Law prof calls for moratorium on stun gun use

November 5, 2008
By RICHARD LIEBRECHT, SUN MEDIA

A city law professor is calling for a moratorium on stun-gun use following a series of deadly incidents. That's despite assurances from doctors at a mental health conference that there is no certain link.

"It is no longer enough to say, 'Oh, we're not sure (stun guns) are safe, but we'll still use them," said Sanjeev Anand of the University of Alberta.

A conference of mental-health professionals held earlier this week in Edmonton probed the danger for mentally-ill suspects subject to being zapped. Dr. Dorothy Cotton said: "... It'd be safe to say in situations involving Tasers and excited delirium, it's just not known. We're just not there yet."

Excited delirium, wherein brain mechanisms cause the heart to race and then eventually stop, has been picked as a possible alternative explanation for Taser-related deaths. "What the public hears about are the bad news stories," she added. "I don't want to play down the level of tragedy here ... (but) police are well-trained."

Anand said he recognized that police are well trained, and left with few other non-lethal tools to handle violent suspects. However, he said the answer is to increase the number of police officers so there is always backup available.

He called for a moratorium until more independent studies disprove a link between the Taser and deaths of vulnerable victims.

Last summer, the RCMP's complaints commissioner said Mounties should automatically call for medical assistance after using a stun gun. An Edmonton police spokesman said local police already do that after every use.

Trevor Grimolfson, the 38-year-old owner of Big Daddy's tattoo shop, died last Wednesday after police jolted him in an attempt to end a violent rampage near 153 Street and Stony Plain Road.

Deaths may have been 'delirium,' not taser

It was only a matter of time, dear readers - I've been wondering when the good Dr. Dowling, proponent of "excited delirium", would weigh in. Keep in mind that "excited delirium" is recognized by NEITHER the Canadian Medical Association NOR the American Medical Association.

The manufacturer of the taser, TASER INTERNATIONAL, favours Dr. Dowling's opinions SO MUCH they even quote him on their website: Medical Examiner Says TASER Devices Not a Death Sentence

November 4, 2008
Ryan Cormier, The Edmonton Journal

The death of a patient in a bizarre rage, possibly a victim of what experts call "excited delirium," has nothing to do with police restraint or Tasers, said Alberta's Chief Medical Examiner.

Dr. Graeme Dowling told the Canadian National Committee for Police that patients in such frenzies could die without being touched or even when alone in an apartment.

"To the best of our knowledge right now, it has nothing to do with the method of restraint. They may die in spite of what we do," he said.

Although not an official diagnosis, excited delirium has been studied by experts. It is characterized by blind rages, paranoia, profuse sweating, disrobing and greatly increased strength.

"They also have a real propensity to break glass," Dowling said. "They don't like mirrors. I don't know if it's that they don't like to see themselves in a paranoid state."

Dowling said it wouldn't be uncommon to need six to eight police officers to restrain someone in that state.

Excited delirium is usually induced by stimulants such as cocaine or methamphetamine. In fatal cases, the patient died within seconds or minutes of being restrained.

That could be because extreme levels of adrenaline and potassium in the body drop at different levels, stop counteracting each other and cause death.

With excited delirium, little has been proven because of the danger of testing a subject in the midst of the state.

The condition is often discussed parallel to police use-of-force because officers are often the first to deal with such aggressive people. However, there is no proof that anything an officer does causes such deaths, Dowling said.

"These cases were first documented in 1849. There weren't Tasers in 1849. There was no pepper-spray in 1849. Yet, these patients died."

There are fewer than 20 cases each year in Canada that can be connected to the condition, Dowling said.

Last week, witnesses reported that Trevor Grimolfson, 38, was combative, violent and couldn't be reasoned with as he broke windows in two stores and began assaulting people on Stony Plain Road. Police deployed a Taser, subdued Grimolfson and cuffed him. He then lost consciousness and was declared dead in hospital.

On Saturday night, Calgary officers encountered Gordon Walker Bowe in the basement of a vacant home while investigating a break and enter. Bowe, 30, reportedly struggled with officers before he was subdued. He was struck by a Taser, but investigators don't yet know if the electrical shock was actually delivered.

Bowe quickly went into "medical distress" after he was subdued. He reached hospital in critical condition and died a day later.

Bowe reportedly shattered a basement window to gain access to the empty home.

Autopsy results for Grimolfson have not been released. Bowe's autopsy is scheduled for today.

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, which is independent of any police force, is investigating both deaths.

On Dec. 24, 2005, Alessandro Fiacco attracted police while thrashing and screaming on a McKernan neighbourhood street, saying bugs were crawling on his skin. Fiacco was struck three times with a Taser and died on the way to hospital. A fatality inquiry listed Fiacco's cause of death as "acute cocaine toxicity," and said there was "a complete lack of evidence" the Taser contributed to his death.

Edmonton police Const. Ray Wood, of the Police and Crisis Team, said people who may be in excited delirium should be approached with care. "Their strength is just unbelievable," he said. "The power is tremendous, almost animal-like."

Shawn Miller, a registered psychiatric nurse who works with police, said a patient in delirium is almost never able to communicate properly. "Unfortunately, it's going to come down to restraint or use of force," he said. "Diagnosing is not going to be done by two officers on a street corner being yelled at by a guy with a piece of glass."

7th Annual "Psychiatrists in Blue" Conference

November 3, 2008
By ALYSSA NOEL, SUN MEDIA

To zap or not to zap?

It's one of the questions being posed as police and mental health experts from across the country meet over the next two days at a mental-health conference in Edmonton.

The issue of when to use stun guns resurfaced following the recent death of a 38-year-old city man who was zapped twice by police.

While an independent body is still investigating that case, in other similar circumstances a rare physical and mental state called excited delirium, which causes the sufferer to be agitated and possess super human strength, has been to blame for deaths.

'BAD NEWS'

"What the public hears about are the bad news stories," said Dr. Dorothy Cotton, an Ontario psychologist and one of the organizers of the conference.

"I don't want to play down the level of tragedy here ... (but) police are very well trained ... I think it'd be safe to say in situations involving Tasers and excited delirium, it's just not known. We're just not there yet."

Trevor Grimolfson, the 38-year-old owner of Big Daddy's tattoo shop, died last Wednesday after police jolted him in an attempt to end a violent rampage near 153 Street and Stony Plain Road.

Meanwhile, Cotton said police are well-trained and well-informed when it comes to dealing with those who have mental-health issues. Judging by statistics, officers have gained a lot of experience over the years, she said.

Cotton says around 6% to 10% of the calls police receive involve people with mental-health problems.

"Probably the most important thing is for a police officer to recognize a person may be mentally ill and therefore may not be able to respond the way they would expect someone to. Normally, if you don't do something a police officer asks, they don't look on that favourably," she said.

TRAINED TO RECOGNIZE

But for the past decade, police have been trained on how to recognize and deal with such issues, she said.

The annual conference, held in different cities each year, is a way to gather and forward that effort, she added.

"The most exciting thing about this is it's one of the good news stories about policing," she said.

The conference runs through tomorrow at the Delta Edmonton Centre Suite Hotel.

This conference is hosted by the Canadian National Committee for Police/Mental Health Liaison, a subcommittee of The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (whose annual conference is sponsored BIG-TIME by Taser International). On the CACP website, the conference is referred to as the "7th Annual Conference on Police/Mental Health Systems Liaison." The conference Agenda refers to the conference as the "7th Annual Psychiatrists in Blue Conference."

Dr. Graeme Dowling from the medical examiner's office in Edmonton, who has argued there's "no definitive case where Tasers have actually killed anybody," will facilitate the session on "Excited Delirium."