B.C. transit police stun fare cheaters with taser: documents

April 15, 2008
CBC News

Transit police on SkyTrain stations in Metro Vancouver have used Taser stun guns on passengers who didn't pay the fare and tried to run away, CBC News has learned.

Transit police have fired Tasers 10 times since January last year, and three cases involved non-violent suspects, according to internal police reports obtained by CBC News using access to information laws.

In one case, a person ran from transit cops during a check for free-riders and "the Taser was deployed as the subject fled," the documents say. Another person who didn't pay the fare was arrested but "grabbed onto the platform railing and refused to let go … the Taser was deployed."

A Taser may be used when "the situation demands control over a non-compliant, suicidal, potentially violent, or violent individual and lower force options were ineffective," according to the transit police policy.

Stunning someone without a transit ticket doesn't qualify as an appropriate use of a Taser, said Murray Mollard, executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association. "I would call it a shocking abuse and misuse of a very significant weapon," Mollard told CBC News Tuesday.

Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh, who's on a federal committee reviewing the use of Tasers, said transit police have gone too far. "That's the example where Taser use has just gotten out of hand and I believe the government needs to actually bring them under some kind of control," he said.

Federal New Democrat MP Penny Priddy also called such a use of Taser "absolutely intolerable."

B.C.'s solicitor general didn't comment on whether transit police use of Tasers was justified, saying the officers must adhere to the same standards as other police when it comes to proper use of the Taser. "They are expected to conduct themselves in the same manner using the same tools as other police, and they are subject to the same review process [and] the same accountability through the office of the police commissioner," John van Dongen said.

Dosanjh said British Columbia should be proactive in ensuring SkyTrain police are using Tasers properly.

Van Dongen said he will wait for Ottawa's report on Tasers before taking any action.

RCMP 'must learn' from handling of taser reports, commissioner says

April 15, 2008
CBC News

RCMP Commissioner William Elliott admitted Tuesday that mistakes were made in handling — and keeping secret — reports about Taser use by the force. "Frankly, we didn't handle this very well," Elliott said Tuesday during a speech in Gatineau, Que. "We should not have needed two kicks at the can. We must learn from that, and do better."

Elliott was responding to criticism in late March of how the force released more than 4,000 Taser reports. The documents were released to both CBC News and The Canadian Press, but were mostly blank. The RCMP then spent two weeks reviewing whether they could release further details. A second release was made on Monday, but those documents, too, were heavily censored, making it impossible to determine if RCMP members are using the stun gun appropriately.

Elliott said the RCMP has been forced to make tough choices. "Our motivation is not to avoid criticism or controversy by exercising our discretion one way or the other, but to strike an appropriate balance between sometimes competing interests like privacy and the public's right to know," he said Tuesday. "I believe we need to do a better job in assessing and factoring in the public interest."

But Elliott said some information about Taser use cannot be made public. And he noted the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP has access to full versions of all of the force's Taser reports.

Tasers were introduced into the RCMP in 2001 and police use of them has increased sharply since then. More than 2,800 devices have now become available to more than 9,100 RCMP officers across the country. According to Taser-use report forms, Taser use has more than doubled in the last two years, with British Columbia and Manitoba experiencing the heaviest use.

Last December, Paul Kennedy, who heads the Commission for Complaints Against the RCMP, released a report criticizing the RCMP for failing to manage the use of Tasers and for allowing usage to grow over the past six years. He recommended that the 50,000-volt Taser should be used in touch-stun or firing mode only when suspects are "combative" or pose a risk of "death or grievous bodily harm."

He observed that Taser use "has expanded to include subduing resistant subjects who do not pose a threat of grievous bodily harm or death and on whom the use of lethal force would not be an option."

Did O.C. deputies taser a cat to death?

April 15, 2008
Stuart Pfeifer, LA Times

The Orange County Sheriff's Department has been under fire recently for its treatment of jail inmates, including the death this month of a man who was Tasered in his Santa Ana jail cell.

But there is a new alleged victim: a cat. The department is investigating a report that deputies used a Taser electric stun weapon on a cat at Theo Lacy jail, a department spokesman said today. A cat’s corpse was later found on the jail grounds in Orange.

The investigation comes one week after the release of grand jury transcripts that showed Theo Lacy deputies allowed inmates to discipline each other while guards watched television, played video games and exchanged cellphone text messages.

Sheriff’s officials were conducting a necropsy today to determine whether the dead cat was shocked with a Taser, said sheriff’s spokesman John McDonald. An unidentified person told sheriff’s officials that deputies used the Taser on the cat "a couple of weeks ago," McDonald said.

"We’ll know more this afternoon, after the necropsy is completed. This cat may not have had anything to do with the report," McDonald said. "This isn’t being taken lightly. This is a pretty serious matter."

Controls needed on SkyTaser police

April 15, 2008
Gordon Keast, Vancouver Sun


The only armed transit police force in Canada is using the stun guns on non-paying passengers trying to flee

Imagine being Tasered for not paying your fare on the SkyTrain. It's happened more than once. Documents obtained following freedom of information requests show that members of the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority Police Service have indeed used Tasers to subdue non-paying passengers attempting to flee.

In one case, the "subject ran from officers during a 'fare blitz' (no proof of fare paid while in a fare paid zone.) Taser was deployed as the subject fled . . . ." Another person who had not paid the SkyTrain fare and refused to identify himself was placed under arrest. He then "grabbed onto the platform railing and refused to let go." He was told to "stop resisting arrest," and when he did not, "the Taser was deployed."

Another individual who was stopped for not having a valid fare receipt was found to have an outstanding warrant for his arrest. Once advised of that fact "the subject fled from the officers" and "the Taser was deployed . . . ."

Under the "Use of Force" policy that governs Taser use by the transit police, a Taser may be deployed when "the situation demands control over a non-compliant, suicidal, potentially violent, or violent individual and; lower force options were ineffective in controlling the individual or were inappropriate given the circumstances."

Cynics might argue that lower force options could include running after the one subject or prying loose the hands of the other. But does non-payment of a SkyTrain fare really warrant the use of a Taser?

The transit police in these summary reports do not appear to be in any danger from the non-paying passengers who are running away or holding onto railings. Nor is anyone else. There is not even any threatened violence indicated, so the use of the electro-shock device is questionable at best. Quite simply, the way the use of force policy is being interpreted appears to be exceptionally broad, and what is occurring is a case of "usage creep."

The 127 members of the Greater Vancouver Transit Authority Police are armed with handguns, and it has 20 Tasers. It has the same policing powers as the local police and represent the only armed transit police force in Canada.

Since last July, SkyTrain police have used the stun gun 10 times, including once during a visit by Gov.-Gen. Michaelle Jean to Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

The death of a Polish immigrant at Vancouver International Airport in October sparked intense controversy over police use of the controversial devices.

