Saskatchewan: Decision on Taser use expected soon

April 28, 2011
By James Wood, StarPhoenix

The Saskatchewan Police Commission is wrapping up consultations and will soon turn to making a decision on whether front-line police officers will be allowed to carry Tasers.

Commission chairman Paul Korpan said in an interview this week that discussions with two remaining organizations should be completed by the end of May or early June.

Korpan stressed that a decision will only be made by the commission after due deliberation. He said allowing Tasers for front-line officers is not a done deal.

However, there have been no objections raised during consultations to equipping police with conducted energy devices, said the Regina lawyer, but organizations want to ensure there are strict guidelines for their use.

"If it's allowed, that is the next question or part of the question. And I think the two questions have to be determined together," said Korpan.

Under the current rules set by the police commission - an independent provincial body that oversees regulations and standards for municipal police - Tasers currently can only be utilized by members of special weapons and tactical teams.

Municipal police services in the province have called for front-line officers to be equipped with the weapons. Saskatoon police Chief Clive Weighill has suggested in the past their use would be restricted to situations such as those that would involve the threat of imminent physical harm.

In July 2008, the police commission reversed an earlier decision to allow Tasers for general use by police, citing a need for more information.

It began a new review in February 2009 and at one point a decision was expected in 2010.

Korpan said the longer timeframe was needed because of the commission's desire to be thorough in its consultations.

The commission did not take input directly from the public but did go to police, civil liberties, mental health and aboriginal organizations, and government bodies such as the children's advocate for feedback.

No objections yet to proposed police taser use

June 18, 2010
By James Wood, Saskatchewan News Network

No objections have been raised so far by groups consulted on the potential arming of front-line police with Tasers, says the chair of the Saskatchewan Police Commission.

In February 2009 the police commission began a new review of whether to authorize the general use of conducted energy devices (CEDs) by members of the province's 14 municipal and First Nation police services.

Commission chair Paul Korpan said this week that consultations with community groups and stakeholders have been mostly completed.

"Those that have responded have indicated support for the use of (CEDs) quite high in the use of force continuum," the Regina lawyer said in an interview.

While the police commission -- an independent provincial body that oversees rules and standards for municipal police -- did not solicit input directly from the public, it did go to police, civil liberties, mental health and aboriginal organizations and government bodies such as the children's advocate for feedback, said Korpan.

A decision was at one point expected by early 2010 and Korpan said that once consultations are complete "I think we're ready to proceed and finalize a decision."

However, there is no timeline for when that will happen.

Among the groups the commission still wants to consult is the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations.

"I've had direct conversations with that organization and I'm working with that organization to conclude a more fulsome dialogue on that issue. We haven't had much dialogue so that's something we think is important, that's something that we intend to explore and flesh out if you will before coming to any conclusion," said Korpan.

The FSIN declined to comment Thursday.

Under current police commission rules for Saskatchewan's municipal police services, Tasers currently can only be utilized by members of special weapons and tactical teams.

Allowing their use at a high level on the continuum of force means restricting their deployment to certain situations, such as when a suspect is threatening to cause bodily harm. Chief Clive Weighill has indicated in the past that is consistent with existing Saskatoon police protocol and that Tasers would rank second only to firearms in the restrictions on their use.

However, while police services have been strongly advocating for their officers to be equipped with Tasers the devices have been extremely controversial.

Saskatchewan Police Commission to review research on Tasers

October 31, 2009
Regina Leader-Post

REGINA — The Saskatchewan Police Commission is expected to meet in December to review its research on Tasers as a use-of-force option for front-line police.

“The work that we are doing by way of research — pulling materials together — will be taken to the commission in December. They will then review that and make some decisions on how they will move forward on approval or not approval of the usage of Tasers,’’ said commission executive director Murray Sawatsky.

In July of 2008, the commission, which oversees and regulates the province’s 14 municipal and First Nation police forces, placed a moratorium on the general use of CEDs by front-line officers in response to the controversies surrounding several high-profile Taser-related deaths and the lack of technical and medical information tied to their usage.

The commission, which has been tasked with developing policy and protocol on the usage of the conducted energy devices (CEDs), is expected to make its decision by the end of the year or early 2010.

Currently, under existing rules Tasers can only be utilized by special weapons and tactics team (SWAT) members in Saskatchewan.

