Self-policing an 'unwinnable' battle for RCMP, inquiry hears

September 23, 2009
Ian Bailey, Globe and Mail

The optics of police investigating themselves in such cases as the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski presents an “unwinnable” image problem, the officer in charge of the investigation into the Dziekanski case says.

RCMP Superintendent Wayne Rideout Tuesday told the Braidwood inquiry into Mr. Dziekanski's death in October, 2007, that police conduct “very competent and thorough” investigations through the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team he formerly led.

But the image issue is daunting and could only be resolved by reforms that might involve some B.C. version of the Special Investigations Unit employed in Ontario, an agency that operates independent of police to investigate cases of serious injury or death involving police and civilians.

“My preference would be homicide investigators conduct homicides, and that a separate body conducts investigations of police incidents because I think that prevents people like the IHIT team from finding themselves in these unwinnable perception problems,” Supt. Rideout told the inquiry.

The line of thought seemed to pique the interest of inquiry head Thomas Braidwood, a retired appeal-court justice, who asked where the necessary expertise to conduct investigations would come from if not from the usual investigators.

“I have given it considerable thought,” Supt. Rideout said. “There are hybrid models that exist where there are accommodations of police investigators, civilian oversight. Perhaps that is a workable model.”

It was not entirely clear if Supt. Rideout was referring just to the RCMP, IHIT or all police, in principle.

After an extensive investigation that included a trip to Poland led by Supt. Rideout, IHIT submitted a file on the case to the Crown, which eventually concluded that charges were not warranted against the four Mounties involved in the October, 2007 confrontation with Mr. Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport.

Mr. Dziekanski died of cardiac arrest after a struggle with police in which he was tasered five times. The use of the taser has not been specifically linked to his death, but its application has prompted a furious debate about the police use of stun guns. There has been an equally intense debate in B.C. on whether police can investigate officers involved in such cases.

Supt. Rideout has spent 27 years with the RCMP, including five as head of IHIT, an 86-officer unit formed in 2003 to investigate homicides in the Lower Mainland region outside of Vancouver and Delta. Last year, he was appointed operations officer for the Surrey detachment.

Supt. Rideout's comments came as he was called to testify Tuesday on an e-mail disclosed this past June that forced a temporary halt to the inquiry because it laid out a scenario at odds with the testimony of the four Mounties.

Chief Superintendent Dick Bent wrote in the Nov. 5, 2007, e-mail to Assistant Commissioner Al MacIntyre that Supt. Rideout had said four officers went into the situation planning to taser Mr. Dziekanski.

Supt. Rideout bluntly rejected the suggestion in testimony that came hours after Supt. Bent said the comments were true, as far as he knew, at the time that he wrote them. However, Supt. Bent conceded he had no notes to back them up, and was not aware of any follow up on the matter. Under questioning, he said it did not become an issue until it was disclosed in June.

Supt. Rideout said his superior's comments were inaccurate. “That is not what happened,” a frowning, stone-faced Supt. Rideout told the inquiry.

He said IHIT found no evidence to indicate the four officers made plans in advance to deploy their tasers, nor was there any such suggestion in notes he made of a conversation he had with Supt. Bent.

He was not asked why he thought Supt. Bent made the comment he did.

“Chief Superintendent Bent is a highly respected member of the RCMP, who occupies an extremely demanding role within this region,” he said.

“He is someone I personally respect a great deal, but the way he portrayed my comments in [the passage] is wrong.”

RCMP brass give clashing testimony at inquiry into Tasering

September 23, 2009
Petti Fong, Western Canada Bureau Chief
Toronto Star

VANCOUVER–A senior RCMP officer disputed his supervisor's testimony at an inquiry probing the death of Robert Dziekanski, saying he never told him the officers involved in the incident discussed using a Taser on the Polish immigrant beforehand.

The inquiry was halted in June when an email emerged from Chief Supt. Dick Bent indicating the four officers talked about using the Taser even before they arrived at Vancouver International Airport, where the fatal confrontation occurred on Oct. 14, 2007.

Bent stood by the email in testimony yesterday, but Supt. Wayne Rideout, named in the email as the source of the information, flatly denied having made the statements to his superior.

The four officers involved in the incident have testified none of them discussed a plan of action as they left the lunchroom to head to Vancouver's airport.

"Finally spoke to Wayne and he indicated that the members did not articulate that they saw the symptoms of excited delirium," Bent wrote in the email to assistant commissioner Al MacIntyre after talking to Rideout, who was in charge of the probe into the officers' actions.

"[I]nstead had discussed the response en route and decided that if he did not comply that they would go to CEW" – shorthand for a conducted energy weapon, or Taser.

Dziekanski, who spent more than 10 hours lost at the Vancouver airport, was hit five times with a Taser by RCMP responding to a 911 call. The inquiry was scheduled to wrap up in June when Bent's email appeared. An adjournment was called over the summer to investigate. It resumed sitting yesterday.

Texas man dies after police taser him

Richard Battistata, 44, Laredo, Texas

Mountie defends email as Taser inquiry resumes

September 22, 2009
Suzanne Fournier, Canwest News Service

VANCOUVER -- One of B.C.'s top Mounties told the Braidwood inquiry Tuesday morning that he stands by the accuracy of his email that said four Mounties had decided to use a Taser on a Polish immigrant before they even met him.

The email contradicts the four officers' testimony heard earlier this year at the inquiry into Robert Dziekanski's death at the Vancouver International Airport in October 2007.

RCMP Chief Supt. Dick Bent quietly repeated on the stand Tuesday that he was just recording in his Nov. 5, 2007, email what the four Mounties' supervisor had told him, "that the members had discussed en route and decided that if he [Dziekanski] did not comply that they would go to CEW [conducted-energy weapon]."

The email was addressed to Assistant Commissioner Al MacIntyre and sent on the eve of the release of bystander Paul Pritchard's video, which showed Dziekanski being Tasered, restrained and eventually dying on the airport floor.

Inquiry commissioner Thomas Braidwood -- a retired Supreme Court judge who had hoped to complete his lengthy inquiry last June but had to adjourn proceedings until Tuesday -- testily rejected bids by lawyers from the Canadian government and the officer who used the Taser on Mr. Dziekanski to suggest that Supt. Bent may have been "mistaken" or that his email did not reflect all of the factors that the officers faced at the scene.

Commission counsel Art Vertlieb told the inquiry that over the summer, since the adjournment but long past the date the commission was supposed to conclude, the RCMP forwarded 18,000 documents to the commission.

Mr. Vertlieb praised the efforts of Canadian government lawyer Jan Brongers in obtaining and releasing the documents, after Supt. Bent's email went overlooked during the first round of hearings.

Government of Canada lawyer Helen Roberts, who tearfully presented the email last June, is no longer on the case and has been replaced by senior justice lawyer Mitchell Taylor.

Const. Kwesi Millington, who Tasered Dziekanski five times, and his three fellow cops insisted at the inquiry they had no plan and did not discuss in advance how to handle the agitated Mr. Dziekanski, 40, who spent 10 hours at the airport trying to emigrate to Canada. Police were called when Mr. Dziekanski threw a small table.

Two more emails written by Supt. Bent were marked as exhibits at the commission on Tuesday morning. The first was to RCMP Assistant Commissioner Dale McGowan on the morning of Nov. 5, 2007, warning that the bystander video would soon be released.

"We were talking about our communication strategy and we want to get our powder dry," Supt. Bent urged.

The second email, which derailed the inquiry in June, was sent later that day to Mr. MacIntyre, saying the frontline Mounties discussed using the Taser before they even met Mr. Dziekanski.

And the third email, this time from Supt. Bent to his superior officer on Nov. 22, 2007, outlines seven policies that the four RCMP officers at the airport were supposed to follow but ignored. They include talking to the distraught person to find out what language he speaks, talking to other passengers and crew, checking identification and visa, trying to find a translator, checking with partner agencies, or finding a 24-hour police interpreter.

Under further cross-examination by lawyers for two of the four Mounties who handled Mr. Dziekanski, Supt. Bent agreed that his email represented only his side of a conversation with the four officers' supervisor, Supt. Wayne Rideout.

Supt. Bent agreed that he wrote the e-mail soon after the conversation and that he was primarily concerned with whether the frontline officers detected "excited delirium" in Mr. Dziekanski, which Supt. Bent thought could have been an explanation why the Polish immigrant was Tasered within 25 seconds of police arrival.

Mr. MacIntyre took the stand briefly to say that he receives 150 to 200 emails a day, and although several thousand related to the Dziekanski incident, he located a "gap" of several crucial months around the time of the Taser-related death.

The inquiry will also hear from Supt. Rideout and Sgt. Doug Wright, the Richmond officer-in-charge of the four Mounties who met Mr. Dziekanski at the airport.

Mr. Dziekanski's mother Zofia Cisowski was in court listening to proceedings.

Braidwood Inquiry - Scheduled Witnesses

Beginning Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Chief Superintendent Dick Bent
Assistant Commissioner Al MacIntyre
Superintendent Wayne Rideout
Mr. John Jubber (United Airlines employee)
Ms. Gracie Churchill-Browne (Interpreter by independent contract to CBSA)
Inspector Renny Nesset

Who was Robert Dziekanski?

September 21, 2009
By MATT KIELTYKA, 24Hours Vancouver

A faint smile crept into Zofia Cisowski's face - but only for a moment.

