being eroded in the wake of more than 20 deaths in Canada since 2003 linked to - though not blamed on - the conductive energy weapon.

Amid the public outcry following the release of a video of Robert Dziekanski, a Polish immigrant who was Tasered in October, 2007 at Vancouver International Airport by the RCMP, a report by the Mounties public complaints commission chairman Paul Kennedy urged the RCMP to reign in their use of Tasers.

He said it appeared Tasers were being deployed by RCMP more often and much earlier in encounters with suspects than originally intended when they were adopted. Still, the extent of "usage creep" was impossible to determine because the Mounties had engaged in "systematic under-reporting."

According to documents obtained under the Access to Information Act by Canwest News Service, the overall use of Tasers by the RCMP soared to 1,119 incidents in 2006 and 1,414 in 2007, compared with only 597 incidents in 2005.

Municipal police forces across the country largely classify Tasers as "intermediate weapons" and consider them an appropriate option for subjects "actively resistant" towards an officer, Kennedy said in his report.

Still, he noted there remain "subtle but significant differences" in operational policies surrounding their use.

Earlier this month, Nova Scotia placed interim restrictions limiting Tasers to "situations of violent or aggressive resistance or active threat that may cause serious injury," following the release of a report into the death of a 45-year-old man who passed away hours after officers deployed a Taser.

Ontario only allows tactical officers or front-line supervisors to carry Tasers, while they are a standard tool of front-line police in Winnipeg, Calgary, and in Edmonton.

Dziekanski's death prompted the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary to hold off on plans to expand their use of Tasers. The Saskatchewan Police Commission announced Friday it won't authorize the use of the devices by members of the province's 14 municipal and First Nation police services. However, SWAT team members will continue to be authorized to use them.

Addario said the varying protocols for Taser deployment need to be harmonized across the country so all police forces are "singing from the same songbook" when it comes to the circumstances under which Tasers should be used.

A briefing note reviewing current medical research and literature on Tasers prepared for the Canadian Association of Police Boards in March suggested deaths or injuries that occur proximal to the use of the Taser will continue to prompt "flare ups" from the public that likely will result in ongoing pressure to define more precisely when a Taser should and should not be deployed.

The report added policies dictating when officers can deploy a Taser could be detrimental to good policing and counter-productive because use of force is contingent on a mix of circumstances at any scene.

There is no "black and white" answer, said RCMP Const. Donald Perrett. He monitors and compiles daily reports of Taser use by officers across the country.

"Police work is dynamic," Perrett said. "It is difficult to say when and how, because two police officers can look at the exact same situation and will both respond differently."

In May, a study by researchers published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal said despite research suggesting Tasers don't hurt internal organs such as the heart, "it is inappropriate to conclude stun-gun discharges cannot lead to adverse cardiac consequences in all real-world settings."

Accompanying the research was an editorial by CMAJ deputy editor Dr. Matthew Stanbrook who said Taser safety has become a public health issue as law-enforcement officials preach the benefits of deploying the weapon when dealing with subjects suffering "excited delirium."

The highly controversial diagnosis is not recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders but has increasingly been listed by coroners as a cause of death in people restrained by police during an altercation - regardless of whether a Taser was used.

Associated with individuals who have taken drugs, alcohol or who have a mental illness, symptoms can include agitation and super-human strength and can lead to sudden death, some researchers suggest.

Many police trainers teach officers excited delirium is a medical emergency and the sooner someone is taken into care, the better off they will be.

It's a recommendation endorsed by several coroner's juries - most recently by a panel in Ontario looking into the death of amateur boxer Jerry Knight, who fought more than 20 officers before being subdued during an incident in a motel lobby in 2004.

Mike Webster, a police psychologist, said "well-meaning" law-enforcement officials have been "brainwashed" by the device's manufacturer to justify "ridiculously and inappropriate" use of the weapon for a disorder that doesn't exist.

"Police have been indoctrinated into believing in this fictitious disorder - this excited delirium - and it is presented as a rational for the use of the weapon," said Webster who testified at public inquiry in B.C. probing Tasers.

Meanwhile, Winnipeg Police Chief Keith McCaskill warned this week it is far too early to pass judgment on the circumstances surrounding Langan's death.

But he said police in the city are trained "very clearly" on how to respond to situations such as the one two patrol officers were confronted with on Tuesday.

The teenager was the first person to die in Manitoba after being subdued by a police stun gun.

Manitoba Metis Federation president David Chartrand and Langan's mother, Sharon Shymko, were scheduled to meet McCaskill Friday afternoon to discuss their concerns that the teen, who is Metis, was a victim of racial profiling by police.

At a hastily organized news conference Friday, Chartrand and Shymko expressed displeasure at media coverage of Langan's lifestyle before his death, based on interviews with the boy's father, and revelations in the Winnipeg Free Press that the teen had four citations under the Intoxicated Persons Detention Act.

"He had a future . . . he had dreams," said Shymko, who said she was ill after reading some of the news accounts.

A wake and funeral is planned for the teen early next week in Winnipeg, and reporters have been asked to stay away.

Langan had been staying with his father in a rooming house in the weeks before his death, after moving back to the city from Kelowna, B.C., where he'd been living with his mother since April.

The boy had an erratic upbringing, mostly in Winnipeg.

Mounties pinned me down in cell and tasered me, Manitoba girl says

July 25, 2008
JOE FRIESEN, The Globe and Mail

WINNIPEG -- A 17-year-old girl says she was tasered three times while confined to an RCMP holding cell in Selkirk, Man.

The girl, who was 16 at the time of the incident, said she was held down by four officers, one for each limb, while a taser was used on her legs and groin area. She said the third shock lasted between five and eight seconds and left her screaming in pain.

She still has scarred skin tissue and irregular shooting pains in her legs, and is seeing a psychologist to deal with the trauma. Her mother wants to know why the officers had to resort to such force when they could have walked away and left her in the locked cell.

The RCMP carried out an internal investigation into the incident, which occurred last November, but the girl's lawyer said the force recently advised them in a letter that it had concluded there was no criminal wrongdoing.

The family will now proceed with a public complaint against the officers involved.

A spokesman for the RCMP said he couldn't comment on the specifics of the case.

But, speaking in general terms, the spokesman added that there's no prohibition against using tasers in cells. They are used when officers feel there is a risk to their safety, he said.

The girl, who was arrested as a minor and can't be named, admits she was behaving badly at the time.

She had been intoxicated and resisted officers when they attempted to put her in the holding cell overnight. She fought back, and eventually four officers threw her into the cell. She says she hit out in anger at the last officer to leave the cell, at which point he called the others back in and they held her down and tasered her.

"I think the tasering of a child under the age of 18 in a locked cell is an abominable and excessive use of force," said the girl's lawyer, Catherine Dunn.

The girl's mother said her daughter was never charged in connection with the incident. It began when her mother came home and found the family van missing and reported it stolen. Police intercepted the vehicle, which was being driven by her daughter's friend, and arrested the group of girls.

The RCMP then told her at the police station that she would be kept overnight because she was intoxicated. She says she panicked, and refused to let go of her chair. Two male officers then physically pulled her away, removed items of her clothing including her bra, and threw her into the cell.

That's when she was tasered.

"She's in a cell. She's no danger to anybody," her mother said. "Whatever she did, she didn't deserve to be tortured like that. ... As a parent, if I did that to a child I would be arrested, charged and my children would be apprehended."

Her mother said she believes her daughter's treatment was exacerbated because she's aboriginal.

The girl, who is a high-school student, said her wounds were painful for days. The taser broke the skin, leaving red and bloody circular marks on her thighs. The police didn't tell the girl's mother about the incident when she picked her up the next morning, and the girl was too ashamed to tell. As a result, the wounds became infected.

The recent death of a 17-year-old boy who was tasered by Winnipeg police brought horrible memories flooding back for the girl. She knew what he was feeling, she said: a hot, burning pain that rips through every muscle.

"I have dreams about it," she said. "It was like an intense, sharp, rushing pain through my whole body. They didn't need to taser me."

Man dies in Dallas

July 25, 2008
The Dallas Morning News

Richard Smith, 46, died on July 23, 2008.

Winnipeg band "the consumer goods" sings a taser song

An article today in the Winnipeg Free Press (City band hides political lyrics in happy, joyful pop melodies), about Winnipeg band "The Consumer Goods" says: "The song about taser use, Serve and Protect Uh, is from the point of view of the police officer singing about his weapon."

Here are the lyrics (with the band's permission):

SERVE AND PROTECT, UH!

i give my taser a woman's name.
i call that bitch 'veronica.'
and if you step out of line again, my ronnie's gonna send one hundred fucking volts through your skull, uh!
oh yeah! oh yeah! oh yeah! oh yeah!
i like to stroke my taser at night, so i can trust her when the shit goes down.
imagine if some kid tried to read without his library card... my ronnie snaps in line, sends a shock into his spine, and it gets me hard.
oh yeah! oh yeah! oh yeah! oh yeah!
i'm such a big, big man and i do it cos i can, yeah, i do it cos i can.
no, no, that's wrong, just wait.
i'm just keeping people safe.
yeah, i'm keeping people safe.

ABOUT THE BAND (from their website):

The Consumer Goods are a wickedly sharp absurdist political indie pop band from Winnipeg, Manitoba. They play crunchy pop songs with a hint of alt-country and death-folk, and they sing fun songs about oppression, imperialism and resistance.