Since last fall, many police forces across Canada have launched intense reviews of Taser use, and changes have been made. In Quebec, police have been ordered to restrict their use of the electroshock weapons. They will be allowed to use a Taser only when a suspect poses a serious risk to himself, a member of the public or a police officer.

In Newfoundland, the provincial police force has suspended the use of Tasers, although the RCMP in that province still use the stun guns.

Following a report from Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, the national force now has guidelines that restrict the use of stun guns to those cases in which "a subject is displaying combative behaviour or is being actively resistant." But the use of force policy governing Taser use by the SkyTrain police remains largely unchanged. It was introduced in 2005 and revised in May, 2007. But that was before the tragedy at Vancouver International Airport and growing concern over the use of Tasers in Canada.

Maybe it's time to rethink the policy and open it up to public scrutiny.

SkyTrain carried 70 million boarded passengers in 2006. And SkyTrain police meet more people on a daily basis than your average policeman. The possibility for potential contact with people on drugs, mentally ill or in an agitated state is high.

But whether SkyTrain police who already carry firearms and pepper spray should also be armed with Tasers under the present policy is a serious question.

It could be argued that SkyTrain police need Tasers for potentially suicidal or violent passengers. But it is very difficult to make a case for using Tasers on passengers who are simply fleeing or resisting arrest for not paying their fares.

For the public to have confidence in the correct use of Tasers by the transit police we need assurance that members of the force are using these intermediate weapons only when absolutely necessary.

Mounties release more taser data on weapons but shield details on injuries

April 14, 2008
CBC and The Canadian Press

OTTAWA - The RCMP continues to withhold crucial details of injuries to the people they stun with Tasers after coming under fire for being too secretive.

The national police force released a new batch of information Monday following a second look at what they tell Canadians about Taser use. The records contain more data on whether people hit with RCMP stun guns were carrying a weapon, and whether they had taken drugs or alcohol.

But the Mounties still refuse to release details of cuts, burns and bruises suffered by subjects in the more than 4,000 officer reports released under the Access to Information Act.

When incidents involved a mental health crisis, that was also stripped from the records.

The national police force was attacked by critics last month for deciding to stop disclosing such information.

Liberal public safety critic Ujjal Dosanjh said Monday he's "delighted" the RCMP has relented on some points but said the force is still deleting too many details that people have a right to know.


"I fail to see any rational reason for them to exclude those two items of information - mental health issues or injuries," he said. "I believe that we need to know whether or not in the continuing use of the Taser, people are being injured excessively. I think that's the core issue."

Controversy flared after a joint investigation by The Canadian Press and CBC found the Mounties were censoring key elements that must be recorded each time officers draw their electronic weapons.

RCMP Commissioner William Elliott then ordered "a further review" of the records "to determine if additional information" should be released.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day had sought and received assurances the RCMP would review the matter. The Mounties denied their hand was forced by the minister, saying they had already decided to re-examine the Taser forms.

Dosanjh said Monday the force has more work to do. "The RCMP first of all tried to withhold information, and I believe they were caught," he said. "People were rightly concerned, and they've now coughed up more information. I believe they've not gone far enough."

RCMP officers are supposed to fill out a form every time they fire - or even threaten to use - a Taser.

In a 2004 Alberta case in which a Mountie fired a stun gun, the officer noted the subject was later examined at a medical facility, one record released Monday shows. But the section of the form where a description of any injuries should be recorded is blank. The prongs fired by a Taser can cause cuts. In up-close stun mode, the weapon may burn the subject's skin. And people sometimes hit their heads when jolted by a Taser.

The electronic guns are dangerous weapons that the RCMP should have, Dosanjh said Monday. "But they should be able to only have that weapon if they're using it appropriately. And a very important way of distinguishing appropriate use from inappropriate use is whether or not a person is seriously injured."

The RCMP is also keeping secret the precise dates of incidents, revealing only the year they happened. The force has now disclosed some fragmentary information about what happened in each incident, but continues to leave out key parts of the story.

The summary of a 2003 Kamloops, B.C., case in which the RCMP stunned a person indicates only that he or she was "extremely intoxicated and combative."

In a letter accompanying the data released Monday, the RCMP said it invoked exemptions under the access law to protect the privacy of people hit with Tasers and to guard confidences about their investigations.

Insp. Troy Lightfoot, an RCMP spokesman, said last month that internal analysis of the forms concluded the painful weapons were being used correctly.

Scathing newspaper editorials and opposition critics said Canadians were being asked to blindly trust the Mounties.

Last November, a Canadian Press analysis of 563 cases between 2002 and 2005 found three in four suspects Tasered by the RCMP were unarmed.

Several of those reports suggested a pattern of stun-gun use as a convenient means of keeping drunk or rowdy people in line, rather than to defuse major clashes.

Twenty people in Canada have died soon after being Tasered.

Manufacturer Taser International stresses that its device has never been directly blamed for a death, although it has been cited as a contributing factor in several cases.

EDITORIAL: Memos show officials stalled details of Dziekanski taser death

April 11, 2008
St. Catharines Standard

Internal documents from the Canadian Border Services Agency show it was more concerned about protecting its reputation than providing information about a Polish immigrant who died at Vancouver International Airport, last year.

The documents, obtained by CTV News, show significant co-operation between the airport, RCMP and border services officials in controlling the release of details following the Oct. 14, 2007 death of Robert Dziekanski.

"Hopefully things will be quiet on this until tomorrow AM," reads one document. "The material has been cleansed too much," reads another.

The documents show the federal agency and the Vancouver airport authority worked closely with the RCMP to ensure the three had their media messaging synchronized after an agitated Dziekanski died.

Two days after the death, the border agency came up with key messages for its spokesmen to deliver to the media - something called media lines. "The CBSA is co-operating fully with RCMP," was one line. "It would be inappropriate to comment on the case," was another. An e-mail dated Oct. 25 from CBSA communications states: "The RCMP are hoping to stay with the no comment line today."

It was six weeks before the border agency made any kind of comment on Dziekanski's death. In the immediate aftermath, reporters were directed to Ottawa. The policy appears to have raised concerns from one local manager with the agency who wrote: "Our silence is deafening and criticism of our failure to speak is mounting."

CTV contacted the Canadian Border Services Agency for a comment on the released documents but did not hear back.

RCMP now plan to release more taser data

April 11, 2008
The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — The RCMP has done an about-face and decided to release more information about Taser use two weeks after a wave of criticism over secrecy about the electronic stun guns.

Const. Pat Flood, an RCMP spokeswoman, said Thursday the force planned to disclose additional details of Taser firings in response to requests under the Access to Information Act.