As part of its research, the commission will be examining the recommendations in the Braidwood Report, which was released in July and setting up stringent standards for the use of CEDs by British Columbia police, and will be looking at independent medical information and submissions by interested parties.

Decision regarding Taser use by Saskatchewan police to come around end of 2009

August 18, 2009
By Anne Kyle, Leader-Post

REGINA — Saskatchewan front-line police should know by year's end or early 2010 whether they will be equipped with Tasers as a use-of-force option and when they can use these devices.

The Saskatchewan Police Commission, which is developing policy and protocol on the usage of conducted energy devices (CEDs), is gathering submissions from interested parties and undertaking its own research, and will be examining the recommendations in the Braidwood Report — which was released last month setting out stringent standards for the use of CEDs by British Columbia police — before making its decision, said acting chairman Paul Korpan.

"We are right now defining the scope of our own research. We have a budget for it and a time line for it. We are really at the stage of exercising our diligence in determining the scope of what research we are undertaking, independent of what the Braidwood Inquiry did,'' Korpan said.

"However, we are going to give considerable weight to the Braidwood Report, I think in my opinion — I can't speak for the other commission members — as a great deal of work and resources went into that report.

"In fact, the researchers we have retained are going to be in communication with the research team that were used in that report. Some of the medical information in that report is out of date now, by a year, so we are going to bring that information current and look at this afresh.''

In July of 2008, the commission, which oversees and regulates the province's 14 municipal and First Nations police forces, placed a moratorium on the general use of CEDs by front-line officers in response to the controversies surrounding several high-profile Taser-related deaths and the lack of technical and medial information tied to their usage.

Currently, Tasers can only be utilized by SWAT members in Saskatchewan in tactical situations.

"I think it is pretty safe to say we are going to be looking at the Braidwood recommendations around special training for officers in identifying persons who may have mental health issues,'' Korpan said, noting B.C. does not have an independent civilian commission with police oversight so government there has to establish regulations regarding the use of force.

"We will be setting rules around the use of Tasers and a protocol for training in the use of those weapons.''

Korpan added the commission will likely render its decision late this year or early in 2010.

Talk before Taser, mental-health group urges police

August 17, 2009
By Anne Kyle, Regina Leader-Post

REGINA — Talk first; Taser later, if you must.

That's the message the Canadian Mental Health Association put forward Monday, urging that police officers use crisis-intervention techniques instead of Tasers whenever possible when dealing with the mentally ill.

In its brief to the Saskatchewan Police Commission, which is reviewing whether front-line municipal police officers will be allowed to carry Tasers, the association recommended a combination of training and policy changes for the use of conducted-energy devices.

The association's Saskatchewan Division is recommending police officers get training in crisis intervention, and resort to Tasers only as a final alternative before lethal force.

"There are some de-escalating techniques that you can do once you understand what someone, who is psychotic or very anxious, is looking at," said Dave Nelson, the association's executive director.

"Somebody who is psychotic is very likely going to be terrified of police, because they have already got all these paranoid ideas and notions going around in their mind about people out to hurt them, and stuff,'' he said.

"As a police officer, you have got to know about that and the techniques to de-escalate the situation, and you need to try them, first."

If talking doesn't work, then police officers have a whole range of choices, but Nelson said Tasers need to be placed higher up on the scale: immediately before, and only as an alternative to, deadly force in eliminating the risk of bodily harm, when all other options are exhausted.

The RCMP are also recommending Tasers be moved up the use-of-force scale, he said.

Other recommendations included: developing a policy specific to people exhibiting symptoms of mental illness, requiring emergency medical assistance be on standby before deploying a Taser, and restricting its use to a single discharge.

The association also recommends that an independent investigation be made into the long-term health consequences for people who are stunned by the devices.

In July 2008, the Saskatchewan Police Commission placed a moratorium on an earlier decision that would have given the province's 14 municipal and First Nation police services the authority for general use of Tasers.

The decision was placed on hold pending a comprehensive study of the devices, their use and their health effects.

The commission cited the controversies of several high-profile Taser-related deaths, and a shortage of information about the full consequences of the use of the devices.

No one from the commission was available to comment Monday.

This summer, an inquiry report was released into the death of Robert Dziekanski, a Polish man who died after RCMP officers shocked him with a Taser at Vancouver International Airport.