The band is made up of five (sometimes six and seven) good friends who have all made their mark in Winnipeg's beautifully cohesive and under-attentioned music scene. Their members have collectively played on something like 50 different records (seriously) in projects like the Horribly Awfuls, Cone Five, Paper Moon, the Bonaduces, Cheatron, Enjoy Your Pumas, the Honeybuckets, the Haste, Use Every Part of the Deer, Mr. Pine, the Poets, and lonely hunters. One member of the band, Ryan McVeigh, doubles as producer, and is responsible for many of the the above-mentioned projects, as well as recent indie-smashes Boats!! and Mint Records' Hot Panda.

Winnipeg police chief calls youth's death a 'tragedy'

July 24, 2008
CTV.ca News Staff

Winnipeg Police Chief Keith McCaskill says it's tragic a 17-year-old died shortly after being shocked with a Taser, but cautioned the circumstances around the incident are still being investigated.

"It's a very tragic, tragic event. You've got a young person who lost his life. It's something we're all concerned about," he told reporters at a press conference Thursday afternoon.

"We're anxiously awaiting the results of an autopsy. We don't have that yet. We don't know what caused the death."

Michael Langan, a Metis, may be the youngest person to die in Canada after being Tasered, according to Amnesty International. The group says at least 21 people have died after being shocked by the device since 2003.

Although autopsy results are pending, Langan's mother, Sharon Shymko, blamed the Taser on his death and called for a ban.

"He is gone. And he is gone because of that machine," she told CTV News on Wednesday.

The boy's father, Brian Minchin, said his son had a troubled life and had recently bought a knife for protection. "He used to say he wasn't going to live long, that he was going to die soon," he said. But doubted his son would have posed any threat to police officers.

The incident occurred shortly before 3:50 p.m. Tuesday when two citizens alleged they saw Langan take property from inside a car. They phoned 911 and flagged down two uniformed police officers, who confronted the youth in an alleyway.

According to McCaskill, Langan was wielding a knife at the time. Officers warned Langan several times to drop his knife before shooting him with the electronic stun gun.

An ambulance was called immediately. The boy was taken to hospital in critical condition and later died.

McCaskill said all of his officers are trained to "act appropriately using various use-of-force options," depending on the circumstances. "We have procedures and policies for activating (Tasers). It's when a suspect is acting in a violent manner perhaps, or perhaps having a weapon, or perhaps endangering himself or others," he told reporters. "There are specific rules on when those devices can be activated."

David Chartrand, president of the Manitoba Metis Federation, said he was worried officers may have reacted differently because the youth was Metis.

"Excessive force seems to be used a lot more on aboriginal people than not, so that's starting to concern me," he told CTV News. "If the boy was not a Metis Nation member, would they have used the Taser?"

But McCaskill said the officers were directed to the youth after the bystanders waved them over, and likely had little time to make any such racial distinction. "I think it's too early to make any suggestions of any nature. I have respect for Mr. Chartrand, but I think we have to wait until the investigation unfolds," he said.

Police chief to discuss taser-related death

July 24, 2008
Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Police Chief Ken McCaskill is slated to discuss the Taser-related death of a 17-year-old boy at a 5:15 p.m. news conference.

The Free Press is there and will report McCaskill's statement on winnipegfreepress.com.

The youth was shocked by the stun gun in a back lane behind 871 William Ave. late Tuesday afternoon. He was rushed to nearby Health Sciences Centre in critical condition and was pronounced dead.

A spokesman with Amnesty International says Langan is believed to be the youngest Canadian to die after being Tasered since 2003 -- the year the agency recorded the first death linked to the device. The group says at least 21 people in the country have died after being hit by a police Taser.

It's not known if Langan had a pre-existing medical condition or was under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time. The provincial medical examiner will perform an autopsy to determine why Langan died after police shot him with a Taser.

Langan is the first person to die in Manitoba after being Tasered by a police officer.

His mother is calling for a moratorium on the weapons in the wake of her son's death. In a brief telephone interview, his aunt, Connie Langan, burst immediately into tears, saying the family has been through a lot in recent years and that her nephew's death was too much to bear. She would only say that she'll remember Michael as a "good kid" and a "good student."

Langan was joined in her St. James apartment by Langan's mother, Sharon Shymko. Shymko told CTV Winnipeg her son liked to box and dreamed of becoming a cabinet maker. "This should not have happened. My son's not here... and there's nothing else I can say," she said.

While it's not yet known whether the shock from the Taser contributed to the teen's death, Shymko said there should be a moratorium on the stun guns. "They should have just taken a gun and shot my son right there instead of using the Taser," Shymko said. "Basically it did the same thing."

Police said Wednesday the youth had been brandishing a knife in the back lane, and refused to comply with orders from two front-line officers to put it down after they encountered him.

Police elected to use their Tasers to subdue him as he posed a risk to officer and public safety. A police source said Langan also suffered a head injury in the incident. Police would not say how many Taser jolts Langan received at the hands of officers.

"They repeatedly requested that he disarm himself, and that he drop the knife -- (Langan) refused to comply with that request and at that point the electronic control device was deployed," said Const. Jacqueline Chaput.

City police did not release the youth's name. Police said a youth was identified as a suspect who allegedly stole property from a car parked at MWG Apparel at 1147 Notre Dame Ave. and fled on foot, heading northeast. The car was parked at the business Tuesday with the passenger-side window smashed out. Remnants of police fingerprinting powder remained on sections of the vehicle.

Plainclothes detectives were seen visiting businesses with security cameras along Winnipeg Avenue Wednesday afternoon, trying to map out the youth's route as he made his way toward the spot where police Tasered him.

It's believed the owner of the Lexus and a friend saw the theft taking place and followed Langan as he made his way up toward Arlington Street and William Avenue.

Witnesses said Tuesday that the teen walked through the lot of a service station on the southwest corner of the intersection and crossed the street heading east. Witnesses said the teen turned around after crossing the street and gave the occupants of the Lexus the finger as they slowly followed after him. It's believed he then cut through the backyard of 871 William Ave. where police encountered him.

Moments later, Langan was said to have brandished the knife, refused to comply with police orders to drop it, and was Tasered.

There's no question that Langan was also involved in the theft from the car, Chaput said. "Our officers are satisfied it was the same person that was involved," Chaput said.

Langan was not involved in the city's auto-theft subculture, police said. A Manitoba Justice source said Langan's court record contained four citations under the Intoxicated Persons Detention Act and he had no other criminal history.

The two officers involved in the incident are on administrative leave as detectives continue to investigate.

They are looking into the possibility that video cameras on the nearby virology lab on Arlington may have captured the incident as it unfolded.

Const. Adam Cheadle of the officer safety unit said the choice to use Tasers over a gun was the officers' decision to make based on the training they have received. "The officer would respond due to any number of things -- their perception of the incident, or threat level to themselves or another individual," he said.

The stun-gun devices carry a 50,000-volt charge, but the "peak voltage" charge, spread throughout a suspect's body, is "considerably less," Cheadle added.

It's too early in the investigation into Langan's death to determine if police policy or procedures need to be altered in any way, police said. Police use their Tasers in one of three ways: as a "coercive device" where the threat of being shocked is enough to have a suspect stand down, in a "drive stun" mode where the weapon is touched to a suspect's body to cause "pain compliance," or by "shooting" a person with the weapons, causing electrodes to contact a person and shock him or her.

In 2007, city police used their Tasers 173 times, with just under half the total being incidents where the weapon was not fired or used to shock a person. From Jan. 1 to Jun. 25 of this year, the total is 63. Again, just under half the times Tasers were used, they were used only to coerce suspects, and not deployed.

Because Langan's death was an officer-involved fatality, homicide investigators are leading the probe. Their findings will be turned over to an outside police agency for review, which will report back to Manitoba's attorney general. A mandatory inquest will then be held.

SIU concludes investigation into death involving taser

July 24, 2008
CD98.9 Norfolk

SIU investigators are done gathering evidence and conducting interviews in the case of a local man who died in police custody. Investigators with the province's Special Investigations Unit are called in when someone dies or is seriously injured with in police custody. 36 year old Jeffery Marreel who collapsed after an incident involving a taser last month and later died at Norfolk General Hospital. It will likely be several weeks before any findings and a final report come forward.

Police didn't tell taser victim's mom right away he was dead: family spokesman

Four years ago TODAY my family learned through the MEDIA that Vancouver police used tasers on my brother the night he died on JUNE 24, 2008 - one month earlier. Some things never change!

July 24, 2008
The Canadian Press

WINNIPEG — The mother of a 17-year-old Winnipeg youth was visited by police in the middle of the night after he was zapped by a stun gun, but wasn't told of his death until the next day, says a family spokesman.

"They just showed up and advised her to see if they could get a picture of Michael," David Chartrand, president of the Manitoba Metis Federation, said Thursday.

"She shared, not knowing why, only to find out the next day they were going to come tell her they killed him."

Michael Langan died Tuesday after being struck by a police Taser.

"Not to be told until the next day, that's not good at all. That's really bad," said Chartrand.

Why police didn't tell Sharon Shymko about her son is one of the many unanswered questions her family is dealing with, Chartrand said in a telephone interview from Saskatoon.