It's a smile that has appeared far too rarely since her son, Robert Dziekanski, died on the floor of the Vancouver International Airport after being jolted by multiple Taser shots Oct. 14, 2007.

But as much as his death - and ensuing inquiry into the circumstances around it - has shredded Cisowski's life, she can't hide her maternal pride when thinking about her boy.

Cisowski, who has lived in Canada for 10 years, often finds her mind slip half way around the world, to a time when her family was whole.

In those memories, her portrait of Robert emerges - one that's different than any clip on YouTube and one that can only be painted by a mother's loving brush.

She raised Robert on her own in the town of Gliwice in southern Poland and worked long hours to support her lone child.

Late shifts were always risky propositions behind the Iron Curtain. She had to sneak around in the dead of night, taking shelter in the shadows of every building on her way home to avoid being caught breaking curfew.

At the age of 10, Robert may have been too young to understand his mom's stress and fear. But he knew enough. "He saw that I was over-worked," Cisowski reminisced, that smile beginning to show itself again. "That's when he made his first meal, crepes. He forgot to add eggs, but everything else was right. He added onions and pepper and everything," she said, eyes shimmering. "I was very thankful he would do something for me. That when I came back from work I would have something to eat. I will never forget that."

That was Robert, always willing to help.

"He would give people everything he had," Cisowski said. "He had a good heart."

Iwona Kosowska, a long-time neighbour of Robert, says that picture of Robert needs to endure. She remembers him as a "fantastic person." The two would spend hours in the garden together and Robert would play with her daughter. "That's how he was and it won't change," she told 24 hours. "This is simply the truth."

Kosowska was livid when she was put on the hot seat at Braidwood Inquiry earlier this year as lawyers asked her about Robert's past, health and whether he had drinking and smoking problems.

To her, it was a thinly veiled smear campaign. "Can we stop this line of questioning?" she pleaded during her testimony March 30. "You are trying to make a bad person out of him, which means that you can kill a bad person but you cannot kill a good person. I'm fed up. I'm not going to answer any more questions. How can you?"

With the Braidwood Inquiry entering its final stretch tomorrow, Cisowski expects more attempts to use Robert's past against him; no matter how little bearing they may have to the events of Oct. 14, 2007.

That's why the heart-broken mother speaks of the Robert she knew and loved. "He had a very good heart, that's the most important thing," she maintains, as determined as ever. "He never did anyone any harm, he was a good person. But in this world, it's the good people that get taken away from us."

INQUIRY CONTINUES

Zofia Cisowski's quest for the truth continues tomorrow as the Braidwood Inquiry into her son's death resumes after a lengthy delay. On the agenda: An e-mail that suggests officers planned to use a Taser on Dziekanski on their way to the airport.

RCMP brass to explain explosive email that stalled Dziekanski inquiry

September 20, 2009
The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER, B.C. — The public inquiry into Robert Dziekanski's death was supposed to be long over by now, and the report into what happened on that tragic October night in 2007 nearing completion.

But that timeline was shattered three months ago when a previously unreleased email cast into doubt the testimony of the four RCMP officers who stunned Dziekanski with a Taser at Vancouver's airport and amplified allegations of a coverup.

The hearings resume on Tuesday with testimony from senior Mounties at the centre of that email exchange, which raised questions about whether the four officers involved in the fatal confrontation with Dziekanski arrived at the airport already planning to use a Taser.

The four officers have testified that they never uttered a word - not about the Taser or anything else - as they left their detachment to respond to a report of an agitated man throwing furniture.

The contradiction, which emerged as closing arguments were set to begin earlier this year, prompted inquiry commissioner Thomas Braidwood to reluctantly put the hearings on hold and scold the RCMP for failing to disclose the email sooner.

"We never had full access to the file, we just didn't, so that's been one of the issues," said the inquiry's lawyer, Art Vertlieb.

"I was critical back in June because that email, we should have had. The more important thing is we've got it and we're going to deal with it."

In the email from November 2007, Chief Supt. Dick Bent and RCMP Assistant Commissioner Al Macintyre were discussing media strategy for releasing the now-infamous amateur video of the officers stunning Dziekanski several times with a Taser.

Bent told Macintyre that the officers decided while on the way to the airport that they might use the Taser - information Bent said he received from Supt. Wayne Rideout, who was in charge of investigating Dziekanski's death.

Bent, Macintyre and Rideout are all scheduled to testify this week. The four RCMP officers who were at the airport have already appeared before the inquiry, and are not scheduled to appear again.

"The RCMP have produced 18,000 pages of documents in the last while, and there is not a single shred of evidence to support the assertion made in Chief Bent's email," said David Butcher, who represents Const. Bill Bentley.

Crown prosecutors have decided not to charge Bentley, Const. Gerry Rundel, Const. Kwesi Millington and Cpl. Benjamin (Monty) Robinson in Dziekanski's death.

However, there have been calls for prosecutors to reconsider, and the officers' testimony in the spring was marked by repeated suggestions they were trying to cover up what really happened.

Walter Kosteckyj, the lawyer for Dziekanski's mother, said the controversial email raised serious questions that won't be easily explained away.

"Based on the assessment of evidence I've seen to date, I haven't seen much else, the only thing that has to be explained is why does a person who is in command write that kind of an email," said Kosteckyj.

"When I take a look at how quickly it (the Taser) was used, I have a hard time believing that it wasn't discussed."

Kosteckyj said he'll consider asking the inquiry to call back the four officers if he thinks there are still questions for them to answer.

Also absent from the hearing room this week will be Helen Roberts, the federal government lawyer who told the inquiry about the email and tearfully apologized to the commissioner in June, saying the omission was an unfortunate oversight.

Roberts has since asked to be reassigned, and she's been replaced by Mitchell Taylor, who has spent the past several months gathering thousands of pages of emails and documents for the commission.

Taylor said many of the new documents contain duplicates and include items that federal government lawyers didn't think would be relevant.

"In the first go, it was felt that relevant documents were being produced, and a lot were produced," he said.

"It can happen that things fall between the cracks, and we don't excuse this. It would have been better if the Bent email had gone out before, but it was simple inadvertence."

There were other documents in the new batch that the commission clearly found relevant.

Three other witnesses unrelated to the email - an airport employee, a translator and an RCMP official - will also testify this week.

California inmate hit by Taser dies

This is the third time in five months an inmate has died while in custody of the downtown Modesto, California jail after law enforcement officials used Tasers to subdue the men.

Alton Warren Ham, 45, Modesto, California

Vancouver police kill knife-wielding man after TASER FAILS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The man's name has not been released.

Police plan to release more details Saturday afternoon.

Shootings study to see if stun guns would help

A commenter asks the question that first came to my mind: "How is Gascón choosing which twenty shootings to review? Is he picking the ones that will reinforce whichever decision he's already made?"

September 19, 2009
Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writer

San Francisco's new police chief, a proponent of stun guns, has ordered a review of at least 20 officer-involved shootings since 2005, a study likely to include a look at whether stun guns would have made a difference, police officials said Friday.

Chief George Gascón told the Police Commission he would analyze "all officer-involved shootings for the past several years," and planned to turn over his findings within 90 days.

The analysis is expected to include whether less-than-lethal weapons would have been effective, including Taser stun guns, said department spokeswoman Sgt. Lyn Tomioka.

San Francisco police do not carry stun guns, but Gascón "has mentioned looking into Tasers," Tomioka said.

The devices shoot darts attached to wires that deliver electric shocks intended to subdue suspects.

Critics of the devices question their less-than-lethal status. Amnesty International says 334 people died in the United States from 2001 to August 2008 after being hit by Tasers.

"You always hear the one story where somebody dies from a Taser, but there's thousands and thousands or more of incidents where Tasers work," Tomioka said.

Gascón told the Police Commission of his plans during its meeting Wednesday, during which the officer involved in a Sept. 5 fatal shooting was reinstated to regular duty after a preliminary inquiry.

Police said the officer, whose name was not made public, shot 37-year-old Xi Yu Li on Raymond Avenue in Visitacion Valley as Li charged police with an 11-inch, stainless steel cleaver.

Officers first tried to stop Li with bean-bag guns, but they were ineffective, police said.

A 2008 review by the Police Executive Research Forum, a group of police executives from around the country, recommended that San Francisco police use stun guns. It called for "a community education component along with an implementation plan that gradually introduces" stun guns.

The analysis Gascón ordered this week will examine eight fatal and 12 nonfatal shootings since 2005, Tomioka said. Among the results could be changes in officer training and tactics, the department said.

Police chief suggests report on Taser case may have been premature

See also: I heard what I heard, that much I know

September 18, 2009
Thana Dharmarajah, Guelph Mercury

GUELPH — The police chief says too much is being made of police communications surrounding a mental health incident in the city’s northeast earlier in the week when a Taser was used on a man.

Rob Davis said police spokesperson Sgt. Doug Pflug didn’t have the sufficient information on hand Tuesday to respond to media inquiries about whether a Taser was used to subdue a mentally ill man earlier that day. A report on whether a Taser had been used in the incident may not have been filed until the officers, at the scene, wrapped up their shift for the day, Davis said.

“There’s nothing here to be hidden,” Davis said Thursday, following a Guelph Police Services Board meeting. “We are not denying that he was Tasered.”