It recommended that the threshold for police using a Taser should be raised from "active resistance" by a suspect, to a threat of the suspect inflicting bodily harm.

Taser International, which produces Tasers, is trying to get the B.C. Supreme Court to quash the report's recommendations.

Taser standards sought in Saskatchewan

July 28, 2009
James Wood, The StarPhoenix

The Saskatchewan Police Commission wants a provincewide protocol on what situations Tasers can be used in by police officers, whether or not front-line officers end up equipped with the weapons at the end of an ongoing review.

The government-appointed independent commission is currently studying the Taser issue and issued a statement Monday saying that last week's Braidwood report -- which set much more stringent standards for use of the conducted energy devices by British Columbia police -- would be relevant but not decisive to its work.

Under police commission rules for Saskatchewan's municipal police services, Tasers currently can only be utilized by members of special weapons and tactical teams.

However, the three services with SWAT teams -- Saskatoon, Regina and Prince Albert -- set their own protocol for Taser use by SWAT team members.

Murray Sawatsky, executive director for the provincial police commission, said Monday that the commission wants to see provincewide standards for use of the devices by police.

"There is no specific policy right now. The individual police services have developed their own. And I think that's what the commission wants to do . . . make a policy that applies to all use of them, by tactical teams as well," he said in an interview.

RCMP in Saskatchewan are not regulated by the police commission and front-line officers do carry Tasers. The B.C. government and retired judge Thomas Braidwood want the RCMP to follow his report's recommendations but the force is non-committal at this point.

Among the recommendations of the first of two reports by Braidwood, who oversaw the inquiry into the 2007 death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski after he was Tasered by RCMP at the Vancouver airport, were changes to the protocol around Taser use.

Instead of being allowed to use them when a suspect shows "active resistance," there will have to be a threat of the suspect inflicting "bodily harm."

Chief Clive Weighill said that is in line with the Saskatoon Police Service's current protocol on using the devices and would continue to be so even if front-line officers are ultimately equipped with Tasers, as he advocates.

"Conducted energy devices (are) right under . . . the use of a firearm. That's how restricted we see the use of this weapon," he said in an interview Monday.

"Some police forces have put this weapon lower on their continuum (of force). So they've been using it at what I would say is a lower level. Maybe sometimes other tactics could be used."

Tasers can be used to both subdue suspects or to force compliance. But Weighill said police should never use the weapons for the latter purpose.

Weighill said he would support a province-wide protocol on Taser use for municipal police services, noting that policies between the services are already similar.

Regina deputy chief Bob Morin said he was reluctant to talk about the SWAT team policy on Taser use, but said Taser use must be approved ahead of time by a superior officer.

"I can probably say this much. . . . We believe (Tasers) to be a less-than-lethal device and that it may be applicable to control violent offenders without putting officers or the community at risk," he said.

Weighill said he also had no problem with any of the 19 recommendations in retired judge Thomas Braidwood's report and that they are broadly similar to existing policies in Saskatoon.

Among Braidwood's recommendations:

- That Tasers only be deployed to enforce federal criminal offences;

- That Taser use on the emotionally disturbed be used as a last resort; and

- That provincial standards be adopted for rigorous and regular training of officers, testing of devices and reporting on use.

Still No TASERs in Moose Jaw (Saskatchewan)

June 25, 2009

Discover Moose Jaw

Its a controversial tool that most police departments around the world use to try and prevent death and injury. But in Moose Jaw and across the province, its affect on the human body are still being investigated.

Some officers swear by it, others refuse to carry it.

Its been 35 years since the first TASER was developed and 15 years since its modern counterpart hit the market and yet the affects of the "non-lethal" weapon have not yet been fully verified.

More investigation needs to be done before local police begin using TAZSERs. The Saskatchewan Police Commission has been reviewing the issue over the last few years and is now looking for input from stakeholders.

The commission wants to make sure all safety and public policy implications have been evaluated and that the technology is fully understood before coming to a conclusion according to Chair Mitchell Holash.

"We're committed to making a quality decision here with the best information available. We won't compromise the quality of the decision with some artificial time line. Its my hope that we can work through this process in this calendar year but we'll know better after we see these submissions."