Winnipeg police have said little about what happened, but called a news conference for late Thursday afternoon with Chief Keith McCaskill.

On Wednesday, Const. Jacqueline Chaput said the youth was a suspect in a theft and an officer deployed what she described as an "electronic control device" when the teenager refused to put down a knife.

Police declined to provide details on the alleged theft, saying only that it involved the contents of a vehicle.

Chartrand said Langan was close to his family, particularly his grandmother, and went out of his way to help her with errands such as filling her prescriptions.

The teen had dreams of becoming a cabinet-maker after finishing high school. He planned to continue Grade 11 in Winnipeg after spending the last year going to school in Kelowna, B.C., Chartrand said.

But Langan may have experimented with marijuana and "may have done crack once somewhere," he admitted.

"He did seem to have challenges. He wasn't a bad kid. You know, he had dreams like anyone else."

Amnesty International believes Langan is the youngest Canadian to die after being hit by a stun gun. The rights group has been keeping records since 2003 - the year it recorded the first death linked to the device.

The group says at least 21 people in the country have died after being hit by a police Taser.

Canadian deaths linked to taser use

By THE CANADIAN PRESS

Here is a list of 18 Canadian cases since 2003 in which people died after police use of Tasers:

July 22, 2008: An as yet unidentified 17-year-old died in hospital after being shot with a Taser. Winnipeg Police say the youth refused to comply with repeated requests by officers to put a knife down. The victim was believed to be involved in the theft of property from a vehicle.

June 23, 2008: Jeffrey Marreel, 36, died in custody after Ontario Provincial Police, responding to a disturbance in the town of Norfolk, near Simcoe, shocked him with a Taser. Marreel's father said the man had a history of drug use and lost his job at a flower nursery two weeks prior.

Oct. 17, 2007: Quilem Registre, 39, died in a Montreal hospital after police used a Taser on him at a police station. Police say Registre became aggressive during questioning after he was stopped for a traffic violation.

Oct. 14, 2007: Robert Dziekanski, 40, died after police used a Taser and forcibly subdued him after he became agitated at Vancouver Airport, where he had arrived from Poland.

Aug. 30, 2006: Jason Doan, 28, died in Red Deer, Alta., after police used a Taser in responding to a complaint about a man seen damaging vehicles.

Dec. 24, 2005: Alessandro Fiacco, 33; witnesses said police used a Taser to subdue an agitated Fiacco who had been running into traffic in Edmonton.

July 15, 2005: Paul Saulnier, 42, died in Digby, N.S., after police tried to keep him from leaving the detachment by using pepper spray, batons and a Taser.

July 1, 2005: James Foldi, 39, died after police used a Taser while trying to arrest him following reports of numerous break-ins in the Beamsville, Ont., area.

June 30, 2005: Gurmeet Sandhu, 41, died in Surrey, B.C., after police used a Taser while responding to complaints about a domestic dispute.

May 5, 2005: Kevin Geldart, 34, died after police tried to subdue him with a Taser outside a Moncton, N.B., bar.

Aug. 8, 2004: Samuel Truscott, 43, died in Kingston, Ont., hours after being shot with a Taser. The Ontario coroner said Truscott was killed by a drug overdose.

July 17, 2004: Jerry Knight, 29, died in hospital in Brampton, Ont., after he was shot with a Taser during a violent struggle with police. A pathologist found no proof the stun gun was to blame for his death, saying Knight died from restraint asphyxia and cocaine-related 'excited delirium'.

June 23, 2004: Robert Bagnell, 44, died at a Vancouver hotel after being shot with a Taser by police, who said Bagnell was in the throes of a potentially lethal cocaine-induced psychosis at the time.

May 13, 2004: Peter Lamonday, 33, died in London, Ont., after being pepper-sprayed, punched and shot several times with a Taser during a struggle with police. Ontario's Special Investigation Unit concluded Lamonday died from cocaine-induced 'excited delirium" and not from police action.

May 1, 2004: Roman Andreichikov, 25, died in Vancouver after he was forcibly subdued and hit with a Taser by police while reportedly high on crack cocaine.

Sept. 28, 2003: Clark Whitehouse, 34, died in Whitehorse, Yukon. RCMP reported Whitehouse fled on foot while attempting to swallow drugs. Officers used a Taser to subdue him. A short time later, he appeared to be having trouble breathing and was pronounced dead at hospital.

July 22, 2003: Clay Willey, 33, died in hospital in Prince George, B.C., 16 hours after police used a Taser on him at an RCMP detachment. Willey was arrested in the parking lot of a local mall after police received complaints about a man acting aggressively. An autopsy found he had potentially lethal amounts of cocaine in his system.

April 19, 2003: Terrance Hanna, 51, died at the North Burnaby Inn in Burnaby, B.C., after pulling a knife and hammer on police. High on cocaine, he went into cardiac arrest after police shot him with a Taser.

Editorial - Tell us what happened

July 24, 2008
Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg police say the 17-year-old youth who died Tuesday after being stunned by an officer's Taser gun was suspected of having stolen property and refused police warnings to drop the knife he pulled out. These barest of details offer a slim explanation amid rising public distrust of the "non-lethal" Taser and shaken faith in the Winnipeg Police Service.

The death is the first in Winnipeg connected to police use of Tasers, a controversial weapon of law enforcement -- more than 20 people in Canada have died after being hit with the 50,000 volts it releases. Police across Canada have defended its safety, noting it can quickly incapacitate a person and defuse a volatile situation without loss of life or serious injury. That was sorely tested by the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski last fall. It triggered an outcry and broad concern that the manufacturer's assurance the weapon cannot interfere with the heart was false. A study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal indicated that experiments on pigs suggest that the heart muscle can be affected.

Winnipeg Police are saying little about the Taser incident, which is being investigated as per routine by the department's homicide branch. An autopsy on the Tasered man and a review of the homicide investigation by an outside police agency will fill in some of the blanks and scrutinize the Winnipeg Police Service's handling of the back-alley incident. These are all necessary checks, but it is unlikely Winnipeggers will get good answers until an inquest is held sometime in the future. The delay damages the interests of transparency and makes for poor accountability.

The RCMP's complaints commissioner found in the wake of Mr. Dziekanski's death that police comfort with Tasers led them to stray outside the policy on its use. Paul Kennedy recommended that the RCMP return to the original policy to use it on combative individuals and that Tasers not be used against those exhibiting signs of "excited delirium," a condition often seen in cocaine users. Winnipeg's policy allows for the use of the Taser on those in such a state, as it is regarded as a quick way to safely restrain those whose energy is hard to subdue.

Police data do not show that Winnipeg police are using the Tasers with greater frequency. Last year, Tasers were used either coercively (shown, but not fired) or to stun an individual 173 times, while by mid-2008, they had been used 63 times.

The statistics will be cold comfort to relatives of the teenager. They are unlikely to reassure Winnipeggers who are struggling to maintain trust in the department amid an inquiry into the death of a woman killed by an off-duty officer who drove into her vehicle after a night of drinking with colleagues. Winnipeg police do not, by practice, publicly release the reports of third-party investigators who review internal investigations. There is no good reason for this. Police Chief Keith McCaskill should recognize that the prevailing public interest and mood demand that the report be released as soon as possible.

Winnipeg mother questions use of taser on teenage son

July 24, 2008
CBC



Family speaks about 17-year-old's death, although police haven't released his name

A spokesman for the family of a Winnipeg teen who died after police zapped him with a stun gun are questioning whether officers used excessive force and if the boy was a victim of racial profiling.

Police and civic officials, however, have defended their use of the stun gun, saying the appropriate amount of force was used given the situation.

Police have not yet released the name of the boy who died in the Tuesday afternoon confrontation, but family members identified him as 17-year-old Michael Langan. The teen was rushed to hospital in critical condition after officers struck him with a Taser. He later died, becoming the first stun gun-related fatality since the Winnipeg Police Service began using the devices in the fall of 2006.

The encounter happened after two citizens flagged down police around 4 p.m. CT Tuesday to report seeing a thief flee, then officers tracked down someone wielding a knife several blocks away.

Langan's mother, Sharon Shymko, and her family have asked David Chartrand, the president of the Manitoba Metis Federation, to speak on their behalf as she grieves the loss of her son. Chartrand questioned whether racial profiling played a part in the encounter. "Why does it seem to be aboriginal people that seem to fall prey to this extra force against us?" he asked. "Is there a better way that could have handled a youth with a knife in his hand?"

No plans for Taser policy change

He also questioned how the police force has handled the case, saying they were notified late about the teen's death. "Police did come, and got a picture and left, and they did not verify to her until later on the next day …," Chartrand said.

In a CTV interview with the mother, she called for a moratorium on the devices, and said the officers should have just used a gun since it "basically did the same thing."

Police and civic politicians stand by their use of the weapon in the incident. "The suspect in this matter was armed with a knife and clearly refusing to comply with directions from the officers to disarm. That poses a threat to the officers, that poses a threat to other members of the public," said police spokeswoman Const. Jacqueline Chaput.

Gord Steeves, head of the city's committee on protection and community services, agreed, and said the incident is not cause for a change in policy. "It's a terrible incident, of course, there's no happy ending to a story like this," said Steeves. "But as of right now, I have no indication any policy needs to be changed, any policy wasn't followed or that any of our people make any mistakes."