But there were early indications the Mounties would continue to withhold crucial points, including injuries to people hit with Tasers and the exact dates the incidents occurred.

A release planned for late Thursday was delayed without explanation.

Liberal public safety critic Ujjal Dosanjh said he hoped the Mounties were taking extra time so they could prepare to make public even more details. But he expressed concern that would not happen. "They should have actually been releasing this information the whole time. They're now releasing more - that is very good. They are still not releasing enough."

The RCMP said Thursday the latest batch of data would contain details of injuries to officers, but not the burns, cuts and bruises suffered by people zapped with Tasers.

"We want to know how many people are being injured per year in the use of the Tasers. Tasers are a dangerous, serious weapon," Dosanjh said. "Canadians have a right to be able to judge for themselves whether or not the continuing use of Tasers is appropriate."

The RCMP, stung by criticism from MPs and human rights advocates, decided earlier this month to rethink stripping Taser reports of key information. Commissioner William Elliott ordered "a further review" of recently released copies of forms detailing use of the electronic weapons "to determine if additional information" should be disclosed.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day had sought and received assurances the RCMP would review the matter. The Mounties denied their hand was forced by the minister, saying they had already decided to take a second look at the Taser forms.

The controversy unfolded after a joint investigation by The Canadian Press and CBC found the Mounties had begun censoring basic elements that must be recorded each time officers draw their electronic weapons. The force no longer revealed whether Tasered people were armed or not, the precise dates of firings, and whether the device caused any injuries.

As a result, Canadians know much less about who is being hit with the contentious 50,000-volt guns and under what circumstances.

Advocates of more openness said the names and addresses of Tasered people are already struck from the forms, making further deletions unnecessary.

Another RCMP spokesman, Insp. Troy Lightfoot, has said internal analysis of Taser reports concluded the painful weapons were being used correctly.

Newspaper editorials and opposition critics and newspaper editorials said that amounts to a "just-trust-us" approach.

Last November a Canadian Press analysis of 563 cases between 2002 and 2005 found three in four suspects Tasered by the RCMP were unarmed. Several of those reports suggested a pattern of stun-gun use as a convenient means of keeping drunk or rowdy people in line, rather than to defuse major clashes. Twenty people in Canada have died soon after being Tasered.

Manufacturer Taser International stresses that its device has never been directly blamed for a death, although it has been cited as a contributing factor in several cases.

Tasers holstered - Regina police commission restricts use to SWAT team members

April 10, 2008
Heather Polischuk, The Leader-Post

Plans to have all officers outfitted with conducted energy devices (CEDs) by the end of this year have been shelved for the time being, after the devices were pulled from most Regina Police Service members in December.

"Back in October of last year, you recall that we began a program of training and equipping our frontline officers to carry CEDs, and that was the result of approval in principle by the Saskatchewan Police Commission," RPS spokeswoman Elizabeth Popowich said, referring to the body that regulates the province's municipal police forces. "But then we were notified in mid-December by the police commission that the final authorization wasn't complete. So as soon as we were notified, we took steps right away to remove CEDs from the frontline, pending that final approval from the police commission."

A spokesperson for the SPC was not available for comment on Wednesday.

Popowich said RPS administration put out a departmental notice on Dec. 19, advising that only certain members will continue to have access to Tasers -- the brand of CED used by the RPS -- in a limited number of circumstances. "Currently, the Regina Police Service has CEDs in use only by SWAT team members, and only in tactical situations, and that would have been the same type of deployment that was present before we started an expansion," Popowich said.

CED training has also been shelved for the time being.

The December notice came only a month after now-retired RPS chief Cal Johnston said that, contrary to some police forces in the country, the RPS would not suspend its use of Tasers, at least pending further study. He had been answering media questions in regards to a Vancouver case where a man died after being Tasered. Since then, several other uses of the now-controversial weapons have also led to death in Canada.

However, Johnston had noted the RPS has "one of the most conservative, I think, policies with respect to CEDs in the country."

In 2006, RPS members deployed a CED 11 times, and there were 21 uses in 2007 -- the number being higher likely because more members had been cleared to carry them, police said. Until the devices were pulled, they were only allowed to be signed out and used by members who had successfully completed specialized CED training. The RPS also has strict reporting requirements, Johnston had said, adding that EMS is called automatically anytime the device is used. No cases of Taser use in Regina have resulted in a serious medical problem, police reported.

Popowich said the SPC's lack of final authorization to date "is not saying that our training or our requirements were inadequate," but rather "a step in the authorization process that hasn't been reached yet. We've got a very productive and very strong relationship with the police commission and if there is something that needs to be added or something that needs to change, then those discussions will occur," she said. "If the police commission makes a decision that means that program and plan is on hold indefinitely, then we're completely respectful of that decision."

Mayor Pat Fiacco, chairman of Regina's Board of Police Commissioners, said he also supports the SPC in its regulatory role, noting the continued absence of a final decision may be in part due to public concerns about CED use. "I've learned in this job over the past eight years that sometimes these things take longer than one would expect," Fiacco said.

Even so, the mayor said the issue will remain firmly on his radar until the SPC delivers an answer. "The question we have to ask ourselves is: What is the downside of not having (Tasers) available?" Fiacco said. "We haven't experienced the downside as of yet. But we'll be into four or five months at the next Board of Police Commissioners meeting and I'll be raising the question with the acting chief of police."

Taser moratorium needed, committee told

April 5, 2008
Posted at Cameron Ward

Cameron Ward appeared before a House of Commons Committee Friday, urging it to recommend a moratorium on TASER use until rigorous independent scientific research has been conducted into the manufacturer's claims that the weapons do not kill people. Mr. Ward presented the committee with a list of the names of 336 North Americans who have died after being shocked by the TASER's 50,000 volt electrical output.

In response to a member's question, forensic pathologist Dr. John Butt confirmed that autopsies cannot detect the effect that TASER electricity may have on a human body.

Here is the summary of Mr. Ward's presentation:

For the reasons summarized below, I urge you to act in the public interest and make a recommendation that there be an immediate moratorium on the deployment of TASER weapons, so further unnecessary deaths like those of Robert Bagnell and Robert Dziekanski can be prevented.

According to media accounts, at least 336 North Americans have died since September 28, 1999 after being subjected to TASER shock(s). A copy of my list of these fatal incidents is enclosed. There have now been at least 20 reported deaths in Canada, including six here in the Province of British Columbia, with the most recent being that of Mr. Dziekanski on October 14, 2007 at Vancouver International Airport in Richmond.

TASER use is obviously very controversial. Police departments in Chicago, Illinois and Birmingham, Alabama have reportedly discontinued their use of the weapons due to safety concerns. Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference are some of the public interest advocacy groups that have been outspoken in their criticism of the weapons. However, the principal manufacturer, TASER International Inc. , has been very effective in persuading the law enforcement community that its products are safe, despite a significant body of evidence to the contrary .