Here in Moose Jaw, the TASER has been sitting on the shelf for a number of years as the local police service has been waiting for an official decision from the commission before bringing the device into active service.

Saskatchewan Police Commission Looks for Input on Taser Use

June 24, 2009
Saskatoonhomepage.ca

Right now, Chiefs of Police in Saskatchewan can authorize the use of CEDs - or tasers - only for emergency response teams.

But the Saskatchewan Police Commission is reviewing the devices to determine whether there should be widespread use throughout the province's municipal police forces.

And the Commission is looking for input. Chair Mitch Holash says they've approached a number of organizations like - Saskatchewan Association of Chiefs of Police, Saskatchewan Federation Amnesty International, the Provincial Ombudsmen, the Saskatchewan Health Association and the Mental Health Association - to make written submissions.

Holash says they are consulting with groups the Commission feels have a mandate that touches on public interest. He says they hope to make a determination this year but points out there are large amounts of information to sift through so the information will dictate the process.

Saskatchewan panel to review Taser policy

February 8, 2009
By Canwest News Service

REGINA — The board that oversees municipal police forces in Saskatchewan will soon reconsider whether officers on the beat will be able to carry Tasers.

The Saskatchewan Police Commission decided in July 2008 it would not authorize the general use of conducted energy devices by the province’s 14 municipal and First Nation police services until more information is available, reversing an earlier decision.

But with four new members appointed by the Saskatchewan Party government last November, the five-person commission resolved at its first meeting last week to review that decision.

Board chairman Mitch Holash, one of the new appointees, said that as the previous board wished there is now more information — on technical changes in the devices, how they fit into police work and on their health effects — and the commission has asked its staff to assemble it all for review.

“We don’t want to pre-empt the outcome of this . . . there is a number of different (potential) outcomes, from the policy staying as it is to the policy being changed somewhat,” said Holash, a Prince Albert lawyer. “We want to make sure that the decision that is made of whether or not the device is going to be permissible to the rank-and-file police officer . . . is made on the best information possible.”

When the review will take place will be determined during the next few weeks.

Sask. Police Commission appoints four new members

November 24, 2008
James Wood, TheStarPhoenix.com

REGINA - With almost completely new membership, the Saskatchewan Police Commission will likely soon look again at the use of Tasers by municipal police forces.

The Saskatchewan Party cabinet has appointed four new members to fill expired positions on the five-person commission, which regulates municipal police forces in Saskatchewan.

Among the new appointees is Prince Albert lawyer Mitch Holash, who replaces Regina lawyer Michael Tochor as the chair.

In July, the commission announced it would not authorize the general use of Tasers by members of the province's 14 municipal and First Nation police services until more information is available, reversing an earlier decision to allow the devices.

"It is in the process of being visited as we speak," Holash said in an interview Monday.

"I think the commission was having some research undertaken in that regard and that my understanding generally is that one of the responsibilities on this board's plate when we meet will be to look at some information that has come forward through that process.

"I certainly know it will be on our early agendas as a new board. As to what we do with it and to the status of it, we'll be apprised when we meet."

In an order-in-council, cabinet also appointed Catherine Sloan and Neil Caldwell of Saskatoon and Patricia Crowe of Prince Albert to the commission. Paul Korpan of Regina is the sole holdover from the board and will serve as vice-chair. Holash said the new commission is likely to meet in two or three weeks.

Another item the commission is likely to look at is the recent spate of police shootings in Saskatchewan. Most of those involve the RCMP, which is not under the commission's jurisdiction, but there were also two high-profile shootings by Saskatoon police last December, one that saw a woman wounded by police and another that saw the death of Dwayne Charles Dustyhorn, which is not specifically mentioned in the report.

As well, P.A. police shot and killed Jackie Montgrand in March of this year. In all cases the victims reportedly had weapons they refused to drop.

Holash said as with the Taser issue, the new commissioners will inherit valuable work that has already been commenced by the commission. "Certainly, that particular type of issue falls squarely within what The Police Act mandates us to consider . . . it'll be on our plate," he said.

Among the duties of the commission are setting the standards for municipal police, programming of the Saskatchewan Police College, promoting the preservation of peace and crime prevention, improving relations between the police and public and serving as the final body of appeal in disciplinary and dismissal matters involving officers.