Counsellors, lawyers to help family

The Manitoba Metis Federation is providing counsellors and lawyers to help the Langan family deal with the loss. "There's a lot of hurt right now. That's really, really difficult right now," said Chartrand, adding that the community is concerned about Shymko's state of mind.

It has not yet been determined whether the Taser contributed to the teen's death. Results from an autopsy are pending.

Taser use has been under scrutiny since several high-profile deaths following their use by police across Canada, including the case of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, which made international headlines. He died in the Vancouver International Airport after RCMP officers zapped him at least twice with a stun gun.

Probes into the use of Tasers were launched in the wake of his death. A probe by the RCMP watchdog, for instance, concluded that rookie officers should not be allowed to use the stun guns, and those zapped with the device should be given immediate medical attention.

Taser case mystery

July 24, 2008
CHRIS KITCHING, SUN MEDIA
Winnipeg Sun

Answers months away in what killed shocked teen

It may be months before authorities understand what killed a 17-year-old male who was shocked with a Taser by a Winnipeg police officer Tuesday, the province's chief medical examiner said yesterday.

An autopsy was done but additional tests will be required to try to determine a conclusive cause of death, said Dr. Thambirajah Balachandra.

Police spokeswoman Const. Jacqueline Chaput didn't know if the teen had an existing medical condition or was intoxicated.

The Taser-related fatality is the first in Manitoba.

MORATORIUM

The teen's family identified him as Michael Langan. His mother, Sharon Shymko, told CTV Winnipeg her son liked to box and wanted to become a cabinet maker.

"This shouldn't have happened," she said. Shymko said there should be a moratorium on police use of stun guns. "They might as well have just took a gun and shot my son right there instead of using the Taser," she said. "Basically it did the same thing."

Despite the incident, Winnipeg police are standing by the device. Const. Adam Cheadle, the service's use of force co-ordinator, said the device is safe and in the league of pepper spray or a baton, if used properly. All officers are trained to use them in circumstances, which unfold in seconds, when they or someone else is threatened, he said.

After a recent review, Chief Keith McCaskill said Tasers are an adequate intermediate weapon.

TASER International is standing by its products. "Until all the facts surrounding this tragic incident are known, it is inappropriate to jump to conclusions on the cause of death," the company said in a statement.

Chaput said the youth was shocked after he refused two officers' repeated demands to drop a knife. One of the officers fired his X26E model Taser, but police would not say where the probes struck the teen or how many times he was zapped.

Before the incident, he smashed the passenger side window of a Lexus car, parked at MWG Apparel Corp. at 1147 Notre Dame Ave., and stole something, police allege. Two witnesses followed the youth on foot to William Avenue and Arlington Street, where they flagged down officers.

HOLDING KNIFE

The teen was holding a knife when the officers approached him in the alley between the 800-block of William Avenue and the national microbiology lab, Chaput said.

He was unresponsive on the ground after he was shocked, so the officers called for paramedics, Chaput said. He was taken by ambulance to Health Sciences Centre, just a few blocks away, where he was pronounced dead shortly after the 4 p.m. incident.

The two officers, with general patrol in downtown Division 11, are on paid administrative leave. Chaput said the homicide unit is investigating, which is standard protocol. Once complete, their investigation will be given to an outside police agency for review and then to Manitoba Justice. A provincial inquest is mandatory.

Representatives of the province have not said if it will do its own review of Tasers.

Tasers will not be used in Saskatchewan jails

July 24, 2008
James Wood, Saskatchewan News Network

REGINA -- The provincial government appears to have all but shut the door on the use of Tasers in Saskatchewan jails for some time to come.

The province was in the process of introducing electronic conducted devices (ECDs) such as Tasers for use by emergency response teams at the province's correctional centres last fall, but their use was put on hold after Polish citizen Robert Dziekanski died at the Vancouver International Airport in October after being shot with a Taser by RCMP.

Saskatchewan Party Corrections, Public Safety and Policing Minister Darryl Hickie, who said in the spring that the issue was being reviewed, said Wednesday there are no plans for the introduction of Tasers.


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Font:****"At the present time, no, they will not be instituted in our correctional facilities," he said outside a meeting of cabinet at the legislature building.

"If after lengthy consultations with other jurisdictions and if the deputy minister decides it's something they want to implement in correctional facilities as a level of force option, it could be reopened and reconsidered," he added.

A spokesperson for the Corrections Ministry later said no final decision on the potential use of Tasers has been made but the government has no formal review process in place and there is no timetable for a decision.

The provincial ombudsman makes a report next week on Tasers and the provincial corrections system.

The government had purchased two Tasers for use by emergency response teams at each of the province's three correctional centres. Training had begun last fall in Saskatoon and Regina and was planned for Prince Albert.

The Saskatchewan Police Commission is currently examining the use of Tasers by the province's police forces.

On Tuesday, a 17-year-old male who was a suspect in a theft died in Winnipeg after being struck by a Taser used by police.

Hickie, a former police officer and federal prison guard, has consistently expressed skepticism about the use of Tasers in jails.

He believes Tasers are a poor fit in the controlled environment of correctional facilities and does not expect concerns from jail staff if they are not introduced.

Provincial ombudsman Kevin Fenwick said his report is aimed at ensuring the government has the right information on hand and takes the "corrections environment into account" when it looks at the Taser issue.

Fenwick said the government "needs to do more work to make a good decision" compared to what was done before Corrections gave Tasers the go-ahead last year.

"The studies we have been able to look at are primarily studies of their usage in police settings and are primarily involving the effects of Tasers on relatively healthy subject populations. Other studies tell us that there are much higher instances of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, things like that in correctional centres, which can be problem areas with respect to controlled energy devices. We believe there needs to be considerable additional work done before the decision is made about correctional centres because those are vulnerable populations," he said.

Jim Warner, executive director of the John Howard Society in Saskatchewan, said the use of stun guns in jails would be a concern for his organization.

"There is mixed information about the safety of the device and the proper use of it and when it should be used," he said.

Taser International offers Winnipeg police help

July 23, 2008
CHRIS KITCHING, SUN MEDIA
Winnipeg Sun

Says ready to assist in investigation

TASER International says it is prepared to help Winnipeg police with their investigation if asked and is standing by its products. The Scottsdale, Ariz.,-based company made the comments today in a statement released to the Winnipeg Sun but would not comment about yesterday's Taser-related death in Winnipeg.

Sources said the male was pronounced dead in hospital after he was Tasered for refusing to a drop a knife during a confrontation with city police officers in an alley in the 800 block of William Avenue.

"Until all the facts surrounding this tragic incident are known, it is inappropriate to jump to conclusions on the cause of death," TASER International stated in its release.

"Athough no use of force device is risk free, including TASER technology, medical experts and recent independent comprehensive reports from the governments of Canada, United Kingdom and the U.S. have concluded that TASER systems are among the safer use-of-force alternatives to subdue violent individuals who pose a safety risk to an officer, suspect or innocent citizens," the company stated.

TASER International has sold more than 345,000 of its devices to 12,700 law enforcement and U.S. military agencies in more than 44 countries. More than 4,500 agencies are at full deployment, meaning every single patrol officer is carrying a Taser.

TASER International says there have been more than 1 million uses of its products, including an estimated 547,000 actual suspects and an estimated 681,000 volunteers in either training or medical and safety studies.

Winnipeg police confirm taser victim had knife, believed involved in theft

July 23, 2008
The Canadian Press

WINNIPEG — Winnipeg police say it was a youth who died after being shot with a Taser while he was brandishing a knife at officers. Const. Jacqueline Chaput says the 17-year-old refused to comply with repeated requests by the officers to put the knife down and as a result was shot with an electronic stun gun.

She says the victim was believed to be involved in the theft of property from a vehicle and was followed by two citizens who flagged down police.

The teen was taken in critical condition to hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Chaput says it is the first time there has been a Taser death involving a member of the Winnipeg Police Service.

Autopsy results are pending and the investigation continues.

Boy, 17, died in taser incident

July 23, 2008
CHRIS KITCHING, SUN MEDIA
Winnipeg Sun

The person who died in a Taser-related incident in Winnipeg's inner-city was a 17-year-old boy who police said stole something from a vehicle moments earlier.

It's still not known what killed the unidentified boy. An autopsy is being performed today to determine the cause of death.

It's the first such fatality in Winnipeg.

Police said two people who watched the theft, which happened in the 1100 block of Notre Dame Avenue, followed the boy up Arlington Street to William Avenue, where they flagged down a passing police car.

The officers approached the boy, who police said was armed with a knife, in the alley behind the 800 block of William Avenue, next to the national microbiology lab.

Police said the boy refused the officers' demands to drop the knife, so one of the officers fired his Taser. Police would not say where the probes struck the boy or if he was zapped more than once.

The boy fell to the ground and was unresponsive, so the officers requested paramedics and tried to revive him. The boy was taken by ambulance to Health Sciences Centre, where he was pronounced dead shortly after the 4 p.m. incident.

The officers, members of general patrol in downtown Division 11, are on administrative leave.

Police said the homicide unit is investigating, which is standard protocol in an officer-involved shooting or fatality. Once complete, their investigation will be given to an outside police agency for review and then to Manitoba Justice.

A provincial inquest is mandatory in these cases and will be held at some point in the future, a justice official said.

Police use the X26 Taser model.