On Tuesday just before noon, police were called to an apartment building at 11 Manhattan Court, the residence of a mentally ill man. His mother placed the initial call to police. Police were told the agitated man might be carrying a sword or similar weapon.

A reporter arrived at the scene to find police officers trying to coax the man from his second-floor apartment, when a struggle ensued in the hallway. He saw and heard pushing, shoving, grunting and groaning. One of the officers shouted out “Stay down . . . or you’ll be Tasered again!”

When the reporter contacted the police spokesperson, he was told the man was “arrested under the Mental Health Act without incident. No one was injured.”

Davis said when the spokesperson said “without incident,” he meant that no one was injured.

Davis added the use of a Taser may not have been revealed immediately to the police spokesperson, because it’s simply another use of force tool that police officers now use.

“The use of a Taser when no one was injured is not a major incident,” he said.

This case was a perfect example of what the Taser was designed for, Davis said, adding the weapon was used to immediately immobilize the man without discharging a firearm. The man was able to be quickly taken to the hospital, where he can get the help he needs, Davis said.

The man’s mother declined to be interviewed yesterday. Her son is now in the care of the Homewood Health Centre.

Police Act amendments give more power to police complaint commissioner

September 18, 2009
The Canadian Press

VICTORIA, B.C. — B.C.'s police complaint commissioner is getting more power to oversee investigations against municipal police officers.

Solicitor General Kash Heed says amendments to the Police Act will allow the complaint commissioner to get involved in real-time investigations of officers, as opposed to just reviewing the final results.

"The amendments to the Police Act are for us to move forward and create greater accountability in British Columbia to ensure that we have proper civilian oversight for our police here in British Columbia," Heed, a former West Vancouver Police chief, said Thursday.

The Police Act amendments were introduced earlier this year but the legislature adjourned before any changes were adopted.

The amendments ensure that officers under investigation who retire or resign will still be subject to the police complaint process. Former Victoria police chief Paul Battershill resigned in August 2008, days before he was to face a disciplinary hearing due to complaints of favouritism.

The amendments force officers to report any information uncovered during an investigation that relates to possible misconduct to the police complaint commissioner.

The commissioner will be authorized to order an investigation even if a complaint is withdrawn and will decide if a complaint warrants investigation from an internal or external force.

The commissioner, however, will not have the power to conduct independent investigations solely through the commissioner's office.

Heed said the Police Act amendments are simply a start and if further changes - like independent investigations - are required, they will be looked at.

"If it's not working, if it's not meeting our needs, if it's not creating more accountable policing here in British Columbia, I will look at furthering the process," he said.

That decision was met with disappointment by the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.

"This tinkering with a broken system doesn't deal with the dysfunction at the core," said Jason Gratl, the association's vice-president.

Gratl said police investigations into the deaths of Frank Paul in a Vancouver alley and Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver airport have represented the end of the public's tolerance for police investigating police.

Paul was left in the alley by an officer after being removed from the police drunk tank. Dziekanski died after being repeatedly stunned by an RCMP taser.

"There's only one person who appears to have any confidence left that the police can investigate themselves in B.C. and that's our solicitor general," Gratl said.

Heed said the amendments also allow the B.C. police complaints commissioner to work with the federal government and RCMP to harmonize the federal public complaints process with the new B.C. Police Act.

The RCMP polices about three-quarters of the province, with municipal officers covering the rest of B.C.

Heed said he has sent a letter to Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan asking for changes that would allow B.C. Mounties to be covered under the province's Police Act, despite the fact they are part of a federal force.

"We feel in order to eliminate any confusion here in British Columbia for the public that we have either a harmonized process or a unified process to ensure that oversight and accountability," he said.

Heed said the matter will be an important one as the province tries to negotiate a new contract with the RCMP by 2012.

Officer Sues Taser Company, Claims Malfunction

September 17, 2009
Ann Butler, Dave Wax, firstcoastnews

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- A Jacksonville Sheriff's Officer who was shot six times during a gun battle with a shoplifting suspect filed a lawsuit claiming his city-issued taser gun didn't fire.

Jared Reston is suing the Taser International company and its distributor.

Reston was chasing two shoplifting suspects down Atlantic Boulevard while working off-duty at the Regency Mall in January, 2008. He got close enough to subdue one of the suspects, but he says his taser malfunctioned. The suspect pulled a gun and shot Reston six times.

Reston has since recovered, and he and his wife filed the lawsuit claiming the taser gun "was negligently designed." They are seeking damages in excess of $15,000.

EDITORIAL: I heard what I heard, that much I know

September 16, 2009
Greg Layson, Guelph Mercury

On Wednesday, we published a small story about the Guelph Police Service’s tactical unit responding to what it called “a mental health crisis” in the city’s northeast corner.

Preliminary reports suggested the man, with some history of mental illness and what a police dispatcher warned was a propensity to become agitated when the man sees police, may have had access to a sword or dagger of sorts. Hence the heavy police presence at the tiny apartment building at 11 Manhattan Court.

The official police account of what occurred late Tuesday morning appeared in the story.

“He was arrested under the Mental Health Act without incident. No one was injured,” Guelph Police spokesperson Sgt. Doug Pflug said.

But what didn’t appear in the story were important and contradicting details that seemed quite unresolved at press time Tuesday. In some ways, perhaps some still remain that way.

After officers spent several minutes coaxing the man from his second-floor apartment, a struggle ensued in the hallway. There was what sounded and looked to be pushing and shoving and grunting and groaning. Officers were visible to me from the waist down. Amid officers encountering and then apprehending the man, the distinct crackle of a fired Taser could be heard. And then, I heard one of the officers boom the following words:

“Stay down . . . or you’ll be Tasered again!”

When Pflug was specifically asked Tuesday what the term “without incident” meant, he said there was “no use of force” during the incident. I shared with him that I had observed what appeared to be a Taser being deployed in the incident and asked whether that was the case. He said he had been provided no information to confirm that. He also said officers must report their use of Tasers in the same fashion they report each and every time they discharge their firearm.

So, what happened in the incident? Had I observed what I was sure I did? Why didn’t that jibe with the official police account? Three questions with no definitive answers.

My wife may be quick to accuse that I don’t listen, but I know I hear clearly. And I heard what I heard.

“Stay down . . . or you’ll be Tasered again!”

We’re taught from a very young age to believe and trust in law enforcement. So, that said, given what the police asserted Tuesday, there could not have been any “use of force,” in this matter. Could there?

But again, I heard what I heard.

“Stay down . . . or you’ll be Tasered again!”

I suppose, without video evidence or other corroboration, neither my account nor that offered Tuesday by the police could be proven.

But I heard what I heard.

“Stay down . . . or you’ll be Tasered again!”

It’s our job as reporters to act as the public’s watchdog and as its eyes and ears at newsworthy events. We report in as much accurate and intimate detail as possible the daily happenings — good, bad or otherwise. It’s our job to make sure those who are deemed trustworthy are in fact so. It’s our job to ensure public servants first and foremost serve the public.

So, after pressing Pflug for a second day and in preparation for this column, he revealed Wednesday that several incidents, including the use of a Taser, occurred the previous day at Manhattan Court after all.

After double checking with the tactical unit that responded to the call in question, Pflug learned and revealed the man was apparently in an extreme state of psychosis. He said the man became non-compliant to verbal commands. He said the man tried to run. He said the man became assaultive. He said the man threw a punch. He said the man couldn’t be contained.

“So a CEW (conducted electric weapon) was deployed for one to three seconds,” Pflug said.

This wasn’t, nor will it be, a case reminiscent of Robert Dziekanski, the Polish immigrant who died at a Vancouver airport after being Tasered repeatedly by the RCMP. That incident was caught on tape. Police denied using excessive force and later denied under oath planning in advance to use their Tasers at the airport. But an email exchange between officers seemed to imply the responding officers had indeed planned to use Tasers when they arrived.

On Tuesday, I had no video. I had no email exchange. I had the word of Guelph Police. I wanted to believe that from the outset. But I knew I heard what I heard.

“Stay down . . . or you’ll be Tasered again!”

A Recipe for Disaster: School Cops Are Being Armed with 50,000-Volt Tasers

September 16, 2009
Liliana Segura, Alternet.com

One spring day this April, at the Franklin Correctional Institution on Florida's Highway 67, Sgt. Walter Schmidt pulled out his Electronic Immobilization Device -- EID in officer parlance -- and zapped two people, who immediately "yelped in pain, fell to the ground and grabbed red burn marks on their arms," according to the St. Petersburg Times.

The two were not inmates at the prison, however. They were students visiting the facility as part of "Take Our Daughters and Sons To Work Day."

The move cost Sgt. Schmidt his job, despite his claim that he merely intended to demonstrate how the devices worked. He even asked the children's parents (who were also employees at the prison) permission first. "When they said 'sure,' I went ahead and did it," he told the Times.

"It wasn't intended to be malicious, but educational. The big shock came when I got fired."

Schmidt wasn't alone in his job-costing blunder. In fact, it came just one day after multiple children, visiting different prisons were similarly shocked.

"A total of 43 children were directly and indirectly shocked by electric stun guns during simultaneous Take Your Sons and Daughters to Work Day events gone wrong at three state prisons last month," reported the St. Petersburg Times on May 16th. "One was a warden's daughter."

Their ages ranged from five to 17. Fourteen of the kids were "directly shocked." The other 29 were "indirectly exposed when they held hands with a person who was shocked. With the kids circled together, the electricity could flow from one child's hands to the next."