Holash has represented police officers, police services - including Saskatoon's - and the public in police-related matters.

Among the recent cases Holash handled for Saskatoon police was fighting the appeal of two former constables fired following the Neil Stonechild inquiry.

Corrections, Public Safety and Policing Minister Darryl Hickie - a Prince Albert police officer and MLA who describes himself as an acquaintance of Holash - said the lawyer's familiarity with police issues made him the ideal choice for the position.

Hickie said there was no discussion of the Taser issue with the new board members before they were appointed and any decision to revisit the issue will be at the commission's discretion.

Tochor said in July the commission would await the results of the inquest into the Taser-related death in Vancouver of Polish citizen Robert Dziekanski in October 2007 and other reviews.

"Right now, I know everyone's in the holding pattern across Canada waiting to see what those inquests will tell us," said Hickie.

The other departing members of the commission are Edward Henderson, Betty McKenna and Karen Prisciak.

Sensible decisions on tasers

July 31, 2008
Randy Burton, The StarPhoenix

At last, someone in a position of authority within law enforcement has had the gumption to question conventional wisdom on Tasers. While other jurisdictions continue to argue that there is no conclusive evidence they are dangerous, this province has decided otherwise.

The decision by the Saskatchewan Police Commission that it will not authorize municipal police forces to use Tasers, at least for now, is a bold stand. Its decision is all the more courageous given that it reversed a previous approval of the electronic control devices.

Institutions at any level are generally reluctant to admit they may have made a mistake, but there are good reasons for the police commission to have reconsidered this issue.

At the latest count, there have been 22 people killed by Tasers in Canada, a number that suggests there is something more than just bad luck involved. The best-known case is that of Robert Dziekanski, the Polish visitor who died at the Vancouver International Airport after being hit with Tasers by local RCMP officers. Dziekanski was upset and acting out after being contained in the arrivals area of the airport for eight hours without food. When he started throwing chairs around, the police arrived and let him have it with the Tasers, killing him within minutes.

That incident has been the subject of a number of different reviews, and so far at least, none of them have come back with the conclusion that the Taser was a good idea under the circumstances.

Nor has anyone suggested it was the ideal response to the case of 17-year-old Michael Langan, the Winnipeg boy who was killed by police just last week. Langan was allegedly spotted breaking into a car and flashed a knife when he was confronted by city police. They say he refused to drop the knife after several warnings, so they hit him with one shot of the Taser, which killed him on the spot.

This incident casts a different light on various theories presented in the past as to why Tasers kill people. Clearly, Langan was not an overweight middle-aged man with a chancy heart. He was a young fellow in good physical condition, accustomed to walking at least five miles a day. According to his parents, he had no health history that would suggest he was likely to die from an electric shock.

And this is precisely the problem. No one seems to be able to accurately predict what effect the Taser will have on its victims, or where the line is between subduing a suspect and creating another law enforcement accident.

This is exactly what Saskatchewan ombudsman Kevin Fenwick concluded in recommending Tasers be kept out of provincial jails.

On the face of it, Langan was precisely the kind of person the Taser was designed to deal with. Police were facing an unpredictable and potentially violent subject who clearly represented a threat to the physical safety of the officers. Yet the Taser produced exactly the outcome that it is supposed to have been designed to prevent. Langan wound up just as dead as if he'd been shot through the heart.

Obviously, there has to be a better way.

It's understandable that police would be reluctant to give up any tool that gives them an edge in dangerous situations. So it's no surprise that the Saskatchewan Association of Police Chiefs should be asking for further review of the police commission's decision.

While the police are not exactly arguing that the Taser is safe, they do say they will have to rely on other tactics if the stun gun is not available to them. "If the next step in some circumstances is the firearm, well, we know what often the result of that is," says Prince Albert police Chief Dale McFee, president of the police chief's association.

"We just want to make sure that our officers aren't second-guessing themselves and that they do have every tool readily available to them."

The problem, of course, is that police don't always regard the Taser as a weapon of last resort. Too often it's used just because it's easier than physically restraining someone, or talking someone like Langan out of doing something stupid. For example, the young man who refused to stop heckling presidential candidate John Kerry was Tased just because he was annoying.

More recently, a young man in Missouri who fell off an overpass was Tased while lying on the shoulder of the road below as a means of preventing him from running into traffic. None of these examples inspire confidence in the discretion of police.

