Police officer calls for B.C. wide standards on taser training

May 6, 2008
The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER — The co-ordinator for Victoria police's Taser weapons program is recommending a provincewide training program for officers.

Const. Mike Massine told a public inquiry into the use of Tasers by police that there's a lot of talk about amalgamated police units and it shouldn't be any different for training programs.

He says training experts from several different departments around the province should be brought together as a team with provincial standards.

Massine says that would mean members from very small police departments could be trained in the same manner as officers from large departments.

He says many police departments spend less than one per cent of their budget on firearms and use-of-force training and yet those are often the issues that land police departments in court.

Massine took the witness stand on the second day of the inquiry, which will look at the general use of the shock weapons by police as a result of the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver airport last fall.