Walt McNeil, Secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections told the Times, "I can't imagine what these officers were thinking to administer this device to children, nor can I imagine why any parent would allow them to do so. This must not happen again."

The bizarre rash of student electrocutions might have been an aberration on Florida prison grounds, but the guards -- three of whom were fired and two of who resigned -- might be forgiven for assuming that such devices are somehow safe for kids. Even as news outlets across the country report episode after episode where police officers tase and use stun guns on unlikely people -- take the pregnant woman tased at a baptism in Virginia or the 72-year-old woman tased in a Texas traffic stop -- more and more police officers are being given tasers to carry into schools.

And not just college campuses; middle and high schools across the country are inviting Taser-toting cops on school grounds.

This comes at a time when Tasers have claimed the lives of hundreds of people, including three teenagers this year alone. While heightened security might be a necessity in an age where kids smuggle deadly weapons to school, this fact alone should give parents and school officials pause. Even as school administrators and local law enforcement accept and incorporate Tasers as disciplinary measures, deploying them on school grounds is putting students at risk.

Is Breaking School Rules A Crime?

Last September, police officers in Hawthorne, CA tased an autistic 12-year-old boy at his middle school after he became "violent," launching a misconduct investigation by the police department. In June, at Penn Hills High School in Pennsylvania, a student was tased in the hallway after ignoring a police officer's orders to put away his cell phone. ("The kid refused to listen," Penn Hills Police Chief Howard Burton explained, saying the student then "pushed the officer.")

In 2006, an 11th grader named Angel Debnam was tased at her high school in Bunn, North Carolina, just outside Raleigh. "Something sticks in you, and it's like a wire," Debnam described to local ABC affiliate WTVD. ("When I was on the ground crying and shaking, he asked me, 'Was that enough? Are you calmed down now?' and he did it again.")

In March, the Los Angeles Times reported that "the number of law enforcement agencies that have given Tasers to officers who work on school campuses has grown to well over 4,000," according to Steve Tuttle, Vice President of Communications at Taser International. That's up from 1,700 in 2005.

In an e-mail to AlterNet last week, Tuttle said that this estimate remains accurate, noting that it "includes municipal law enforcement agencies that have School Resource Officers (SROs) for elementary and high schools, as well campus police for colleges and universities." But Tuttle took issue with the notion that Tasers are used "'for unruly students' as the LA Times article inferred."

"They are used to protect students and faculties," he said, as well as police officers hired to patrol school grounds.

Just weeks into the 2009/2010 school year, at least one report has surfaced of a student being tased on school grounds. In Topeka, Kansas, a teenager at Capital City School was sent to the hospital after being tased, reportedly after "attacking" a school police officer while a Topeka police officer handcuffed him. (According to local media, the student "was being suspended for violating school rules.")

"Our premier law enforcement electronic control device"

Last fall, police officers patrolling Duval County Public Schools in Jacksonville, Fl joined the ranks of school security officers who carry Tasers on campus. The decision followed years of controversy over the measure, which was first announced in 2005.

That January, local press reports revealed that the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office (JSO) had signed a $1.8 million contract with Taser International to buy 1,800 Taser guns for city police officers over the next two years, some of which would be used by school security officers. The timing was at least partly motivated by Superbowl XXXIX, which was held at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium that February.

According to the Associated Press, "some school officials [were] surprised by the action, saying they were never told by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office that it planned to issue stun guns to the officers assigned to most middle and high schools."

But plans to deploy the Tasers were put on hold shortly after. In late February 2005, Sheriff John Rutherford imposed a blanket moratorium on Taser use by the JSO after it came under fire for the repeated tasing of a 13-year-old, 65 lb girl who was in handcuffed inside a patrol car.

Llahsmin Lynn Kallead had reportedly kicked the inside of the police car when she was shocked multiple times by her arresting officer.

"I saw her jump from one side of the police car to the other" from the shock, her mother, Rosie Vaughan, told reporters. "She shook."

It was surely a PR nightmare for Sheriff Rutherford, who had gone to great lengths to prove the safety and usefulness of the devices, holding town hall meetings across the county on the topic. The stocky 52-year-old had even volunteered to be tased himself, on camera, to demonstrate. ("Rutherford took a hit in the back and fell to the floor as other officers held his arms," according to Jacksonville's News 4. "He bounced back up almost immediately, saying, 'There you have it.'"

In a conversation with AlterNet, the sheriff's office preferred to refer to Tasers by the name the company gives them: "Electronic Control Devices" or ECDs. An JSO employee told AlterNet, "we were, obviously, very thorough and deliberative in making sure that they fit in our use-of-force matrices."

For the JSO, the main value of the Taser is that "it enables the officer to bring someone under control."

This apparently includes students and other hard-to-handle populations. Not only are the devices deployed in all the middle and senior high schools in Jacksonville, according to the Sheriff's office, "we've also had many incidents where a mentally impaired person was brought under control through the use of the ECD."

The model used in Jacksonville schools is the TASER X26, which, unlike those used by the police officer who tased the kids on "Take Our Daughters and Sons To Work Day" can be fired remotely, hitting targets as far as 35 feet away with 50,000 volts of electricity. Taser International describes the X26 model as "our premier law enforcement electronic control device."

A "Non-Lethal" Weapon That Has Killed Hundreds

In December 2008, Amnesty International released a 130-page report titled "Less Than Lethal? The Use of Stun Weapons in U.S. Law Enforcement," which found that 334 people had died after being tased since 2001. (This figure is already obsolete.) The vast majority of these deaths were due to cardiac or respiratory arrest. Of the 334 victims, 299 of them were unarmed.

The state with the most recorded Taser deaths was California, with 55. Florida ranked second, with 52.

The victims were mostly adults, but they also included teenagers, like 17-year-old Darryl Turner, who "collapsed shortly after being shocked for 37 seconds in the chest." According to the autopsy, a "lethal disturbance" of his heart rhythm was "precipitated by the agitated state and associated stress as well as the use of the conducted energy weapon." According to Amnesty, "the coroner also noted that there were no anatomic findings indicating a pre-existing cardiac abnormality or disease, and no illegal drugs in his system."

The first three reported deaths by Taser in 2009 all involved teenage victims. In January, 17-year-old Derick Jones of Martinsville, Virginia died after a police officer responded to a complaint about public urination by chasing him into a house and tasing him when the boy "moved rapidly" toward him. In the spring, two teenage boys in Michigan died within weeks of one another after being tased by police officers, 15-year-old Brett Elder, and 16-year-old Robert Mitchell. In both cases, police accused the teens of resisting arrest.

Elder's father, Eugene, acknowledged that his son, who was days away from his 16th birthday, might have been confrontational. Still, he told the Bay City Times. "There's no reason to kill my boy."

"[The police] are here to protect us," Renea Mitchell, Robert Mitchell's mother told CNN. "There's no reason for what they've done," she said. "There's no reason, no excuse."

Taser critics have long pointed out that the devices are marketed as non-lethal despite a lack of independent data -- and considerable anecdotal evidence to the contrary. According to Amnesty, "the only medical safety studies prior to the marketing of the Advanced M26 Taser in late 1999 were animal tests conducted for Taser International to see whether the device could cause ventricular fibrillation in a pig and three dogs."

Even those conclusions have been challenged in recent years. In a study carried out by a team of doctors and scientists at Chicago's Cook County hospital in 2006, 11 unfortunate pigs were shocked with Taser guns -- researchers tased them multiple times, in 40 second increments -- to devastating effect. "When the jolts ended, every animal was left with heart rhythm problems, the researchers said. Two of the animals died from cardiac arrest, one three minutes after receiving a shock."

Some have argued that pigs aren't reliable testing subjects. ("In my modeling, I prefer to use humans," Dr. Jeffry Ho, an associate professor of emergency medicine at the University of Minnesota told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. ) This includes Taser International's co-founder, Rick Smith, who has argued that pigs weigh less than 100 pounds and "have a very different physiology from humans," according to CBC News -- an argument that would seem to undermine the company's own research techniques.

In March 2005, a report by the (rather bizarrely named) Human Effects Center of Excellence at Brooks Air Force Base, which tests and "non-lethal" weapon technology, found "a large margin of safety with the 'normal X26 operating output' in the case of large children and adults," according to Amnesty. The study's authors, who based their research primarily on data provided to them by Taser International, also reviewed other studies, including "tests investigating the effects of Tasers on the hearts of pigs weighing between 30 and 117 kilograms." They found that the more a pig weighed, the less potential risk there was for internal injury. "These tests have been interpreted to conclude that smaller individuals (e.g. children) may be more susceptible to adverse effects from Taser shocks," according to Amnesty.

In 2007, the UK's Defense Scientific Advisory Council Sub-Committee on the Medical Implications of Less-Lethal Weapons (DOMILL) concluded that although there is "very limited information globally on the relative vulnerability of children to Tasers," existing data suggest that "the safety factor for induction of ventricular fibrillation by Taser discharge in children at the younger (i.e. smaller) range of the pediatric population may be lower compared with that in the adult population." In other words, the smaller the child, the less voltage it takes to hurt them.

"Until more research is undertaken to clarify the vulnerability of children to Taser currents," the study concluded, "children and persons of small stature should be considered at possible greater risk than adults."