This is precisely why we have civilian oversight of policing agencies. It should not be left strictly to the police to decide what policies and procedures are effective. Occasionally police have to be reined in when their infatuation with weaponry begins to overtake common sense.

This is one of those times.

Until it can be proven that Tasers are not resulting in unintended deaths, they should be left on the shelf.

It may take awhile for other jurisdictions to follow suit, but the Saskatchewan Police Commission will eventually be seen as a leader on this question.

Officials slam taser verdict

July 31, 2008
Heather Polischuk, The Regina Leader-Post

Although they will respect a Friday decision by the Saskatchewan Police Commission to limit the use of conducted energy devices (CEDs) within municipal police forces, Regina's mayor and police chief say they are not necessarily pleased.

The topic came up during Wednesday's meeting of the Regina Board of Police Commissioners. Regina Police Service Chief Troy Hagen and Mayor Pat Fiacco said they hope the SPC will continue to educate itself about CEDs -- commonly known as Tasers -- with a view to the possibility of further CED deployment in the future.

"Sometimes Tasering is going to save someone's life as opposed to killing someone ...," Fiacco said following the meeting. "What we don't want to do is put our police in a situation that the only resort that they have is a gun."

Hagen said the RPS, like the Saskatchewan Association of Police Chiefs, supports "any further use of force options that may be available to our police officers, rather than having to use our service revolver. In principle, we support any devices or any training that will enhance and lessen the risks to the suspects that we're confronting.

"So initially, obviously, the (SAPC) would have preferred that we would have had an expanded deployment of Tasers to frontline personnel, insuring that there were appropriate levels of training and reporting and accountability measures built into the policies that may have been contemplated. However, the Saskatchewan Police Commission has concluded that at this time they're not in favour of further deployment of the CEDs ... We certainly respect the commission's decision."

Late last year, the Regina Police Service shelved plans to make CEDs available to all officers by the end of 2008. Instead, the devices are now only available to SWAT members for use in tactical situations.

While Taser use has been linked to deaths in several jurisdictions across Canada -- including Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski -- Regina has not been one of them. According to statistics referred to at the meeting, CEDs were deployed 11 times by the RPS in 2006 and 21 times in 2007 (once Tasers were made more widely available to members). Due to limiting their use, Tasers have not been used by Regina police in 2008.

In coming to its decision, the SPC referred to controversy that ignited over Taser-related deaths as well as a lack of adequate information on the full consequences of CED use.

Fiacco said he hopes the SPC will look into bringing in a medical professional to explain exactly what happens when a person dies after being Tasered. The mayor said he heard such an explanation last year in Calgary, during which a medical expert noted something called excited delirium caused death in some who were Tasered, rather than the Tasering itself.

"In some cases, unfortunately, it was as a result of mental issues with the individual," Fiacco said. "In other cases, it was because they were under the influence of narcotics that put them in this state ... I'm hoping that we can investigate this even further to make sure that the right decision at the end is going to be made."

The commission also looked at June's crime statistics, which showed a significant year-over-year decline in robberies and break-and-enters. Mischief and willful damage increased as did auto theft. Hagen said members of the auto theft strategy committee will meet to look at that issue.

Well-founded doubt

Michael Tochor, chairman of the Saskatchewan Police Commission - "the medical evidence is inconclusive"


July 29, 2008
The Globe and Mail

If there's a medal reserved for courageous police boards, the Saskatchewan Police Commission deserves it. It has stood up against police orthodoxy nearly everywhere in Canada to voice honest doubts about tasers. "There's a grave danger of them being abused," chair Michael Tochor said yesterday. He also expressed doubts about the medical science underpinning their purported safety. "The medical evidence is inconclusive."

Two years ago, the commission - the civilian body that sets policy for the province's municipal police forces - approved the taser in principle for the use of regular officers (in addition to the tactical squads with permission now). As soon as guidelines could be developed for taser use and training, the police services would be free to roll out the 50,000-volt weapons. But after numerous deaths and appalling police misuses of the electric stun guns, the commission rescinded that approval last week. While it believes the tasers may save lives when used in appropriate circumstances, it wants to see more scientific data, and think out what policy might fit, before moving ahead.