Simply put, many people, including many experts, cannot accept that the deaths of at least 336 people after being subjected to the TASER’s 50,000 volt electrical output are purely coincidental. The manufacturer and many members of the law enforcement community have adopted the position that “excited delirium” causes the deaths, due to “psychiatric illness or the over use of street drugs, primarily methamphetamine or cocaine”, not the electrical trauma associated with the TASER. In my view, there simply has been insufficient independent research and study into these fatalities to reach any valid conclusions. If “excited delirium” is a “potentially fatal medical condition”, as the manufacturer asserts, one would expect that deaths would occur with similar frequency in incidents that did not involve law enforcement or in situations where TASER weapons had not been used. That is apparently not the case, as I have not yet seen any studies to that effect.

Although TASER International Inc. has commissioned some limited testing on animals, extensive independent testing of the lethality of the devices has apparently never been done in Canada, and was certainly not done before TASER weapons were first distributed to Canadian law enforcement personnel. Furthermore, although other electrical restraint devices like electric fences or cattle prods are subjected to Canadian Standards Association (CSA) testing and certification before distribution, the TASER weapons apparently are not.

You are undoubtedly aware of the TASER Technology Review Final Report prepared by members of the Victoria Police Department at the behest of the Police Complaint Commissioner of British Columbia. In my view, this report was clearly not independent as one of the principal authors, one Inspector Darren Laur, had earlier received payments and stock options from TASER International Inc. for his services to the company. The report failed to make the obvious recommendation, that is, that TASER use be discontinued until the health effects of the weapon are better understood.

There may be a place in the police use of force continuum for TASER technology. However, TASER use should be suspended until rigorous independent scientific research has been performed to properly assess the public safety risk. Unless that happens, more people will die like Mr. Dziekanski did, inexplicably and unnecessarily.

Public must demand responsible taser use

April 6, 2008
Paul Pearson, Special to Victoria Times Colonist

The debate about Taser use in Canada has grown exponentially in recent months. It seems that almost every week there is a news story about questionable use of a Taser by police, or, more tragically, someone dying as a result of being shot with a Taser.

It is becoming increasingly clear the Canadian public does not condone the use of the Taser as an "attitude adjustment" or as a street-level penalty for non-compliance.

The difficulty with these situations is that the public is often left with two very different stories: That of the police and that of person on the receiving end of the Taser.

A prime example of this was the tragedy of Robert Dziekanski's death immediately after being tasered in Vancouver International Airport. There were immediate and conflicting reports about what happened.

Only by providence was the entire incident caught on video by Paul Pritchard. The RCMP (after being sued) returned the video and the conflict about events was decisively resolved. Unfortunately for the RCMP, it was clear many of the details they had offered about the situation were simply false.

The debate is often presented as an incurable situation in which police demand to use a device they say is safer and more effective than other options, but where the public is alarmed by the increasing number of questionable Taser deployments.

In a perfect world there would be a simple, inexpensive and effective way to prevent improper Taser use and provide clarifying evidence like in the Dziekanski case if a complaint arises.

While we don't live in a perfect world, there does appear to be just such a solution.

It comes straight from Taser International, makers of the Taser. It is a golf-ball-sized digital video camera that attaches to the butt of a Taser weapon and records the officer's point of view in full video and audio when the weapon's safety is off. The camera costs only $400 and records up to 1.5 hours of good quality footage.

Taser International states that the "Taser Cam" offers "increased accountability -- not just for officers, but for the people they arrest. Until now, it's been the officer's word against the suspect's word. Now with the Taser Cam recorder, every potential Taser deployment can be documented with full audio and video -- even in zero light conditions."

If the police in Canada would only agree to mount this small device on their Tasers, two objectives would be met. If someone complained about the use of the Taser, any reviewing body could watch full audio and video of the target's actions before they were Tasered. Were they just being verbally abusive or were they violent and dangerous? Every time officers pulled their Taser and contemplated using it, they would know their actions would be recorded for review. Gone would be the days of the "attitude adjustment" use of the Taser.

Faced with the heavy criticism of their Taser use, how can any police force refuse to attach this camera to their Tasers? We should be very wary of someone who, while working as a public servant, wants to be able to use this kind of potentially lethal weapon "in private."

The public should demand these cameras be implemented immediately. They would help prevent, and immediately expose, abusive use of this formidable weapon.

Paul Pearson is a criminal defence lawyer who sued the RCMP for the return of the Dziekanski footage. He is a partner at Mulligan Tam Pearson.

Taser better than gun, mental health group says

April 4, 2008
The Canadian Press

People have died from being jolted by a police Taser but the shock device is better than lethal force, says a mental health advocacy group. John Gray, a board member with the B.C. Schizophrenia Society, told a Commons committee Friday that a decade ago his group urged police to find another way to subdue mentally ill people after two B.C. residents were killed by police. "If there is an elevated risk, we would like to choose the Taser over a gun,'' Gray said. "I have seen people volunteer to be Tasered, without apparent ill effects. I have never seen anyone volunteer to be shot by a gun.''

Gray's opinion was in sharp contrast to two others who appeared before the Commons committee on public safety during a fact-finding trip to the Vancouver International Airport, where Robert Dziekanski died last October after being hit with an RCMP Taser. The committee is studying the growing use of the weapons by police across the country.

Both the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and lawyer Cameron Ward, who has represented the families of those who have died after being shocked by police, urged MPs to call for a moratorium on Taser use until further study can be done.

The association's Murray Mollard said politicians need to ensure that the shock device doesn't pose a risk of harm to Canadians.

"Rather than a second-last option in the use-of-force spectrum, it has become a much earlier and, in some cases, a first option in the use of force,'' Mollard told the committee. "We think the public has been misled by police authorities.''

A time line presented to the committee by the Canada Border Services Agency showed RCMP at Vancouver's airport interacted with Dziekanski for just over a minute before he was jolted twice by a Taser and pinned to the ground. The dramatic video of the interaction between the Polish immigrant and Mounties before his death was captured by a passerby and circulated worldwide on the Internet and TV.

"Robert Dziekanski's tragic case was unique in only one respect,'' Ward told the committee. "It was unique in that the circumstances of his death were captured on videotape." Ward said 336 people have died in North America since September 1999 after being given a 50,000-volt shock died and many of them have died in the same way. "Most of the cases involved people who were not armed, people who were acting erratically and who were Tasered more than once," he said. "Many of them involve people who were Tasered in what is called by the manufacturer the dry-stun mode."

Dry stun is when the weapon is fired while placed against a person's body.