Playing With Fire

Reports of children who have died after being tasered may mainly tell the stories of teenagers, but, along with an apparent misunderstanding of the sheer force of Tasers and stun guns (at least if the Take Your Children to Work Day fracas is any indication), the already heavy-handed approach to students as young as seven in some schools suggests that arming police officers with Tasers might invite dangerous scenarios.

Take, for example, police in Avon Park, FL, who handcuffed and arrested a seven-year-old girl named Desre'e Watson, when she threw a tantrum in her kindergarten class. Or cops in Detroit this past June, who handcuffed a fourth grader and special ed student to the door of his principal's office for four hours . If teachers, administrators, and police have resorted to such measures to get a handle on unruly children won't adding Tasers to the equation up the risk factor?

In an era that sees students standing in line to go through metal detectors before homeroom, there's no question that weapons in school require reliable school security. Arming school security officers with "non-lethal" weapons might seem to be a good solution. That is, if Tasers actually fit the bill.

Vancouver police use Tasers less often: Study

September 14, 2009
Metro News Vancouver

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

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

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

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

Uncomfortable? Unpleasant? How about the WORST FIVE SECONDS OF YOUR LIFE??

Uncomfortable

Unpleasant

According to Steve Tuttle, Director of Communications, Taser International: "It {being tasered} doesn't hurt ... Don't get me wrong, it's uncomfortable. It kind of feels like hitting your funny bone 18 times per second throughout your whole body."

Tom Smith, Chairman and CEO, Taser International, likened the jolt of electricity {from being tasered} to hitting your funny bone, times 20. “It’s certainly not a pleasant experience, but you're very aware of what’s going on."

And this, just in, on what represents the last set of repeating, single-digit dates that we'll see for almost a century (09-09-09):

Computerworld.com
September 9, 2009

Steve Berg {VP of IT at Taser International} knows what intense pain feels like: The man has been Tasered, in fact - not because he ran afoul of the law, but as VP of IT at Taser International he's partaken in a corporate rite of passage. "It's the worst five seconds of your life," he says. "You cannot move."

See also: No pain, no gain??

And lest we forget: Victoria police board approves ‘pain compliance’ use of taser gun
Especially the part that says: "Naughton told the board that he expects the Taser policy will NEED TO BE AMENDED AGAIN AFTER THE ONGOING BRAIDWOOD INQUIRY INTO TASER USE by police forces in B.C."

Vulnerable targets

September 9, 2009
The Globe and Mail

The taser's days as a police weapon of choice are numbered. It is not only that the taser can kill, as an inquiry in British Columbia found this summer. It is that the population it is often used on, the mentally ill or drug users in the grips of the supercharged state of anxiety that some call excited delirium, are at high risk of death, according to a Nova Scotia medical panel, in a report released this week.

A weapon that can kill, a population that is on a precipice. It is a bad combination. To be fair, police have a hugely difficult job when facing a man or woman who may be high on drugs or severely mentally ill, and is out of control. But police have been too quick to rush in with the taser blazing (or zapping), arguing that it is safe - and that if people die afterward, well, it was their "underlying condition" that killed them. The police absolved themselves of responsibility.

Not so fast, says the Nova Scotia panel, set up by the health and justice ministries and chaired by Stan Kutcher, who holds the Sun Life Financial Chair in Adolescent Mental Health at Dalhousie University. It recommends that, when police recognize the agitated state in someone, they ask for backup and summon emergency health services. They are then to try to de-escalate the situation, if there is no imminent danger. They are to do so in part by removing hazardous objects and bystanders who may be increasing the agitation or noise. "Demands should be made in a non-challenging manner." Police should make offers to assist.

In other words, they should do everything that the RCMP didn't do when four Mounties surrounded a distressed Polish immigrant, Robert Dziekanski, at the Vancouver International Airport in October, 2007, zapped him five times and then sat on the back of his neck. He died within minutes, and no definitive cause of death has been established.

Police in many jurisdictions have been using the taser at low levels of risk - where people posed no physical threat. The logic supporting its widespread use has crumbled. Tasers are not safe; the studies supporting their supposed safety are iffy; police have a responsibility to exercise extreme caution with people at risk of death, and to use force only in proportion to the threat to public safety. Nova Scotia and British Columbia now insist the use of the taser must be restricted to violent situations of serious danger. The rest of the country should follow their lead.

Taser testing

September 7, 2009
Peter Grainger, CTV

A SMALL ELECTRONICS FIRM IN RICHMOND HAS COME UP WITH A QUICK -- EASY -- AND ECONOMICAL WAY FOR POLICE TO TEST THEIR TASERS -- SOMETHING THE B-C GOVERNMENT HAS PROMISED WOULD HAPPEN. BUT AS PETER GRAINGER REPORTS -- TESTING THE ELECTRICAL OUTPUT OF TASERS MAY NOT GO FAR ENOUGH TO INSURE THEIR SAFETY.

"We're tentatively calling it the 'Taser Test '..."

"The Taser Test ?"

IT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE MUCH, BUT WHEN DATREND SYSTEMS IS FINISHED-- THIS WILL BE THE GUTS OF A DEVICE WHICH THEY SAY WILL ACCURATELY TELL IF A TASER IS DELIVERING TOO LITTLE OR TOO MUCH ELECTRICAL CURRENT.

"The taser would be coming in here. To these large connectors..”.

MARK MILLER
Electrical Engineer, Datrend Systems

"One of our main thrusts is to make it very simple, easy, small, so that police services themselves can do the required tests."

UP UNTIL NOW-- THERE HAS BEEN NO TESTING DEVICE IN ANY POLICE DETACHMENT IN CANADA.

Grainger: "Is this a taser wave form?"

Miller: "A simulated waveform-- yes."

WHAT LITTLE TESTING HAS BEEN DONE HAS BEEN COSTLY & TIME-CONSUMING, AS TASERS HAVE HAD TO BE SENT AWAY TO A HANDFUL OF LABS.

"They're tested by having two shots in a lab..."

TWO FORMER BC SOLICITOR GENERALS -- HAVE SAID THEY WANT TO SEE REGULAR CHECKS -- ESPECIALLY SINCE 80-PERCENT OF THE BC TASERS TESTED SO FAR HAVE FAILED.

(Rich Coleman/June 1, 2009)

"When we tested the first batch-- I didn't like the numbers -- I said pull em all..."

IN JUNE, THAT RESULTED IN ALL OLDER M-26 MODELS BEING SHELVED, COAST-TO-COAST.

(Braidwood Inquiry/July 23, 2009)

"This report makes 19 recommendations..."

THEN IN JULY, THE BRAIDWOOD INQUIRY RECOMMENDED REGULAR TESTING...

"Conducted energy weapons should be periodically tested..."

...TO ENSURE TASERS MEET THE MANUFACTURER'S SPECIFICATIONS.

RON EVANS
President, Datrend Systems

"The specifications are essentially what the manufacturer says the device will do. Whether those specifications are physiologically correct is another question."

CORRECT? OR SAFE?

DAVID EBY

"So yes, it's within Taser International's specifications, but so what?"

BC CIVIL LIBERTIES SAYS TESTING TASERS IS A WASTE OF TIME, IF THE COMPANY SPECS HAVEN'T BEEN VERIFIED FIRST-- USING RECOGNIZED ELECTRICAL SAFETY STANDARDS-- LIKE THOSE SET BY THE C-S-A-- THE CANADIAN STANDARDS ASSOCIATION.

"This really shows how Taser International and their devices managed to skip entire approval processes, testing processes, CSA approval..."

NO ONE IN GOVERNMENT HAS CHALLENGED THE MANUFACTURER OR THE POLICE WITH THE LACK OF CSA APPROVAL-- BUT DATRENDS SYSTEMS SAYS NEXT YEAR, WHEN THEY MAKE THEIR TASER TESTER AVAILABLE TO POLICE, AT LEAST THEIR PRODUCT WILL BE CSA APPROVED.

PETER GRAINGER CTV NEWS RICHMOND

CTV NEWS INFORMED THE B-C MINISTRY OF PUBLIC SAFETY AND THE SOLICITOR-GENERAL ABOUT THE TASER-TESTER THAT DAY - TREND SYSTEMS IS DEVELOPING.

IN A STATEMENT -- THE MINISTRY RESPONDED SAYING "IT IS ENCOURAGING THAT THEY ARE WORKING ON AN OPTION THAT MAY ALLOW FOR MORE EFFICIENT AND COST-EFFECTIVE LOCAL TASER TESTING. HOWEVER AT THIS POINT -- WE ARE NOT IN A POSITION TO SPECULATE ON HOW THEIR TECHNOLOGY ALIGNS WITH INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS."

Colorado man dies after being tasered

Shane Ledbetter, 38, Aurora, Colorado

Excited delirium is a real risk, Nova Scotia report into taser death warns

See also NOVA SCOTIA REPORT ON "EXCITED DELIRIUM" MISSES THE ENTIRE POINT

September 7, 2009
OLIVER MOORE, Globe and Mail

Excited delirium is real and anyone showing symptoms of it should be "considered at risk of sudden death," according to a report commissioned by the Nova Scotia government.

The chairman of a panel of medical and mental-health experts dismissed as pointless the continuing debate over whether excited delirium, often cited in the deaths of people who have been tasered, actually exists.