At this point, the city, province and police service are awaiting the outcome of the police investigation before determining whether reviews of police Taser-use in Winnipeg and Manitoba are necessary.

The head of a city hall committee overseeing police matters says his confidence in Tasers has not wavered in the wake of yesterday's incident.

Coun. Gord Steeves, chair of the protection and community services committee, said Tasers remain a valuable tool for city police officers and alternative to firearms in volatile situations.

"We only hope that at the end of the day it comes out that our people followed protocol and did what was reasonable in the circumstances, and this comes out to be a tragedy but an accidental tragedy," Steeves said today.

Following a Taser-related death at Vancouver's airport last fall, city hall's protection committee had the police service review its Taser policy. The report was released in March and found nothing abnormal or alarming about Taser use or the policy.

Steeves said Taser use by Winnipeg police is consistent with police in other major cities in Canada.

City police deployed their Tasers 173 times last year and, as of June 25, 63 times in 2008.

It's believed there has never been a substantiated allegation of misuse or abuse of force.

Editorial: Dziekanski death more than taser issue

July 23, 2008
Editorial: 100 Mile Nouse Free Press

Death is a private matter.

A person’s last moments are their most personal - time to say goodbye, to make amends and to savour the life flashing before dimming eyes.

Modern media has made what should be reserved for family and loved ones a public event.

Death speaks loudly.

If people need to make a statement, or shock others to action, then showing the reality of human demise is the way to go.

Watching someone die on TV or the Internet can be like looking into a possible future. People ask themselves: could that be how it will end for me?

To stress an issue, to prove a point or to get some answers, broadcast death - it is the ultimate emphasis. One only needs to look at Robert Dziekanski, the Polish immigrant who was tasered at YVR, to see how death can turn incidents into atrocities.

Before the video came out, the public thought of it as just another Tasering incident.

The film showed otherwise, and the strangled last breaths of the dying man revealed even more.

People relate to death because it happens to everyone - to die is human.

But is viewing death humane?

Besides a few cases of extroverted suicides, living creatures don’t usually go somewhere public when they know they are about to die. A family pet will lay in a corner, a terminal patient will attempt to go home - as common as it is, death is still a mysterious thing.

But some living things do not get the dignity of a secluded death.

Dziekanski did not get that luxury.

Neither did Eugene Armstrong, an American whose decapitation was posted on the Internet.

It is hard to choose between respect for the dead and knowledge for the living.

Death finds everyone - it just matters if there is a camera around when it does. With cameras posted everywhere from the street to cell phones, there’s a good chance someone will record your last breath.

Dziekanski has been laid to rest in his homeland; but the controversy surrounding his death lives on.

Winnipeg man dies after being tasered by police

July 22, 2008
JOE FRIESEN, Globe and Mail Update and The Canadian Press

WINNIPEG — A man is dead after being tasered by police in Winnipeg.

Police have confirmed that officers used a taser Tuesday on a man who was then taken to hospital and pronounced dead. A police source said the victim was a male in his 20s, but a name has not been released pending notification of next-of-kin.

Officers were responding to a call for help from a citizen in the 900 block of Arlington St, close to the national virology lab. Witnesses said they saw officers and paramedics pounding on the chest of a man who was lying motionless in an alley. They also administered electric shocks in an effort to revive him.

While CTV Winnipeg reported the man had been wielding a knife, police would not say whether the male who was killed was armed when he was confronted. "I'm not privy to the information surrounding that encounter, however it did result in the deployment of an electronic control device used by one of our officers against the male," said Winnipeg police spokeswoman Jacqueline Chaput. However, the initial confrontation was serious enough that more than five police cars were dispatched, she said.

Constable Chaput did not know how many times or where on his body the man was tasered. She said paramedics were called to the scene by police, who requested a “rush” be put on the ambulance. "The male was initially taken to hospital and there he did succumb to his injuries. At this point the investigation is continuing. Our homicide unit has been dispatched to attend and they will be investigating the matter as is protocol." Constable Chaput says it's the first time in Winnipeg that someone has died after being stunned with a taser. "It is yet to be determined by the investigation whether the electronic control device had a hand in the fatality," she said.

Constable Chaput says the homicide unit is investigating as is protocol in any officer-involved fatality. “It was our executive members' decision to continue with the use of electronic control devices despite some of the controversy that we've seen all over the country,” she said.

Amnesty International Canada renewed a call for a temporary taser moratorium last month after an Ontario man died in custody after being shocked by police. The human-rights group said an independent review of possible risks is needed.\

Calls for bans on the devices have also followed several high-profile deaths. A public inquiry is scheduled for this fall into the death of a Polish immigrant who died shortly after being tasered by RCMP officers at Vancouver's airport last year. Robert Dziekanski had been waiting at the airport for several hours for his mother, and RCMP were called after he became agitated. A video taken by a bystander set off a public outcry and resulted in several inquiries into taser use by police.

The national police force pledged to restrict taser use and give officers clearer direction on how and when to use the weapons following a scathing report by RCMP Public Complaints Commissioner Paul Kennedy.

Earlier this month, Nova Scotia's government issued new restrictions aimed at ensuring stun guns are used appropriately. An earlier study done for the province found officers had become increasingly reliant on the devices.

Ex-cop may be charged in case of man tasered to death

July 22, 2008
Drew Griffin and David Fitzpatrick, CNN

WINNFIELD, Louisiana (CNN) -- A police officer shocked a handcuffed Baron "Scooter" Pikes nine times with a Taser after arresting him on a cocaine charge.

He stopped twitching after seven, according to a coroner's report. Soon afterward, Pikes was dead.

Now the officer, since fired, could end up facing criminal charges in Pikes' January death after medical examiners ruled it a homicide.

Dr. Randolph Williams, the Winn Parish coroner, told CNN the 21-year-old sawmill worker was jolted so many times by the 50,000-volt Taser that he might have been dead before the last two shocks were delivered.

Williams ruled Pikes' death a homicide in June after extensive study.

Winn Parish District Attorney Christopher Nevils said he will decide on any charges against the ex-officer, Scott Nugent, once a Louisiana State Police report on the case is complete.

"It's taken several months for this case to even be properly addressed, so one has to wonder, why did it take so long?" said Carol Powell Lexing, a lawyer for the Pikes family. "Obviously, a wrongful death occurred."

Nugent's lawyer, Phillip Terrell, said his client followed proper procedure to subdue a man who outweighed him by 100 pounds. But Williams said Pikes was already handcuffed and on the ground when first hit with the Taser, after the 247-pound suspect was slow to follow police orders to get up.

Winnfield, a sleepy lumber town about 100 miles southeast of Shreveport, Louisiana, is best known as the birthplace of legendary Louisiana governors Huey and Earl Long. It's also about 45 miles northwest of Jena, Louisiana, where a racially charged assault case sparked a September 2007 demonstration by an estimated 15,000 people.

One of the teenage defendants in that case, Mychal Bell, is Pikes' first cousin -- and his lawyer was Powell Lexing.

Nugent is white; Pikes was black. His death led to demonstrations that drew several dozen people in Winnfield, where the population of about 15,000 is roughly half African-American.

"The family wants justice," Lexing said. "This is just another example of why it's very important to stay vigilant with these types of cases, on the injustice that's been perpetrated on the disadvantaged."

But Winnfield police Lt. Chuck Curry said race "isn't an issue at all" in the matter.

"This has come down to a police officer that was trying to apprehend a suspect that they had warrants for," he said. "He done what he thought he was trained to do to bring that subject into custody. At some point, something happened with his body that caused him to go into cardiac arrest or whatever." See how Tasers work »

According to police, Pikes was wanted on a charge of possession of cocaine when police tried to arrest him outside a shopping center January 12.

"He would not stop for the officer," Curry said. "At some point in there, he was Tased to bring him under control, and several hours later, died at the emergency room."

Terrell said Pikes was fighting Nugent "on uneven ground" amid obstructions such as concrete blocks and barbed wire.

"He's fighting, wrestling with an individual who weighs 100 pounds more than him," he said. "His partner had just come back to the police department from triple bypass surgery and could not assist Officer Nugent."

Terrell said his client "used every means possible" to take Pikes into custody before pulling out his Taser, a weapon Winnfield police purchased in 2007.

"The only thing he could have done other than to say, 'OK, we're going to let you go' is to beat him or Tase him. He did the right thing," Terrell said.

Williams, who ruled Pikes' death a homicide in June after extensive study, said Nugent fired his Taser at Pikes six times in less than three minutes -- shots recorded by a computer chip in the weapon's handle. Then officers put Pikes in the back of a cruiser and drove him to their police station -- where Nugent fired a seventh shot, directly against Pikes' chest.

"After he was given that drive stun to the chest, he was pulled out of the car onto the concrete, " Williams told CNN. "He was electroshocked two more times, which two officers noted that he had no neuromuscular response to those last two 50,000-volt electroshocks."

Williams said he had two nationally known forensic pathologists, including former New York city medical examiner Michael Baden, review the case before issuing his conclusions. He said it's possible Nugent was shocking a dead man the last two times he pulled the trigger.

"This fellow was talking in the back seat of the car prior to shot number seven," he said. "From that point on, it becomes questionable [if Pikes was still alive]."

Curry said Pikes told officers he suffered from asthma and had been using PCP and crack cocaine. But Williams said he found no sign of drug use in the autopsy, and no record of asthma in Pikes' medical history.