That may seem a small step, but it seems awfully large when most Canadian police are heading in the other direction. The RCMP, for instance, use the taser nearly 30 times a week, and their civilian chair, William Elliott, has refused to make even the minuscule alteration to taser guidelines recommended by an independent watchdog. (The guidelines allow for use on the "actively resistant," and the watchdog would raise that to "combative.")

How could there not be doubts? Twenty-two people have died in Canada after being tasered in the past five years, including a 17-year-old man last week in Winnipeg. One of the 22, Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, was shown on an amateur videotape to have been exhausted and distressed, but not violent; a clutch of RCMP officers tasered him within 30 seconds of confronting him last October at the Vancouver International Airport. Scientists have raised serious questions about taser safety at the Braidwood Inquiry in British Columbia.

Some day, civilian police boards and governments across Canada may admit to their own honest doubts. But the Saskatchewan Police Commission was first.

No tasers for municipal police in Saskatchewan due to safety concerns

July 26, 2008
The Canadian Press

REGINA — Regular municipal police in Saskatchewan will not be issued Tasers because of safety concerns over the conducted energy weapons, the province's police commission announced Friday.

"After questions about the safety of the equipment arose, accompanied by the public inquiry in British Columbia ... the commission believed it was not prudent to move forward with the authorization of conducted energy weapons for general use," said Michael Tochor, chairman of the Saskatchewan Police Commission.

"We will await the findings and recommendations of the various inquiries and studies taking place now before moving further on the issue."

RCMP and municipal police tactical teams already use Tasers and will continue to do so, he said.

At one point the commission initially approved the weapons for regular municipal police, but decided to hold off until a proper policy was developed for their use. While that policy was being put together, members of the commission became increasing concerned about the safety of Tasers because of cases in other provinces, Tochor said.

He did not make a direct reference to Robert Dziekanski, who died at Vancouver International Airport last October after being Tasered by RCMP, or the death of Michael Langan, 17, in Winnipeg earlier this week after he was shot with a stun gun by city police.

"There is a general feeling that it hasn't been established one way or the other that Tasers ... are safe, so we would like more medical and scientific information on that," Tochor said.

"There is also the question of when is it appropriate to use a Taser? Do you use it because a 16-year-old girl in Manitoba isn't doing what the police are telling her to do? Or do you use it when someone is swinging a sword at you?

"To date we haven't been satisfied that there has been a policy set out that will allow the appropriate use of Tasers, yet prevent abuses of Tasers."

A 17-year-old girl said this week she was zapped by a stun gun three times while confined to an RCMP holding cell last year in Selkirk, Man. Her family is proceeding with a public complaint against the officers involved.

Twenty-two people in Canada have died after being hit by a Taser, which can shoot 50,000 volts into a person with such force and heat that it can blister skin.

Arizona-based Taser International has said the weapons have never been directly blamed for a death, although they have been cited as contributing factors.

A British Columbia inquiry into Taser use generally and as it pertained to Dziekanski is to resume Oct. 20. As well, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police has commissioned research on Tasers to provide a national perspective on the use and safety of the weapons.

Andy Buxton, spokesman for Amnesty International, called the Saskatchewan Police Commission decision a positive step forward. "It's a small victory in the sense that it doesn't go as far as we would like to see a complete moratorium on the use of Tasers until all the facts are on the table," he said. "Having said that, a small victory is better than no victory whatsoever. The less proliferation of these Tasers, the better," Buxton said from Toronto.

Cpl. Don Perrett with the RCMP's national use of force unit said the Saskatchewan decision will have no effect on the Mounties. "It does not affect the RCMP because we fall under the RCMP Act. We do have policies and procedures in place with respect to the use of any (Tasers). This will not affect our operations," he said from Ottawa.

Bernie Eiswirth, director of the Saskatchewan Federation of Police Officers, said in some cases municipal forces in the province had already begun to slowly issue Tasers to regular officers and train them in their use. The retired Regina police officer said he hopes the police commission's decision won't result in too long of a delay.

"We'd like to get them back. We can't be too critical but we do want them not to drag their feet on this too long," Eiswirth said.

"There always are safety concerns with any kind of tool that police use. We think at the end of the day, like in any other jurisdiction, the decision will be made that everyone will be back using the Tasers, but that there will be really clear guidelines for their use."