"Does it exist as a medical diagnosis? That's a useless discussion - the phenomenon exists," Stan Kutcher, an expert in adolescent mental health at Dalhousie University's department of psychiatry, said. "The point is, what is this phenomenon, how can we best identify it, how can we best intervene?"

The panel's report warns that efforts to restrain someone suffering from excited delirium, which the report calls an autonomic hyperarousal state, may be risky. Medical personnel should be summoned as soon as possible, the panel recommends. "The state itself is a medical emergency," Dr. Kutcher said. "People in this state have a higher risk of death."

According to the report, given to the government in June and released publicly Friday, first responders should try to de-escalate the situation and negotiate when dealing with such a person. But if physical restraint proves necessary, it must be done as rapidly and safely as possible because a long struggle may pose greater risk to the subject.

The authors do not specify what form that restraint should take. That raised concerns for a lawyer acting for the family of Howard Hyde, a paranoid schizophrenic Dartmouth man who died in custody 30 hours after being tasered by police.

"From what I can see, the police [handling Mr. Hyde] felt that they were doing just that by using the taser," Kevin MacDonald said. "That's seen as the quickest and safest way to restrain someone."

Justice Minister Ross Landry said that more research needs to be done to determine whether there should be greater restrictions on how the stun weapons are used.

"I was a police officer for 30 years and I don't think this report takes away the need for the taser at this time," he said. "We're still trying to determine the relevance of the taser and what impact it has with regards to excited delirium."

The panel, which was struck last fall, included Nova Scotia chief medical examiner Dr. Matthew Bowes, who found that Mr. Hyde's death was caused by excited delirium because of his mental illness. It was tasked with cutting through what the government viewed as public confusion surrounding the condition.

More training in mental illness

September 5, 2009
David Jackson, The Chronicle Herald

Police and jail guards will get more training to recognize mental illnesses and how to deal with people afflicted with them, Justice Minister Ross Landry said Friday.

The province commissioned an expert panel last year to look at the phenomenon called excited delirium and what role it could play in in-custody deaths, to examine the risks of using stun guns and other restraints on people in that state, and to recommend how law enforcement officials should deal with those people.

Mr. Landry said the most significant recommendation in the eight-member panel’s new report is ensuring that front-line justice workers are trained to recognize people with symptoms of excited delirium, or as the panel suggests calling it, autonomic hyperarousal state.

The minister, a former RCMP officer, said officers do get training in dealing with people with mental illnesses but new information is always coming along, as with this condition.

"A couple of years ago, who knew about this?" Mr. Landry said in a telephone interview. "It’s not that long ago. And yet, people over time have passed away in this condition."

It was the death of Howard Hyde, a Dartmouth man who had a history of mental health issues, that led to the panel’s review. Mr. Hyde died in November 2007, 30 hours after Halifax Regional Police Tasered him when he scuffled with them at the police station.

The province’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Matthew Bowes, said Mr. Hyde died of excited delirium due to paranoid schizophrenia. Dr. Bowes said the death was accidental and he found no evidence that the Taser caused the death.

The death led to a provincial review of Taser use, and that led to the review of excited delirium.

The panel, of which Dr. Bowes was a member, said the symptoms of excited delirium are common to other medical and psychiatric conditions and recommended that the term autonomic hyperarousal state be used for people showing those symptoms.

Panel chairman Dr. Stan Kutcher, a psychiatrist at Dalhousie University, said there’s been a useless debate about whether excited delirium is or isn’t a medical diagnosis. He said the panel found the phenomenon well-described in medical literature going back 120 years, just under different names.

The symptoms include extreme agitation, aggressive behaviour, paranoia or delirium, incoherent and rambling speech, extraordinary strength and numbness to pain, and profuse sweating, the report said.

Dr. Kutcher said the key thing to keep in mind in dealing with people in that state is they need medical attention.

"I think the most important thing here is to realize that this is a medical emergency and that this situation requires the combined efforts of law enforcement and medical first-responders," he said in an interview.

The panel recommends creating a provincial training program for all first-responders in recognizing signs of mental illness and responding appropriately.

The report also says call-takers and dispatchers should get special training to help them recognize whether a call involves someone with a mental illness.

Dr. Kutcher said a dispatcher can get an indication of that by asking certain questions, such as whether the caller knows if the person they’re calling about is aware of his or her surroundings. The information would help a dispatcher know whether to send police and paramedics to the scene right away.

The panel recommended first-responders first try to calm the person in a hyperaroused state by talking to them, but if that doesn’t work, to restrain them quickly because a prolonged struggle could jeopardize the person’s life.

Dr. Kutcher said the panel couldn’t find scientific evidence suggesting that one form of restraint is better or safer than another, including stun guns. He said that’s why the panel recommended the province create a database on incidents involving the use of force.

Halifax Regional Police already adhere pretty well to the review’s goals, said Const. Brian Palmeter, the force’s spokesman.

"Our training and practices are consistent with the recommendations," he said.

"That being said, we are looking forward to working with the province to review and update our training where necessary."

Still, Const. Palmeter doubts there will ever be a single case in which an officer would be able to handle the crisis and follow all the recommended advice completely.

Mr. Landry said his department will consult with police, jail guards and sheriff’s services in developing procedures for dealing with people with mental illnesses. He said officers often have to make split-second decisions when dealing with people, so he wants them to have the information to help them make good decisions.

Dr. Hunter Blair, whose wife Joanna Blair is Mr. Hyde’s sister, thinks a dispatcher won’t always be able to get enough information from an excited caller to know whether to send an ambulance to a scene involving a person with mental illness.

The main issue, he said, is how to handle that person once you get there, and the review doesn’t seem to contain much new information.

"They’ve produced what you would have expected them to produce, given the current state of knowledge or non-knowledge," he said from his Shelburne home Friday.

He is happy with the recommended plan to track all calls to study the outcomes of various restraint methods and treatments.

"That’s a good move," he said. "They started doing this in Ontario some time ago."

Health Minister Maureen MacDonald said officials in her department will consult with district health authorities and Emergency Medical Care Inc., which provides ambulance services, about the report.

AUSTRALIA: Police look for new taser brand

September 4, 2009
Couriermail

THE Queensland Police Service may junk its 1200 Taser guns if a more suitable model is found, police commissioner Bob Atkinson has confirmed.

Commissioner Atkinson said a search for another brand which limits each Taser cycle to five seconds would begin immediately, in the wake of a report recommending changes to their use.

The joint Crime and Misconduct Commission-Queensland Police Service review was prepared after the death of a man at Brandon, near Townsville.

Amphetamines addict Antonio Galeano, 39, suffered a heart attack after he was Tasered repeatedly during a violent domestic disturbance in June.

The report found that since the start of the year, multiple deployments of Tasers have occurred on 20 occasions not including the Brandon incident, and in 11 instances the Taser cycles lasted longer than five seconds. In three of those instances, Tasers were used for 10 seconds at a time – or twice the recommended cycle.

The CMC wants the weapons modified so each deployment can last no longer than five seconds but manufacturer Taser International has said that is not possible with the current model.

Mr Atkinson said it was an issue the QPS would examine further, including looking at alternatives to the $2000 Taser "in the interests of safe usage".

"First we need to find out whether the technical specifications the CMC would like to be introduced can actually be incorporated into one of these devices," he said.

Australian distributor for Taser International, George Hateley, said there was no market for Tasers that capped the number of deployments and limited cycles. "Most police forces don't want that and I wouldn't like the police to limit that sort of thing. You can imagine in a stressful situation and they squeeze the trigger and it doesn't go off again. It could be disastrous," he said.

"You wouldn't tell a police officer to load his gun with only one bullet. Why do that with Tasers?"

Instead, Taser International had developed a new semi-automatic model known as the X3, which could be deployed on three people at the same time, Mr Hateley said.

Other changes recommended by the report are a trial of cameras on Tasers, an increase in training for police from 10 to 14 hours, and a change in the threshold for use to "risk of serious injury to a person".

The new policy also prohibits officers from aiming the Taser at a person's head or neck.

AUSTRALIA: Tasers face ban after findings they can kill

"Fears that Tasers would be used as a compliance tool may have come to fruition around Australia."

September 3, 2009
The The Australian

THE controversial Taser stun guns may be scrapped in Queensland after a review warned that the weapons could kill and could not be modified to prevent a repeat of the death of a man this year when he was shot 28 times with the 50,000-volt device.

The joint Crime and Misconduct Commission-police review, launched after the June heart-attack death of north Queensland man Antonio Galeano, has ordered an overhaul of police training and operational policy, requiring the stun guns to be used only when there is a "risk of serious injury".

The review, to be released today and obtained exclusively by The Australian, marks the first time an Australian authority has recognised the possibility the stun guns can injure or kill, especially when fired repeatedly at a person.

"The possibility of Taser use causing or contributing to death is possible and cannot be ruled out," the review warns.

The Arizona-based manufacturers have repeatedly denied the weapons can kill.

The report is expected to influence the nationwide rollout of Tasers, amid mounting evidence the weapons are being used by police as an everyday compliance tool and not as a non-lethal substitute for a standard gun in high-risk situations.

Sources have told The Australian a coronial investigation has concluded that amphetamine addict Galeano, 39, was deliberately shot 28 times, each time for a duration of up to five seconds, after he confronted police with a steel bar at his unit in Brandon, south of Townsville.

It was initially claimed the stun gun might have malfunctioned or that there was a glitch with the built-in computer system recording the number and duration of shots from the weapon.