In the year since Winnfield police received Tasers, officers have used them 14 times, according to police records -- with 12 of the instances involving black suspects. Ten of the 14 incidents involved Nugent, who has no public disciplinary record.

Nugent was suspended after Pikes' death, and Winnfield's City Council voted 3-2 to fire him in May. He is appealing his dismissal, and his lawyer says he followed proper procedures in Pikes' case. He was trained in the use of the Taser by a senior police officer who was present during the incident that led to Pikes' death, Terrell said.

Curry said Taser International, the device's manufacturer, indicates that "multiple Tasings do not affect a person." But he said he could not explain why Pikes was shocked so many times, and said whether Nugent followed proper procedure was "yet to be determined."

But a copy of the Winnfield Police Department's Taser training manual, obtained by CNN, says the device "shall only be deployed in circumstances where it is deemed reasonably necessary to control a dangerous or violent subject." And Williams said regulations regarding the use of Tasers were not followed.

"It violated every aspect -- every single aspect -- of the department's policy about its use," the coroner said.

Winnfield has seen a spate of high-profile corruption cases in recent years. One of Nevils' predecessors as district attorney, Terry Reeves, killed himself amid allegations of embezzlement and extortion. The town's current police chief, Johnny Ray Carpenter, is a convicted drug offender who received a pardon from former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards who himself is now serving a federal prison term for racketeering.

And Carpenter's predecessor, Gleason Nugent -- the father of Pikes' arresting officer -- committed suicide in 2005, after allegations of fraud and vote buying in the race for police chief, an elected position in Winnfield.

Now Nevils is awaiting the state police report on Pikes' death, which will be presented to a grand jury for possible charges against Nugent -- a possibility Curry said would be a blow to the department.

"It's one of these no-win situations," he said. "No matter the outcome, nobody's going to win in this case."

RCMP actions in taser case 'appalling'

July 22, 2008
Ted Chernecki, Canwest News Service

GLIWICE, Poland -- A woman interviewed by RCMP officers investigating the death of Robert Dziekanski described her experience as an "ordeal."

RCMP investigators went to Poland in April to talk to people close to Dziekanski. The trip to Gliwice was planned soon after Dziekanski, who was immigrating to Canada, died after RCMP shocked him with a Taser at Vancouver International Airport last October.

Ivona Kosowska said the questions the team was asking about Dziekanski struck her as odd.

"What kind of person was he? Was he a drinker, drug user? Was he aggressive?" said Kosowska through a translator. "Most questions were to expose him as not a nice human being -- not to find out what kind of person he really was."

Dziekanski was Tasered early on Oct. 14, 2007, after he began behaving erratically in a secure area of the airport, pacing and throwing items against a glass wall.

By then, he had been at the airport for about 10 hours waiting for his mother, Zofia Cisowski of Kamloops, to pick him up. She was waiting for him outside the international arrivals section, but they never connected despite her requests to airport officials to find him.

His death, captured on video, created international headlines. The police probe concluded in June. To date, no charges have been laid.

Kosowska said two RCMP officers questioned her for more than three hours at the city prosecutor's office. She was exhausted by the end of the interview, which left her with a very low opinion of the RCMP.

"I told them exactly how I felt that after a three-hour interrogation in front of a camera . . . I have very negative feelings toward the Canadian police," she said. "I'm appalled by everything . . . including the fact the policeman was not able to look me straight in the eye."

Ujjal Dosanjh, the federal Liberal critic for public safety, has been highly critical of the RCMP's handling of the Dziekanski case -- from the day the Polish man died at the airport to recent internal e-mails suggesting senior staff offered their support to the four officers involved in the Tasering. He said reports of the interviews in Poland only added to his suspicions.

"This raises very alarming questions about the modus operandi of the RCMP," said Dosanjh. "They're supposed to be protecting people, and they go there [to Poland], spend taxpayers' money, to undermine the criticism that's been levelled at them. It doesn't make sense to me."

Repeated calls to the RCMP in Ottawa late yesterday were not returned.

Polish town remembers man who died in taser incident at Canadian airport

July 19, 2008
The Canadian Press

WARSAW, Poland — Residents of a small Polish town gathered on Saturday to remember the 42-year-old townsman who died last year at a Canadian airport shortly after being hit with stunned with Taser guns by police.

A memorial Mass for Robert Dziekanski was held in a Roman Catholic church in Pieszyce, a small town in southwestern Poland.

An urn holding half of his remains was to be buried in the family grave at the town cemetery. Another urn remained in Kamloops, British Columbia, where his mother lives.

Dziekanski died last October at Vancouver International Airport, where he arrived after taking his first-ever flight to visit his mother, Zofia Cisowski, who lives in Canada. Cisowski also attended Saturday's service.

Dziekanski, who spoke only Polish, began acting erratically at the airport when he could not find his mother. He was pronounced dead shortly after being struck twice with Tasers by RCMP officers.

His death brought international attention and intense scrutiny of police use of Tasers.

Taser death ignites racial tensions

July 19, 2008
By Howard Witt, Chicago Tribune

WINNFIELD, La. — At 1:28 p.m. last Jan. 17, Baron "Scooter" Pikes was a healthy 21-year-old man. By 2:07 p.m., he was dead.

What happened in the 39 minutes in between — during which Pikes was handcuffed by local police and shocked nine times with a Taser, while reportedly pleading for mercy —is now spawning fears of a political coverup in this backwoods Louisiana lumber town infamous for backroom dealings.

Even more ominously, because Pikes was black and the officer who repeatedly Tasered him is white, racial tensions over the case are mounting in a place that's just 40 miles from Jena, La.---site of the racially explosive prosecution of six black teenagers charged with beating a white youth that last year triggered one of the largest American civil rights demonstrations in decades. And in a bizarre coincidence, Pikes turns out to have been a first cousin of Mychal Bell, the lead defendant in the Jena 6 case.

No novelist could have invented Winnfield, a place so steeped in corruption that they built a local museum to try to sanitize it all.

Here in the birthplace of two of Louisiana's most colorful and notorious governors — Huey and Earl Long—the police chief committed suicide three years ago after losing a close election marred by allegations of fraud and vote-buying.

Four months later, the district attorney killed himself after allegedly skimming $200,000 from his office budget and extorting payments from criminal defendants to make their cases go away.

The current police chief is a convicted drug offender who got a pardon from Edwin Edwards, the former Louisiana governor who is serving time in federal prison for corruption convictions.

All of that tangled history is now wrapped up in the Pikes case, because Scott Nugent, the officer who Tasered him, is the well-connected son of the former police chief who killed himself—and the protege of the current chief, who hired him onto the force.

"A lot happens in this town, and it just gets swept under the rug," said Kayshon Collins, Pikes' stepmother, who has participated in several local protests over the case. "What the police did to Scooter just isn't right. They would never have Tasered a white kid like that."

The official police version of what happened to Pikes on that brisk January afternoon reads like a sad but familiar story in Winnfield's local newspaper.

Nugent spotted Pikes walking along the street and attempted to arrest him on an outstanding warrant for drug possession, according to Police Chief Johnny Ray Carpenter. Pikes took off running, but another officer cornered him outside a nearby grocery store. Pikes resisted arrest and Nugent subdued him with a shock from a Taser.

Then on the way to the police station, Carpenter told the newspaper, Pikes fell ill and told the officers he suffered from asthma and was high on crack cocaine and PCP. The officers called for an ambulance, but Pikes later died at the hospital.

Six months later, the Winnfield police are standing by that story. Meanwhile, the Louisiana State Police are investigating the case, and no charges have been filed against Nugent or two other Winnfield police officers who assisted him in arresting Pikes, although the City Council did decide to fire Nugent from the force in May.

Winn Parish District Atty. Chris Nevils says he expects to present the case to a grand jury after he receives the results of the state police investigation.

Evidence contradicts report
But there is already abundant evidence contradicting the official police version of the incident.

An autopsy determined there were no drugs in Pikes' system and that he did not have asthma, according to Dr. Randolph Williams, the Winn Parish coroner.

Moreover, Pikes did not resist arrest, and he was handcuffed while lying on the ground, according to Nugent's police report of the incident. It was only after Pikes refused Nugent's command to stand up that the officer applied the first Taser shock in the middle of his back, Nugent wrote.

Several more Taser shocks followed quickly, Nugent stated, because Pikes kept falling down and refusing to get back up. Grocery shoppers who witnessed the incident later told Pikes' family that he had pleaded with Nugent: "Please, you all got me. Please don't Tase me again."

Williams said police records showed Nugent administered nine Taser shocks to Pikes over a 14-minute period. The last two jolts, delivered as police pulled Pikes from a patrol car at the police station, elicited no reaction because the suspect was unconscious, Williams said.

After consulting about the case with Dr. Michael Baden, a nationally prominent forensic pathologist, Williams ruled last month that Pikes' death was a homicide. On the death certificate, he listed the cause of death as "cardiac arrest following nine 50,000-volt electroshock applications from a conductive electrical weapon."

"God did not just call this young man home," said Williams, who has served as parish coroner for the past 33 years. "If somebody can tell me anything else that killed this otherwise perfectly healthy young man ... I'd like to know it."