It's the same way RCMP outside Victoria twice shocked a handcuffed 15-year-old boy last month, including once in the chest, while he was in the back of a police cruiser.

"Before the Star Trek-type Taser, 50,000-volt weapon came on the scene police officers were able to subdue people who needed medical attention without having 336 of them drop dead inexplicably,'' Ward concluded. "We have to be wary of sophisticated, new technological solutions.''

When Tom Smith, chairman of Taser International Inc, testified before the committee in January he said he and his brother invented the Taser after two friends had been killed and they wondered why there wasn't a better way to stop someone without using lethal force. "We grew up watching Star Wars and Star Trek and asked why we couldn't make a non-lethal phaser,'' he said. "That's what led us to start the company."

The committee is one of more than a dozen investigations into Taser use prompted by Dziekanski's death, including an ongoing criminal investigation, an upcoming public inquiry and a coroner's inquest.

Steve Tuttle, Taser International's vice-president of communications, said in a terse news release Friday that Taser would take part in the investigations. "Taser International wishes to provide information to all inquests and inquiries in Canada and looks forward to the opportunity to assist in these matters."

- 30 -

Next thing you know, Taser International will be offering company shares and other incentives to the members of the committee, along with Canadian coroners and other officials in this country. A few years ago, my response to Mr. Tuttle would have been, "sorry, Mr. Arizona, that's not the way we do things here in Canada - pity, eh?" However, we now know that Taser International has padded the pockets of Canadian police officers, sponsored conferences at the Platinum level for Canadian police chiefs and paid travel and other expenses for a famously pro-taser Canadian coroner. It's insane - and far and away beyond unethical. If Taser International is ever allowed to "provide information to all inquests and inquiries in Canada," then so too should the following people, among others, be invited to "provide information":

Cameron Ward;

Amnesty International;

Civil Liberties Associations;

Allan Nakatsu, who tested the tasers used on my brother and found them to be extraordinarily more powerful than Taser International's specifications;

Dr. Ian Dawe, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto;

Researchers who have found that tasers cause ventricular fibrillation and worse;

the police officers who have been permanently injured;

Some journalists I know;

The owner of excited-delirium.com and me.

To the BC Schizophrenia Society's John Gray I say: your argument (we would like to choose the Taser over a gun) might have some merit if tasers were being used where lethal force (guns) would be the only option. Unfortunately, that is not the case at all. Tasers are being used where a gun would never, ever be considered justified in this country.

Mental health group says police use of a taser is far better than a gun

April 4, 2008
The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER - Mixed messages are being received by a Commons committee looking into use of Tasers by Canadian police. While some groups are urging a moratorium on Taser use, the Schizophrenia Society says the shock weapons are far preferred to a gun. The society's John Gray says has seen people volunteer to be jolted with a Taser, but hasn't heard of anyone volunteering to be shot by a gun.

But the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and lawyer Cameron Ward both called for a moratorium until more study can be done. Ward handed the committee a list of 336 people in North America who have died after being hit with Tasers - deaths that mostly involved people who weren't armed with a weapon, who had been acting erratically and who were shocked more than once.

The committee's investigation is one of more than a dozen launched after the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver's airport last October.

Overwhelmed cops rush to taser, watchdog says

April 4, 2008
Glenn Bohn, Vancouver Sun

VANCOUVER - The B.C. Civil Liberties Association says police officers are turning to high-voltage Taser guns because police departments are overwhelmed by problems with mentally ill people on the streets.

"The reality is that police are, in fact, put on the front lines to respond to these individuals," executive director Murray Mollard told a parliamentary committee Friday in Richmond. "No one else will. And we demand a heck of a lot of our police. That's why they deserve our respect and support."

Mollard pointed to a Vancouver police report, Lost in Transition, which reported that about 30 per cent of all city-wide calls to police involve people whom officers believe are suffering from poor mental health.

The February report pointed to a troubling trend: in 1999, there were 360 incidents when individuals were arrested in Vancouver under provisions of the Mental Health Act; last year, there were 1,744.

Mollard said beat cops in the Downtown Eastside used to have the time to talk to people and de-escalate potentially violent situations without using a Taser or gun.

"Are we demanding too much from our police, such that we are providing an incentive for them to respond too quickly and in ways that they use technology to get around age-old technologies to get around problems such as basic communication?" he said.

Mollard was one of the speakers at a House of Commons public safety and security committee inquiry into the use of Tasers in Canada. The committee held its second and last day of hearings Friday at Vancouver International Airport, where last October four RCMP officers responded to a report about a "very belligerent" passenger who threw a computer screen and terminal on the floor. Police zapped Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski with a Taser. His death was captured by a traveller's video camera and later posted on the Web, triggering expressions of shock and condemnation from around the world.

Online U.S. retailers are selling "not for export" Tasers, starting at $400 US.

The device is manufactured by Taser International Inc., an Arizona-based company that sells the weapon around the world, including to the RCMP and many municipal police departments in Canada.

More than 11,000 U.S. law enforcement agencies have Tasers. According to Amnesty International USA, more than 290 people have died in the U.S. after being Tasered.

This week, Taser International stocks climbed five per cent after it signed a deal to sell Tasers to consumers at Sports Authority, which has more than 200 stores in the U.S.

Lawyer Cameron Ward, who said Tasers are also being sold like Tupperware at events in private homes in the U.S., said he respects the dangerous work that police do.

"I don't pretend to minimize the risk of harm," Ward told the committee. "I simply say this: Before the Star Trek-type Taser 50,000-volt weapon came on the scene, police officers were able to subdue people who needed medical attention, without having 336 of them [worldwide] drop dead, inexplicably. We have to be, I think, wary, from a public safety standpoint, of sophisticated new technological solutions to old problems."

MP blasts slow pace of taser investigation

April 4, 2008
Petti Fong, Toronto Star

An exasperated MP lashed out at the RCMP yesterday, saying the force has provided few answers on Taser use and its role in the death of a Polish immigrant at Vancouver airport last fall.

Bloc Québécois MP Serge Ménard is part of a House of Commons committee studying the case. "I'm extremely disappointed with your presentation," said Ménard after hearing one of the province's top RCMP officers give a talk about policing in B.C. "We are here to find out information on what occurred Oct. 13 and not to learn about general RCMP operations. I would like us to get to the heart of the matter."

Ménard, who is part of the standing committee on public safety and national security, said he wanted to hear from the RCMP about what procedures were followed the night Robert Dziekanski was confronted by four officers. He died after a Taser gun was used on him.

"We would have liked to hear certain information from you so we can see whether the proper procedures were followed and where the fault lies," said Ménard.

But the RCMP presentation fell short of providing answers about what happened the night Dziekanski died. "I'm sorry you're disappointed," said acting commissioner Al Macintyre. "But there are processes we're obliged to follow, a criminal investigation has not been completed, there is a coroner's investigation and evidence will be given under oath."