But investigators will allege the policeman repeatedly Tasered Galeano, who dropped the metal bar after the first few shots, while he lay unarmed and writhing on the floor.

He died minutes later while still in handcuffs.

Civil liberties lawyers called for a criminal investigation into the death of Galeano in June, when The Australian revealed he had been shot 28 times.

Until then, police had claimed he had been shot only two or three times.

It will be announced today that the freeze on the rollout of Tasers to 3000 general duties officers -- ordered after the death of Galeano -- will be maintained while police move to implement the recommendations of the review.

Meanwhile, the 1200 Tasers with the Queensland police force will remain in operation. But the use of Tasers is under threat, with the CMC recommending they be modified so a single shot lasts no longer than five seconds, and that a limit be put on the numbers of times the weapon can be fired.

Police have been told by the manufacturer that "at this stage, this is not feasible with the Taser X26" -- the $15,000-a-piece weapon being used in Queensland and around Australia.

The review recommends that Queensland Police fit an automatic video device on the weapons, which records every time the Taser is pulled from its holster.

Queensland police last year refused to buy the weapons with the optional "Tasercam" because of the cost.

Civil liberties lawyer Scott McDougall, director of the Caxton Legal Centre, said police should be forced to table in parliament every deployment of the stun guns in Queensland.

He said an independent medical study should be conducted on the weapons, and a freeze on their use should be implemented until the findings were released.

"We have clients who were Tasered who were not offering any resistance to police," he said.

"Fears that Tasers would be used as a compliance tool may have come to fruition around Australia."

FRANCE: French court suspends Taser use for local cops

The State Council strikes down a law allowing France’s local police officers to carry Taser guns as an alternative to handguns in response to a suit filed by a human rights group.

Paris – A French court Wednesday suspended the use of Taser stun guns for local police, after ruling they had been rolled out last year without proper training and safeguards.

The State Council, the highest court of appeal, struck down a September 2008 government decree allowing France's 20,000 local police officers to carry Taser guns.

Municipal officers joined 4,600 national police and gendarmes who already use the weapon, which packs a 50,000-volt punch that can paralyse targets from up to 10 yards (meters) away, and is intended as an alternative to handguns.

In practice, a few dozen local police stations had started to arm officers with the guns.

But the court, responding to a suit filed by the RAIDH rights group, found that the government had green-lighted use of the Taser without putting in place proper training and evaluation mechanisms.

"The specificities of this new type of weapon require its use to be closely controlled and monitored," said the court ruling.

"That has been the case for its use by national police officers. Short of a similar and sufficiently precise system for local police officers, the decree allowing them to be equipped is cancelled."

Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said the government would draw up a new decree incorporating the training requirements for local police.

To date, 4,615 Tasers have been issued to France's national police and gendarme force. They were used 280 times in 2007 without causing serious injury, cutting handgun use by 15 percent, according to police chiefs.

Many officials see the Taser as a safer alternative to the handgun, which local officers have been authorised to carry since 2000.

But human rights activists have criticized Taser guns, challenging manufacturer claims that they are safe and non-lethal.

A December 2008 report from Amnesty International said 334 people had died after being shocked by Tasers between 2001 and August 2008.

EDITORIAL: Did Taser shocks kill Fort Worth’s Michael Jacobs?

September 2, 2009
Fort Worth Star Telegram

It’s been more than four months since 24-year-old Michael Jacobs died after a struggle with Fort Worth police. By now, the people of this city should have a better idea than they do about how that happened.

They know that police Cpl. Stephanie A. Phillips shocked Jacobs twice with a Taser on April 18 when he was causing a disturbance at his home on Ava Court Drive. A Taser is a device that fires two small darts connected by thin wires to a hand-held unit. It is designed to deliver an electrical charge powerful enough to cause disabling muscle contractions without being fatal.

They know that an hour after those shocks, Jacobs was declared dead in the emergency room of John Peter Smith Hospital.

They know that Tarrant County Chief Medical Examiner Nizam Peerwani last week ruled the death a homicide caused by the Taser shocks.

Not possible, says the maker of the device, Taser International of Scottsdale, Ariz. On its Web site, the company presents links to more than four dozen national and international scientific studies to back up its claim.

It is possible, says Peerwani, and it happened.

That’s a very big deal, in many ways.

Jacobs died after Fort Worth police officers tried to calm him down and take him into custody. That is a tragedy for his family and for the city.

The medical examiner has implicated one of those officers, Phillips, in a homicide. That’s devastating to any peace officer dedicated to protecting and defending the residents of any city. It must be assumed that she is so dedicated.

Jacobs’ death has shaken confidence in the Fort Worth Police Department and its new chief, Jeff Halstead. If it can be blamed on improper training, faulty equipment or hazardous acts by an officer, so much the worse.

Finally, if the Taser definitively is linked to a death — notably, this one, in which the medical examiner has said factors such as drug use or other underlying medical conditions were not a factor — it will affect hundreds of other police departments that use Tasers as a step short of deadly force.

Taser use has been controversial in several communities across the nation. Opponents have said the device is more dangerous than the police and the company that produces it admit, and it is used too often.

Peerwani’s autopsy report and ruling do not provide affirmative evidence about how he reached his conclusion that Jacobs’ death was due to the Taser shocks. The report rules out several other possible causes, but the link to the Taser shocks is simply stated without evidence.

Peerwani says that he has "a very large comment" to make about how the Taser caused Jacobs’ death, but he declined to talk about it with a member of the Star-Telegram Editorial Board. He said he has delivered that comment in a separate report to the district attorney’s office, and that report has not been made public.

The district attorney’s office has said that the Jacobs case will be presented to a grand jury.

It is not good enough for the people of Fort Worth that the county’s chief medical examiner will not discuss how he reached his conclusion to connect a police officer to a homicide.

Peerwani has held that job for 30 years. He is highly credible, a well-known person in his field. His evidence and his opinion in this case should be shared with the people of this city, not just the people at the courthouse.

And the people of Fort Worth have waited long enough.

Holyoke (Massachusetts) Police Chief: No need to get Tasers

HOLYOKE - Equipping officers with Taser electric-shock guns is unnecessary because city police already are well-equipped and trained, Police Chief Anthony R. Scott said.

Also, said Scott, responding on Monday to a request from the City Council that he look into Tasers, such devices can be troublesome in terms of costly lawsuits filed against municipalities that use them.

"I am not ready to see an individual on the six o'clock news bouncing around on the ground like a basketball with 50,000 volts of electricity being pumped into their body," Scott said, in a memo to council President Joseph M. McGiverin.

Scott, who said he has more than 43 years in law enforcement, said police have sufficient tools. Academy training includes "verbal judo," which consists of spoken persuasion to get a suspect to comply, and physical compliance techniques, he said.

Officers also have department-issued .45-caliber semi-automatic pistols, pepper spray, collapsible nightsticks and non-lethal bean bag shotguns, Scott said.

The council on Aug. 4 approved an order filed by councilors James M. Leahy, Todd McGee and Donald R. Welch asking that Scott research the use of Tasers in other communities.

Leahy has two brothers who are police officers, Patrick T. Leahy here and Brian Leahy in Las Vegas. His goal with the Taser order was to increase safety as police make arrests by limiting gun fire and pepper spray, which can strike others in addition to the target, he said.

As for a next step in light of Scott's memo, Leahy said, "I'm not here to micromanage. I don't have a background in law enforcement. I do have a background in research. Whether he chooses to use it, that's up to him."

McGiverin, McGee and Welch, a Holyoke police officer, declined to comment because they had yet to read Scott's memo.

Tasers work by firing two fish hook-like barbs, attached to two wires, up to 21 feet away. The barbs stick into the person and deliver 50,000 volts of electric current in a 5-second interval that temporarily immobilizes a person.

The devices are made by Taser International Inc., of Scottsdale, Ariz.

Proponents say Tasers are a less dangerous way than a firearm or other weapon for police to control a suspect.

But the devices have their critics, including the United Nations' Committee Against Torture, which considers Tasers to be torture. Other critics include the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International.

See also Memphis turns down tasers

Medical examiner rules young man's Taser death a homicide

Michael Patrick Jacobs Jr., 24, died in Fort Worth, Texas on April 18, 2009.

"The Tarrant County medical examiner ruled Thursday that the death of a mentally ill man in April who was shocked twice by a Taser stun gun wielded by a Fort Worth police officer was a homicide. According to Nizam Peerwani’s report, an officer shot Jacobs twice with the Taser, once for 49 seconds and another time for five seconds. An autopsy found no drugs, no system abnormalities and no electrolyte imbalances in Jacobs’ body, Peerwani wrote. Jacobs died of "sudden death during neuromuscular incapacitation due to application" of the Taser, Peerwani wrote.

SEVEN AMERICANS DIE IN AUGUST (... so far)

SEVEN young men have died in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA this month alone, after they were tasered, bringing the total # of North Americans who have died proximal to taser use to at least 442.