Williams is no stranger to controversy in Winnfield. Back in 2004, his garage was firebombed, and he says he's been shot at 19 times by people upset with the independence of his investigations. He wears a gun holstered at his waist.

"This case may be the most unnecessary death I have ever had to investigate," Williams said. "[Pikes] put up no fuss, no fighting, no physical aggression. ... He just didn't respond quickly enough to the officer's commands."

Nugent, 21, declined to be interviewed for this story. But his attorney, Phillip Terrell, said that Nugent acted according to his training—an opinion seconded by police spokesman Lt. Charles Curry.

Taser safety guidelines
Yet the official Winnfield Police Department Taser policy appears to prohibit the weapon's use against a non-violent, handcuffed suspect.

"The Taser shall only be deployed in circumstances where it is deemed reasonably necessary to control a dangerous or violent subject," the policy states. It also requires that a suspect who has been Tasered should immediately be checked out at a hospital.

What's more, safety guidelines issued by Taser International Inc., the manufacturer of the device that is now used by more than 12,700 law-enforcement and military agencies worldwide, warn officers to "minimize repeated, continuous, and/or simultaneous exposures."

Company officials, citing dozens of medical studies, insist Tasers are safe when used properly. But few of those studies examined the effect of multiple Taser applications over a short period of time. The U.S. Department of Justice, in a study released in June, concluded that "the medical risks of repeated or continuous [Taser] exposure are unknown."

In less than two years on Winnfield's 20-officer police force, police records show, Nugent ranked as the department's most aggressive Taser user. Among the recipients were a 15-year-old African-American runaway who was not charged with any crime and Pikes' father, currently serving a prison sentence for a drug offense, who was Tasered by Nugent last year, according to Kayshon Collins.

Coroner rules on man's death after police chase

July 19, 2008
Carol Robinson, Birmingham News

A man who died last month after being subdued with a Taser by Birmingham police died from heart complications, the Jefferson County Coroner's office has ruled. The fact that 43-year-old Willie Maye fled police, fought with them, and was subsequently subdued with spray and a stun gun, contributed to his death, according to a report released by the cororner today. The Jefferson County Coroner's office classified the manner of Maye's death as a homicide.

"He had a bad heart, but the adrenalin from fleeing from the police first, the scuffle, the bruises he sustained, the physical exertion, the Taser and the Mace -- all the ingredients together resulted in his death," said chief Deputy Coroner Pat Curry.

Editorial: tragic lesson on tasers

July 19, 2008
Editorial
News-Record, Greensboro, North Carolina

http://www.news-record.com/content/2008/07/18/article/tragic_lesson_on_tasers

"One young life = one five-day vacation"

That's how one blogger [YOURS TRULY!!] described the punishment meted out to Jerry Dawson, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer involved in the Taser-related death of a teenage grocery store worker on March 20.

Darryl Turner, 17, died after being Tasered twice by Dawson. One Taser discharge Dawson gave Turner lasted 37 seconds. A standard discharge lasts about five. An autopsy determined that Turner died from heart irregularities.

A police department review commission determined that using force to subdue the unruly clerk was appropriate, but the amount of force used wasn't. The CMPD banned lengthy Taser discharges in 2005, after studies pointed out their problems.

Dawson was suspended for five days without pay and has been ordered to receive more Taser training - a punishment that is little more than a wrist slap. Letting police review boards determine disciplinary action for officers is problematic. At the least, it causes the public to question the fairness of such procedures.

The Dawson case also highlights the need for all law-enforcement agencies to ensure that their officers are well-trained in using Tasers before they begin carrying them.

Tasers are a good tool for law enforcement. They enable the police to subdue people without the use of deadly force and, when used correctly, they are a more humane alternative to such things as nightsticks or pepper spray.

A Taser's effects usually end when the discharge ends. When used as intended, in a short, five-second discharge, few, if any, problems result. Complications arise, as a study by the National Institute of Justice says, through the devices' "continuous or repeated discharge."

Research has found that prolonged Taser use can cause heart and respiratory problems. In one study, researchers used Tasers on 11 pigs for 40 seconds each: Two of the pigs died and the survivors were left with heart irregularities.

With High Point officers beginning to use Tasers next month, most Guilford law-enforcement agencies will be using these devices. The agencies' Taser training needs to include information on times when Taser use went bad.

Officers need to learn about the Florida man who died after being Tasered 12 times and the South Carolina man who died after being Tasered for two minutes and 49 seconds. They need to learn about 17-year-old Darryl Turner, killed at his grocery store job after being Tasered twice for 42 seconds. Arming officers with the facts should mean fewer such tragedies.

Florida teens charged in stun-gun attack and rape

July 18, 2008
The Associated Press

MIAMI (AP) — A 13- and 15-year-old were arrested after they broke into a woman's home, jolted her with a stun gun and raped her while her baby was sleeping nearby, police said Thursday.

The teens confessed and were charged with armed sexual battery, armed burglary, kidnapping, and armed robbery, Miami Police said.

Police said the 21-year-old woman heard a knock on her front door on May 23, but ignored it. She later noticed the door was ajar and when she turned, she was hit in the back with a Taser. The teens took her into one of the bedrooms, covered her face with a shirt, and raped her, police said.

The victim begged for her life and the life of her child who was in a nearby bedroom. The infant was not harmed, according to a statement from police.

The home was also ransacked and cash and other items were stolen.

The Associated Press is not naming the suspects because of their age. The State Attorney's Office has not yet determined whether they will be charged as adults.

Another suspect was involved in the crime, but detectives have not charged him, police said.

Questions raised about RCMP support of officers who used taser on Dziekanski

July 17, 2008
CBC News, with files from Kurt Petrovich

Documents obtained by CBC News cast doubt on the RCMP's sincerity to get to the bottom of the Taser-related death of Robert Dziekanski, a case that ignited international debate and put the force under intense scrutiny.

From the day the Polish immigrant died at the Vancouver International Airport on Oct. 14, minutes after RCMP officers zapped him with a stun gun, RCMP e-mail exchanges obtained by access to information suggest the force moved quickly to create a strategy.

The strategy involved all answers being vetted in Ottawa, including ones described by RCMP Commissioner William Elliott as "tough or dirty questions" from the media.

But the e-mail exchanges between the RCMP in British Columbia and headquarters in Ottawa also have critics raising questions about whether the force acted appropriately behind the scenes. In one e-mail the day after the video was released, making international headlines, Elliott tells the RCMP senior officer in B.C. that he called the four officers involved in the Taser incident. He doesn't say what he told the men, but a response from Gary Bass, the RCMP deputy commissioner for the Pacific region, indicated the commissioner's calls were a "big hit" around the Richmond detachment where the officers work.

Also, after the B.C. government called a public inquiry, Bass bumped into Premier Gordon Campbell at the airport and later wrote that the premier expressed support for the officers in the chance encounter. According to Bass's e-mail, Campbell supported the continued use of Tasers and offered reassurances that the inquiry wouldn't be a negative attack on force.

Contacted on Wednesday, Campbell said his offer of support was out of compassion for the officers, not a signal that he sided with them. "I would be, you know, it would be nice to offer them personal support. It had nothing to do with whether we were getting to the bottom of the situation. That's why we were having the inquiry," Campbell said.

As for his support for Tasers, Campbell said if the inquiry recommends the weapons be abandoned, it's something his government will consider.

But the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and a lawyer representing Dziekanski's mother are calling the statements into question, saying they are a troubling indication that the RCMP's public vow for transparent accountability in the case are now in doubt.

Both said the premier's private comments and the RCMP commissioner's private calls to the officers under investigation were at the very least inappropriate.

'Ongoing support': RCMP commissioner

Police were called to help deal with Dziekanski after he apparently became agitated from spending 10 hours at the airport.

Dziekanski's death sparked a number of probes into the use of stun guns by police forces, including an inquiry called by the B.C. government, an internal investigation by the RCMP and an investigation by the RCMP public complaints commissioner.

The e-mails obtained by CBC suggest that a number of senior RCMP officers were worried about being crucified in the media but felt the four officers at the airport had acted properly.

The day after the release of a witness's video of the events immediately preceding Dziekanski's death, the commissioner of the RCMP called the four officers involved. Elliott sent an e-mail dated Dec. 4 to Gary Bass, the RCMP deputy commissioner for the Pacific region, assuring his "ongoing support" and discussing his phone calls to the officers. "I have just now placed calls to all four members. I spoke to three of the four," Elliott wrote in an e-mail to Bass. "I know this is tough on you and all our folks in E Division. Please be assured of my ongoing support," Elliott wrote.

Bass responded the next day, saying the commissioner's calls "were a big hit" and they were "the buzz" around the Richmond detachment where the four officers work. Parts of the e-mails were blacked out before they were given to the CBC.

Walter Kostecky, the Dziekanski family's lawyer, said Wednesday that given multiple investigations into the officers' actions, the commissioner should not have picked up the phone "if the purpose of that call was to reassure the members that as far as the commissioner was concerned, they were on safe ground."

Robert Holmes, president of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, said Elliott's personal calls to the four RCMP officers were inappropriate. "I don't know how many other people in this country who were under investigation for the use of force that they applied in whatever the circumstance might be, get a phone call from the head of the RCMP, giving them a pat on the back," Holmes said Wednesday.

The RCMP did not respond to questions from CBC News on Wednesday about the e-mails.