Macintyre said there is more work to be done and an official cause of death for Dziekanski, 40, hasn't been released yet.

Dziekanski died after spending hours lost at the Vancouver International Airport, unable to connect with his mother.

MPs were also taken on a step-by-step re-enactment of the path Dziekanski would have followed after he stepped off his flight from Poland for the first time as an immigrant to Canada.

Macintyre said there are at least 13 investigations underway, including one from the criminal division to determine whether charges should be laid, as well as a coroner's inquest and a public inquiry.

Committee member and Liberal public safety critic Ujjal Dosanjh said there still hasn't been an answer to the pressing question of whether this kind of incident can happen again.

"There is some frustration here that there has been usage creep," he said. "We were persuaded that Tasers would be used sparingly."

Dates set for hearings in first of two probes of taser use in BC

April 3, 2008
The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER — A public inquiry into Taser use in British Columbia will get underway in May. Retired B.C. Appeal Court Justice Thomas Braidwood is heading up the probe and says three sessions over 14 days beginning May 5 in Vancouver.

The inquiry will have two phases - the first a "study" commission into the use of Tasers in B.C. by police forces other than the RCMP and the second specifically into Dziekanski's death. Submissions can be made in person or in writing at the inquiry into the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski after RCMP stunned him with a Taser at Vancouver International Airport last fall.

A criminal investigation into the incident is continuing and a separate coroner's inquest has been scheduled for May.

Braidwood's Taser review inquiry is expected to be finished by June 30 and then the commissioner will decide when the inquiry into Dziekanski's death will begin.

Politicians retrace Dziekanski's last steps

April 3, 2008
Glenn Bohn, Vancouver Sun

Eleven federal politicians today re-traced the steps that a Polish immigrant took at Vancouver International Airport last October before police zapped him with a high-voltage Taser and he died.

Officials with the Canada Border Services Agency and the airport authority gave MPs from the Parliament's public safety and national security a rare tour of high-security areas.

The tour started at the point at which Robert Dziekanski stepped of a plane from Germany.

It ended at the point where the newly approved immigrant threw a computer screen and keyboard on the floor, prompting an RCMP response and his ultimate death, perhaps 10 metres away from the exterior door where arriving passengers leave the terminal to grab a cab.

Vancouver South MP Ujjal Dosanjh said after the tour that freak accidents happen and can't always be prevented, but the ultimate question is whether the customer service changes since introduced at YVR would have prevented the RCMP from deciding they had to use force - the Taser.

Asked how he would answer his own question, the former B.C. attorney-general and provincial premier replied: "There's been so much evidence about the usage creep that's happened with respect to the Tazer ... It seems to me, unfortunately, that the RCMP is beginning to use the Taser as a weapon of choice, rather than the weapon they might use under exceptional circumstances."

House of Commons committee meets on taser issue at Vancouver airport

April 3, 2008
The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER — The vice-president of corporate security at Vancouver International Airport says it may never be known what Robert Dziekanski was doing for several hours inside the customs area before he was jolted by an RCMP Taser and died.

Michael O'Brien made his comment Thursday before a House of Commons committee in the midst of a two-days fact-finding mission on the Taser issue.

O'Brien says Dziekanski's whereabouts are not known for some five hours because he was not seen on airport cameras.

MPs from the Commons committee took the same walk Dziekanski would have after arriving on a flight from Poland last October.

Vancouver airport and Canada Border Services Agency officials led the public safety committee from the deceased's airline exit point to the spot where he died in an attempt to help the committee understand the events.

In addition to the committee's inquiries, a public inquiry has been announced, a criminal investigation is ongoing and a coroner's inquest has been called.

Commons committee meetings on taser use closed to public

April 3, 2008
CBC News

Members of Parliament will hold closed-door meetings Thursday with RCMP, border and airport officials on the use of electronic stun guns in Canada, prompting some to question the need for secrecy.

The House of Commons committee on public safety and national security is holding two days of meetings at Vancouver International Airport, where Robert Dziekanski died after RCMP stunned him with a Taser last October.

The public safety committee is studying the growing use of Tasers in Canada, where more than 6,800 officers are armed with the stun guns, and investigating the events surrounding Dziekanski's death. A committee report will be provided to the House.

Committee member and Liberal public safety critic Ujjal Dosanjh told CBC News he was surprised to learn the briefings would not be open to the public.

"These kinds of hearings where the RCMP tells us how they interact with the [Canadian Border Services Agency] and vice versa, how the airport authority manages these issues, they should all be public unless they can justify talking to us behind closed doors," said Dosanjh.

He said he plans to lobby other committee members to open up Thursday's discussions.

Representatives from the RCMP, Vancouver Airport Authority and Canada Border Services Agency are all scheduled to give private briefings to committee members, who last November voted unanimously in favour of the probe.

Public forum to follow

The committee clerk said the meetings — which will not be tape recorded but documented using notes taken by committee staff — were organized privately as a courtesy to participants. A public forum scheduled for Friday will feature presentations from Taser critics, the clerk said.

The decision to hold private meetings was decided by the committee in advance, according to Conservative member Gary Breitkreuz, who said he was limited on what he could comment on.

The decision to hold the meetings behind closed doors will not do much to instil public confidence in the use of Tasers, said the committee's vice-chair New Democrat Penny Priddy.

"That there won't be information about it, or that it is all in camera, I think simply raises more questions in the minds of people who are already questioning their use."

She said the witnesses scheduled for Thursday are all accustomed to presenting to committees and shouldn't have a problem addressing an audience.

The Vancouver Airport Authority and CBSA said they didn't ask to exclude the public from the meetings, but aren't planning on sharing any information that hasn't already been made public.

The RCMP has not responded to questions about its role in the committee briefings. Assistant commissioner Al Macintyre is one of several people scheduled to provide a private brief.

Witnesses who appear before parliamentary committees testify under oath, although their words can't be used against them in other legal proceedings.

The committee probe is one of several into Taser use in Canada, which include:

The B.C. public inquiry.
A review by the RCMP watchdog.
An internal RCMP investigation.
An internal report expected Friday from the Canada Border Services Agency.
A review of Tasers by Nova Scotia in the wake of a death there.
A review of Taser use by police in Manitoba.