436. August 9, 2009: Terrace Clifton Smith, 52, Moreno Valley, California
437. August 12, 2009: Ernest Owen Ridlehuber III, 53, Greenwood, South Carolina
438. August 14, 2009: Hakim Jackson, 31, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
439. August 18, 2009: Ronald Eugene Cobbs, 38, Greensboro, North Carolina
440. August 20, 2009: Francisco P. Sesate, 36, Mesa, Arizona
441. August 22, 2009: T.J. Nance, 37, Arizona City, Arizona
442. August 26, 2009: Unidentified male, Age unknown, Los Angeles, California

See also: A List of the Dead

California man dies after being tasered

August 26, 2009: Unidentified male, Age unknown, Los Angeles, California

Memphis turns down Tasers

August 25, 2009
By JEANNE KNIAZ, Voice Reporter

A request by the Memphis Police Department to implement the use of Taser electronic stun guns as a method of subduing suspected criminals has been turned down by the city council.

Deployment of electronic control devices has been a subject of debate since Memphis Police Chief Elena Danishevskaya acquired three units for her department through a grant program many months ago.

At their most recent meeting the council revisited the controversial topic and, after airing opposing opinions, once again shunned the electroshock weapons - capable of immobilizing subjects via a 50,000-volt discharge - as an option for the city's officers.

"My feeling, still, is that Tasers for this department is not for us," Mayor Charles Garber said.

Often touted as a safe alternative to containment versus firearms, Taser use by law enforcement officials has escalated in correlation to mounting opposition as questions arise with respect to the risks associated with this method of restraint.

Tasers temporarily debilitate individuals via the projection of probes connected to the unit by wire. An electrical pulse transmitted through the wires to the point where the probes come in contact with the body effectively eliminates neuromuscular control and coordinated movement for the duration of the surge.

Alternative methods to Taser deployment include utilizing pepper spray, mace, batons, bodily force or bullets.

Proponents argue that Taser technology incapacitates confrontational or high-risk subjects who endanger peace-keeping officials, the public or themselves and that overall the devices are safe with a low incidence of injury.

A study funded by the National Institute of Justice in 2007 determined that, of roughly 1,000 incidents involving Taser use, 99.7 percent of the cases involved no injuries or only mild consequences such as scrapes and bruises. In 0.3 percent of the cases a hospital admission was required.

Taser-associated deaths and injuries during the last decade have propelled this issue to the forefront of public debate with respect benefits versus risks.

According to Amnesty International the total number of deaths in America following Taser gun usage has risen to 351 since June 2001.

A report issued by the human rights organization last December cited concerns suggesting that Taser use can aggravate conditions previously compromised by drugs, exertion or illness and has even resulted in the deaths of seemingly healthy individuals.

The city of Warren is currently a defendant in two separate lawsuits concerning Taser usage by police officers - one claiming that the excessive force ultimately led to the death of an unarmed 16-year-old, and another wherein the defendant claims that during a diabetic emergency he was victimized by a Taser incident and a false arrest.

These issues weighed on the minds of Memphis City Council members as they discussed the possible use of three Taser devices their police chief had obtained through a grant program in 2006.

"I know it's been controversial in the past and I was wondering if the council would entertain a special meeting where we could have an expert come in and answer our questions?" Councilman Eric Schneider asked after reiterating that their police chief would like to implement usage.

"I just think that it is too risky. How many times have you had, in the last two years, any kind of problem?" Mayor Garber inquired of Danishevskaya who answered that on two occasions Tasers could have been effective - the first involving a suspect who reportedly had a gun, and the second a suicidal subject who was brandishing a knife.

"That was a good opportunity to use something like a Taser because, obviously, you don't want to shoot somebody like that but you do want to contain them. It is a good tool when properly used," the chief said.

Further discussion did little to influence action in favor of stun guns.

Councilwoman Kim Gunst commented that she would like the police chief to be able to carry a Taser, while Councilman Terry Treend remarked on the low number of instances in the community that require restraint.

Referring to the Warren lawsuits, Memphis Mayor Charles Garber said city couldn't afford the risks associated with Taser usage.

"There are two suits right now ... where in fact somebody has died after being tasered. It is not necessarily the Taser itself but the medical problems that they had prior to being tasered. I don't think we can afford the lawsuits and that is my personal opinion," he said.

"I'll try to keep an open mind but I agree with the mayor. I don't think we should have Tasers in the city of Memphis. I really have a problem with it. Things have come out in the paper. I know that doesn't happen very often but, for me, once is too much," Councilman Larry Wilson said, alluding to Taser-related deaths.

"I really couldn't support it."

Council members them moved to support a suggestion that the city police committee investigate options for disposing of the department's current Taser devices and report as to their findings at the next city council meeting.

TWO Arizona men die

In slightly more than 24 hours, two Arizona men in their thirties died after they were tasered:

August 20, 2009: Francisco P. Sesate, 36, Mesa, Arizona
August 22, 2009: T.J. Nance, 37, Arizona City, Arizona

North Carolina man dies after he is tasered

Ronald Eugene Cobbs, 38, Greensboro, North Carolina - died on August 18, 2009

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.

Edmonton police chief directed to charge officer over Taser incident

August 18, 2009
By FRANK LANDRY, CITY HALL BUREAU

Police Chief Mike Boyd has been directed to lay charges against an Edmonton cop who repeatedly used a stun gun on a 16-year-old boy nearly seven years ago.

In its decision, the Law Enforcement Review Board calls for charges of "unlawful or unnecessary exercise of authority" and "insubordination" against Const. Mike Wasylyshen.

The board also recommends a presiding officer outside of the Edmonton Police Service oversee the disciplinary hearing.

According to an agreed statement of facts, Wasylyshen and four other officers were dispatched to a complaint of people trying to steal a parked car. The call was in the area of Abbottsfield Road. The cops, including Wasylyshen, ordered the people out of the vehicle without first questioning them or conducting a query on the licence plate. Three of four people inside immediately exited, but Randy Fryingpan was passed out in the backseat "as a result of his alcohol consumption and did not respond to the order to get out of the vehicle."

Wasylyshen fired his Taser at Fryingpan eight times over a period of a little more than a minute.

Fryingpan was arrested and later taken to the Sturgeon Community Hospital "where he was noted to have bruising to the left eye area, a skin flap laceration to the left fifth finger and a broken tooth."

Later, at the Edmonton Young Offenders Centre, he was observed to have several marks on his body "that appeared to be consistnt with burns caused by a Taser," states the decision.

The board concludes that: “Wasylyshen deployed his Taser on (Fryingpan) eight times in the span of 68 seconds, in what appeared to be an effort to remove the passed-out youth from the vehicle," states the decision.

"No evidence was presented to justify the use of a Taser; nor was any evidence presented to explain why the Taser was deployed eight times in just over a minute."

During the incident, Fryingpan suffered a blow to the back of his head. He fell to the ground and chipped his tooth, states the decision.

The board said there is sufficient evidence to suggest Wasylyshen "could have administered the blow."

Judge Jack Easton later halted Fryingpan's trial for breaching his bail conditions after concluding the teen's charter rights had been repeatedly violated by Wasylyshen, who, the judge declared, had used excessive force on the teen.

But Wasylyshen was never disciplined over the incident, as the EPS found insufficient evidence to support charges against him.

Fryingpan's lawyer launched an appeal to the Law Enforcement Review Board in 2005.

Queensland CMC - Police Taser review cover-up: Pyke repeats call for Royal Commission

August 18, 2009
Australia.to

“Queenslanders need to ask why the joint Crime and Misconduct Commission and Queensland Police Service Taser Review Report is being suppressed,” former-Queensland MP and former-Queensland Police Service Sergeant Peter Pyke said today.

Pyke says sources confirm the Taser Review Report was completed at least ten days ago, and warns that the failure of the Bligh Government to publish the report smacks of a high-level cover-up. “I’m told the Bligh Government is ducking for cover over the Taser Review Report because it is scared witless of the implications,” warns Pyke.

The review was announced on 15 June 2009, in response to widespread community alarm about Tasers following the death of Antonio Galeano of a heart attack in Brandon, North Queensland on 12 June 2009, after multiple applications of a Taser by Queensland police.

“The Bligh Government is particularly vulnerable to the implications of the CMC component of the Taser Review,” says Pyke. Pyke says the CMC component of the latest Taser review lays bare two issues likely to further injure the Bligh Government and erode public confidence in the Queensland Police Service, already damaged by allegations of corruption earlier this year.

“The first matter Queenslanders need to consider is what I have been told are ‘serious safety concerns’,” says Pyke. Pyke says the the Queensland Police Service appears to have failed to understand, and train for the alleged ‘serious safety concerns’ related to Taser-use.

“Think that’s bad?” asks Pyke, “It gets worse.”

“The other matter is the question of corruption,” says Pyke.

Pyke says the CMC report into the Queensland Police Service acquisition of Tasers has exposed something seriously smelly about the process, both within the Police Service, and inside the Police Union Executive.

“Former-Police Minister Judy Spence may also have some questions to answer,” says Pyke.

Pyke says the CMC component of the Taser Review is highly critical of the Queensland Police Service and says this latest crisis puts the need for a Royal Commission into high-level corruption and police misconduct beyond question.

Pyke says a meeting of the Queensland Police Union Executive today, Wednesday 19 August 2009, is expected to urgently discuss the implications of the CMC report.

“Has the Police Union Executive been slipped an advance copy of the CMC’s report into Tasers?” asks Pyke.

Pyke has previously said that the QPS is engaged in a high-level cover-up of Taser problems. Pyke repeated his call for a royal commission, and for the sacking of Commissioner Bob Atkinson, and Deputies Ian Stewart and Kathy Rynders, whom Pyke says have failed to properly administer the Police Service.