B.C. 'complimentary' of police force: e-mail

Another e-mail written by Bass indicates that Campbell was "complimentary" of the police force despite the fact Dziekanski's death was still under investigation. The e-mail, dated Dec. 4, was addressed to Elliott and Bill Sweeney, an RCMP deputy commissioner and special adviser to the commissioner. "I just ran into our premier at the airport and we had a great 20-minute discussion on this issue generally.… He was highly complimentary of the force, disappointed over the degree of criticism and wants to support the members involved somehow," Bass wrote. "He [Campbell] asked me to think about what he could do in this regard.… He supports the continued use of Taser and any other tools which support and protect our members. He said the inquiry will not be a negative attack on the force but a focused examination of all the issues," Bass wrote.

The B.C. Taser inquiry, headed by retired B.C. Court of Appeal justice Thomas Braidwood, was called after Dziekanski's death. This first phase of the inquiry, which ended in May, focused on Taser use, as well as deaths and injuries associated with the weapon. Numerous medical experts expressed concerns about the risks, while police officers testified Tasers save lives. The second phase of the inquiry, which will begin in October, will focus on Dziekanski's death. Crown prosecutors have not made a decision about whether charges will be laid in the incident at the Vancouver airport.

Holmes said the premier's private comments are troubling because they are at odds with his public condolences to the Dziekanski family. "In the background we have him talking with someone inside the RCMP in a fashion that would suggest it's all a masquerade," Holmes said.

Kostecky said Campbell's conversation with Bass raises questions about his objectivity as the premier. "I would have serious questions about those comments in those circumstances," Kostecky said.

One young life = one five-day vacation

Darryl Turner - a BOY - UNARMED - only 17 years old forchristssake - TASERED FOR FORTY-TWO (42!!) SECONDS for the CRIME of walking toward a 15 year veteran of the Charlotte, North Carolina police force - drops dead BECAUSE OF THE TASER - officer found to be justified in using the taser - just should-a, would-a, could-a SHORTENED the zapfest a wee bit and maybe needs more training - officer gets a five-day vacation. Darryl Turner remains dead for all time.

July 16, 2008
wsoctv.com

http://www.wsoctv.com/news/16902404/detail.html

CMPD Officer Suspended After Probe Into taser Use That Killed Teen

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer that used a Taser on a north Charlotte teenager, leading to his death, has been suspended for five days.

Darryl Turner, 16, died in March after Officer Jerry Dawson used the Taser on him in the Food Lion grocery store on Prosperity Church Road. Turner’s autopsy report said the stress of the situation and the Taser caused his heart to stop.

The store manager had called police when Turner became disruptive. Surveillance tape shows Turner knocking over displays and yelling at the manager. Dawson fired the Taser when Turner turned away from the manager and began walking toward him. Dawson reported he told the teen to stop but he did not comply.

In a hearing Tuesday, the police department’s review board found Dawson was justified in his use of the Taser, but his prolonged use of the weapon was not.

Authorities said the officer held the trigger of the Taser continuously for about 37 seconds, during which Turner continued to walk, and grabbed a small rack and threw it across the floor before falling to the floor. Dawson shocked Turner a second time, for about five seconds, when he did not comply with commands to put his hands behind his back.

The district attorney decided earlier this month not to file any criminal charges against Dawson.

The department is now reviewing its policy concerning the use of Tasers. Dawson will also receive additional Taser training.

Dawson, 39, has been on the force for 15 years and is assigned to the University City Division.

Truck stops (in Amerika) to offer personal taser weapons

It's official - they're nuts down there. It's already been widely reported that citizens in the United States can buy "personal" taser weapons at Tupperware-type parties. They're sold by the manufacturer in a stunning array of designer colours and patterns. They even come equipped with mp3 players.

And now, truck stops in the US will offer personal taser weapons for sale to Joe Public. Even as police grapple with what to with citizens who would turn these personal protection devices upon each other. The only way these weapons could ever be considered personal protection devices is when *everyone* owns one. And the winner will be he who can zap the fastest. (Former Jeopardy contestants will have a definite edge.) I'm sure this is what Taser International intended - a taser for every man, woman and child in the madhouse known as the US of A.

In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania police are investigating two cases where the victims were first Tasered by the suspect, then robbed.

Over in Manchester, New Hampshire, three teenagers have been charged in connection with a robbery in which another teenager said he was shot with a stun gun.

And down in Lubbock, Texas, investigators are working to identify the person that, on two different occasions, pulled a taser gun on his victim and tried to rape them.

Truck stops to offer personal taser weapons
July 16, 2008
By JON CHAVEZ, Ohio Blade

Very soon, truckers and motorists will be able to buy a jolter with their jolt of java at TravelCenters of America Inc. truck stops, 11 of which dot Ohio's roadways.

TravelCenters, based in Westlake, Ohio, said last week it had reached a deal with Taser International Inc. to begin selling Taser weapons at its truck stops starting this month.

A clerk at the TravelCenter truck stop in Stony Ridge, where I-280 connects to the Ohio Turnpike, said the gift shop there had not received any shipments of Taser stun weapons.

However, Steve Tuttle, a spokesman for Taser International, said the company began shipping the devices to TravelCenters the last week of June.

The pairing between Taser and a chain of truck stops is the first in which the defense technology company will sell its products in a retail setting other than sporting-goods stores or licensed firearms dealers.

"We were approached by them, but it fits with our vision of getting our products into more mainstream stores," Mr. Tuttle said.

"Anybody's that's traveling does have concerns about personal safety. For the trucker away from his family, he might want one or think that his wife could use that while he's gone, or his daughter at college could use one," Mr. Tuttle said. "So this was something that's a pretty good fit for us."

TravelCenters will sell the devices at its TA and Petro truck stops. Officials from TravelCenters did not return calls seeking comment.

Tasers shoot barbed probes that deliver an incapacitating electric current or can be used as contact stun devices. The C2 Taser model, designed for personal use, sells for about $300 without frills, or $350 for one with a laser sight that pinpoints where the barbs will go.

"They're nonlethal and they're really catching on," said Theresa Cleland, owner of Cleland's Outdoor World on Airport Highway.

"We only sell them with laser sights. That way, you know where it's going. Some come without lasers but I don't sell them because a miss with a Taser doesn't do you any good," she said.

Customers who buy Tasers at TravelCenters shouldn't expect to be able to use them immediately. Taser requires that buyers pass a $10 background check before giving them a code to activate the weapon.

"If it's misused, we have the ability to track that too," the company spokesman said. "It contains 20 to 30 pieces of tiny confetti that match back to that unit. If you use it, it's akin to leaving a business card that is tiny and discreet, but the police know what to look for."

Taser use-of-force details crucial to setting standards: experts

July 15, 2008
Neco Cockburn, Ottawa Citizen

OTTAWA - An Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services working group that is reviewing Tasers has identified use-of-force reporting forms "as an issue," a spokesman said Tuesday.

The group's review is expected to be completed in the winter, said ministry spokesman Tony Brown.

According to some police procedure experts, details missing from the current provincially regulated forms - which are used for training purposes and to compile information about Taser use by police departments - are crucial to understanding when, how and why police officers use the controversial devices, which deliver a pulsating electrical current that overpowers a target's nervous system.

The province's use-of-force forms have not been updated since they were introduced in 1990 and lack mandatory spaces for details such as the number of times a person was Tasered or whether the device was deployed in probe mode or "push-stun" mode, when the device is pressed against the body as more of a pain compliance tool.

"The reports feed directly into policy making," said Michael Lyman, a criminal justice professor at Columbia College of Missouri.

"We want to know who specifically is using the weapon and how often and under what circumstances," said Mr. Lyman, who is not a member of the working group.

Donald Van Blaricom, a former police chief in Bellevue, Washington, said agencies have been tightening up policies to try to eliminate misuse of the Taser.

"Of course, if you're going to tighten up your policy, you have to have detailed information on what's being done," said Mr. Van Blaricom, adding that a computer chip contained in each Taser records details about its use.

"That should be downloaded on each one of these use-of-force reports," he said.

Mr. Van Blaricom, who is often retained as a police practices expert, said he once dealt with a case in which a police officer in Mississippi used a Taser in push-stun mode on a woman 18 times, but only reported using the device twice.

"The more detailed the reporting form is, the better it can be reviewed."

Meanwhile, Frank Addario, president of the Criminal Lawyers' Association, which has called for a moratorium on the use of Tasers pending further study, characterized the device as "a contact weapon that has the potential to be deadly.

"Therefore, the circumstances under which it is being used and the justification for its use as opposed to some other manner of controlling the threat needs to be set out and there need to be standards," he said Tuesday.

Last month, the Citizen received 115 Taser-related use-of-force reports from Ottawa police under the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

The reports show that more than half the people involved in such incidents in the city are suicidal, mentally ill or emotionally disturbed.

Lorne Zon, chief executive officer of the Canadian Mental Health Association, Ontario, said Tuesday that the findings highlight the need for police forces to have training in responding to mental health situations and knowledge of crisis teams that can be available when a mental health issue is identified.

Mr. Zon also said that "more uniform collection of information and public reporting of the findings" would help set standards and help the public and police to assess Taser use.

Since October, Ottawa police have used an extra form to capture additional details regarding Taser use, such as how many times it was deployed and under what circumstances. However, those forms are not provincially regulated.