House of Commons committee "witnesses"

Canada's House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security is reviewing the use of tasers in Canada. To date, five meetings have been held (that we know of). With the exception of the two individuals from the University of Montreal, the list of witnesses who have appeared before the committee reads like a "Who's Who" of taser and "excited delirium" proponents:

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

John C. Butt, Consultant, Pathfinder Forum

Christine Alison Hall, Emergency Department Physician

Bernard Lapierre, Ethicist, philosopher and lecturer, École Polytechnique, U of Montreal (not a proponent)

Pierre Savard, Professor, École Polytechnique, U of Montreal (not a proponent)

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Commission for Public Complaints Against the Royal Canadian Mounted Police - Paul E. Kennedy, Chair and Michael P. MacDonald, Director, Strategic Policy and Research

Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner of British Columbia - Dirk Ryneveld, Commissioner

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Toronto Police Service - Michael Federico, Senior Officer, Staff Superintendent, Staff Planning and Community Mobilization

Toronto Police Services Board - Alok Mukherjee, Chair

Monday, February 25, 2008

Royal Canadian Mounted Police -

Richard Groulx, Sergeant, Tactical Training Section
Darrell LaFosse, Assistant Commissioner, Community, Contract and Aboriginal Policing Services
Troy Lightfoot, Inspector, Officer in Charge, Operational Program
Bruce Stuart, National Use of Force Coordinator, National Use of Force Program, Community, Contract and Aboriginal Policing Services

Vancouver Police Department - Joel Johnston, Staff Sergeant, British Columbia Use of Force Coordinator

Ontario Police College - Chris Lawrence, Instructor

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Canadian Police Research Centre - Steve Palmer, Executive Director

Taser International Inc. - Tom Smith, Chairman

Reassure me I won't be tasered

April 3, 2008
Joey Slinger, Toronto Star

The Canadian Press reports that according to Insp. Troy Lightfoot, an RCMP Taser expert, "the majority of cases he's studied have shown Tasers were used appropriately."

The Star quotes Toronto police spokesperson Mark Pugash as saying that while the city's officers have clear guidelines on Taser use, people are entitled to ask whether the policies and procedures are being followed. "The answer is overwhelmingly – yes."

They apparently think we should find what they say reassuring. Considering how frequently Tasers are used, however, "majority" and "overwhelmingly" leave an awful lot of room in which people – respectful, law-abiding citizens – are entitled to feel scared spitless.

And unless Toronto's Chief Bill Blair and his force can come up with evidence that officers use the weapon more responsibly than it sometimes appears (and our perceptions definitely count here), they are going to erode the one thing that is absolutely – absolutely – essential to their operations: our trust.

Based on a variety of incidents, the following scenario becomes appallingly possible.

The cop says I've been speeding.

To show how much I disagree, I throw my hands skyward and say something like "Jesus Christ Almighty!"

As I lower my arms, I step toward the officer so we can speak in normal tones. He concludes that I'm about to attack him, pulls his Taser, and zaps me.

The cop's action is in keeping with the policies and procedures of the Toronto department. He possessed, in the words Superior Court of Ontario Justice David Brown used in a recent case, "the honest subjective belief that he was about to be assaulted."

(The judge heard not only that the department approves using Tasers in "assaultive" situations, but that what's "assaultive" is a matter of the officer's professional opinion. Wouldn't it take a pretty dopey cop not to argue successfully that it looked like I was going to hammer him?)

You need to understand that, more than anything else, a cop wants to finish his, or her, shift safely and go home and have dinner and watch CSI the same as everybody else. With the Taser, they've been given a useful, convenient (relatively safe?) tool that makes sure they won't come to any harm at all, that their hair won't even get mussed. Why take chances?

When we believe a cop has misunderstood the circumstances and is treating us unfairly, what will we do if we're afraid he'll zap us for speaking up for ourselves?

Are we going to respect an officer as an employee of the democratic system we support because he is an employee of the system, and we support it? Or are we going to respect him because we're terrified of what he'll do to us if he simply decides we're too twitchy?

The RCMP's Lightfoot says, "I can tell you there are many accountability systems in place with regards to police actions. You have the courts, you have coroners' inquests, you have a multitude of oversight bodies. There is a complaints process that can be followed."

We all know what complaining about the Mounties gets you. And try not to think about those coroners' inquests.

Just think about accountability. Accountability comes after the fact!

I don't want accountability. I want assurance ahead of time. I want a guarantee – and it's not a perfect world, but at least as much as the guarantee that I won't get drilled with a 9-mm round from the cop's Glock – that I won't get Tasered for acting the way a law-abiding human being might understandably act.

As things stand, I'm not confident I have that guarantee. If you don't feel just as vulnerable, you're fooling yourself.

Taser moratorium urged by lawyer

April 3, 2008
Richard Watts and Louise Dickson, Canwest News Service

VICTORIA - Police should be prohibited from using Tasers until clear rules are in place governing their use, a leading civil liberties lawyer said Wednesday.

"The solicitor-general should issue a moratorium on the use of Tasers until official policies or training are in place," Jason Gratl, president of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, said in a telephone interview. In the absence of any policy, "the weapon has become a lawless instrument of coercion."

Gratl was speaking on an incident reported Wednesday in which several West Shore RCMP officers handcuffed a 135-pound, 15-year-old boy and then Tasered him at least twice. The boy told his mother and lawyer that the Taser-inflicting officer laughed after administering the electric shock.

An incident report from police confirms the Tasering was done in the handheld "touch" mode, where the electrical terminals of the device touch the subject, and not by firing the instrument's darts. But the report also says the boy was resisting. Even after he was placed in the rear seat of a squad car, the boy kicked at the window and door hard enough to rock the car, the report added.

The boy, who is known to police, was arrested March 21 for being out past his 9 p.m. curfew. The court had imposed the curfew as one condition of his interim release while the boy awaits trial on a mischief charge. The acting solicitor-general, John van Dongen, was not available for comment. The use of Tasers has become especially controversial since the Oct. 14 death of Robert Dziekanski. Mounties at the Vancouver International Airport Tasered Dziekanski, a 40-year-old Polish immigrant, in an incident captured in video on a bystander's cellphone. Dziekanski died shortly afterwards.

Victoria interim police Chief Bill Naughton, who co-wrote a Tasers report, said people are under the misconception that a person who is handcuffed is under control and somehow incapable of causing injury. "And that's not the case," Naughton said.

RCMP accused of misusing taser on BC teen

April 3, 2008
CBC News

An RCMP detachment in a suburb of Victoria, B.C., is being accused of misusing a Taser stun gun on a 15-year-old boy who was being arrested for disobeying a court-ordered curfew for a mischief charge.

The boy was combative while being arrested and he was shocked at least two times, once in the leg and once in the chest, according to a West Shore RCMP report about the March 21 incident.

"The conducted energy weapon was deployed because the individual was combative and kicking at the officers, and it was important for officer safety to control that individual," RCMP spokeswoman Tasha Adams told CBC News Wednesday.

The report said the boy was attempting to wriggle out of a police car when an officer fired a Taser shot into his leg. Shortly after, the boy began kicking the police-car door from the inside and the officer decided to use the Taser again, on the boy's chest, the report says.

The boy's mother admits her son is no angel, has anger issues and has been in trouble with the law. "He yells and he screams a lot. He's voracious when he's in an angry state. He's damaged property at home," the mother said. But using the Taser on the boy was an overreaction and the RCMP had other options, the mother said. Her name cannot be used to protect the identity of her son, who cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. "If the kid was kicking up that much of a fuss, could you not have cuffed his feet to prevent him from kicking? Did you have to use such force?" she said.

Tom Morino, the boy's lawyer who saw the marks on his body, said this is clear abuse of the Taser. "[He's a] 15-year-old boy, who is 135 lbs. His hands are handcuffed behind his back. There are several officers present. How could they possibly justify Tasering him twice?" Morino said. It's also wrong for the RCMP to use a Taser on his client for "attitude adjustment," Morino said. "We really, as the public, ought to be concerned about the type of force that is used [by police] and we really ought to be ensuring there is sufficient civil oversight so that this isn't used in an indiscriminate fashion."

Morino said he advised his client to file a formal complaint but the boy said he's reluctant because he fears retribution from police.

West Shore RCMP said the teen is not being charged with resisting arrest or damage to the police vehicle. There'll be no formal investigation into whether the Taser was improperly used in this case other than the standard review that is always done whenever a police weapon is deployed.

California man on life support after being being tasered at jail

UPDATE: April 22, 2008 - A pathologist hired by the family of Jason Jesus Gomez, 35, of Anaheim, has tentatively concluded that he was killed by blunt force trauma to the head, and not by the electrical charge from a stun gun, said the family's attorney, Stephen Bernard. "The bottom line is he was beaten to death," said Bernard.

UPDATE: April 2, 2008 - After being in a coma for a week, Inmate dies after deputies' restraint

Earlier today:

SANTA ANA, Calif. -- The Orange County District Attorney's Office is investigating a struggle between sheriff's deputies and an inmate who is now on life-support and not expected to live a normal life, even if he recovers.

Construction worker Jason Jesus Gomez, 35, of Anaheim, went into a coma after being restrained and stunned with a Taser in a scuffle with deputies at the Orange County jail's Intake-Release Center March 25.

If he survives, he will probably remain in a permanent vegetative state, sources told the Los Angeles Times.

Duke Energy coal plant protesters arrested, shocked with tasers

April 2, 2008
The Institute for Southern Studies

Eight people were arrested yesterday during a protest at the construction site for North Carolina-based Duke Energy's new Cliffside coal-fired power plant west of Charlotte. Two of those arrested were first shocked with Taser guns after locking themselves to bulldozers. The protesters were charged with trespassing and resisting arrest.

Click on the title of this post to read the rest.

Shock to the heart

April 2, 2008
Peter Gorman, Fort Worth Weekly

A Fort Worth man says nearly a full minute of jolts from a police Taser have left him permanently — and perhaps fatally — damaged.

When this story went to press, Steve Steen was still alive. But with a heart that’s functioning at roughly 10 percent of normal capacity, he’s barely hanging onto life these days. Steen and several doctors blame his condition on his having been blasted with a Taser for nearly a full, continuous minute by a Fort Worth police officer two years ago.

“It was my fault,” said Steen. “I’m a criminal. I had drugs. But I shouldn’t have had to endure torture like that.”

Steen, now 55, was a methamphetamine user, a problem he lived with, off and on, for 30 years. During 20 of those years he worked as a mechanic at Fort Worth’s Reynolds Auto Service. When the shop was sold after the death of its owner in 1990, he opened his own shop on 28th Street. When that closed four years later, he went to work in construction, most recently as a trim carpenter.

His recurring drug problems led to two convictions over the years — one in 1991 for possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and an associated felony conviction for possession. In the possession case, the conviction was dismissed under Texas’ deferred adjudication law, after he completed four years’ probation. In the intent-to-deliver case, he pleaded guilty and avoided jail time.

But in the wee hours of June 24, 2005, his drug habit got him into the worst trouble of his life. Returning to his home in the Riverside area after a drug buy, he’d just turned onto Chenault Street when a police car’s lights appeared in his mirror. Steen stopped his car, but, thinking he was being pulled over for the meth he’d just purchased, he panicked and tried to eat the little baggie.

“When the officer came up he ordered me out of the car,” Steen recalled. “Then he ordered me to spit out what I had in my mouth. I didn’t do it because I was scared. I didn’t want to get caught with drugs.”

According to the report filed by Fort Worth Police Officer Jose Palomares, Steen was not stopped for drugs, but for failing to signal his turn in time. Palomares wrote that he noticed Steen chewing on a baggie that had white powder in it that he “believed to be methamphetamine” and asked him to step from his car and open his mouth. He told Steen he was under arrest for possession of a controlled substance. Palomares’ report said that Steen then pushed him and his partner, Officer Thomas Loffland.

Loffland, a large man, put Steen on the ground, but he continued to resist being handcuffed and wrestled with the officers, Palomares wrote. Palomares then unholstered his department-issued Taser and placed the weapon on Steen’s back. The first jolt from the 50,000-volt weapon lasted 10 seconds. Steen said he remembered his body locking up so that he couldn’t have spit out the baggie if he’d wanted to. Less than a minute later Palomares reported, he shocked him again for another 14 seconds, this time with the Taser on the back of Steen’s neck. And then, moments later, he jolted him again for 5 seconds. Steen says the baggie came out sometime during the third jolt.

Palomares’ report notes that he used the Taser a total of four or five times. But in fact, a download of the discharge record automatically made by his Taser — and obtained by Fort Worth Weekly under the state’s open records law — shows that Steen was shocked 10 times. The record also shows that, beginning with the second jolt, Steen was being shocked for 55 of the next 66 seconds. In all he was tasered for 65 seconds in just over two minutes.

“I don’t know why he kept shooting me after I managed to get that baggie out,” Steen said recently. “He might have thought I was resisting, but I was just flopping around on the ground, having all that electricity go through me.”

At least five people died after being tasered multiple times by Fort Worth police between 2005 and 2007, prompting the department to change its rules regarding Taser use. The weapon now is supposed to be used only when suspects offer “active resistance,” although the definition of active resistance is pretty broad.

In Steen’s case, police called paramedics, who reported that Steen’s chief physical problem was trauma caused by “electrocution.” According to MedStar paramedic Chris Briggs’ report, Steen was suffering from chest, scalp, back, and lung injuries and was “unable to sit, stand, or walk: secondary to Taser.” He had to be lifted onto the stretcher to be placed in the ambulance.

Despite that assessment, when Steen was received at John Peter Smith hospital, he was treated only for abrasions of his left elbow and forehead, described in the JPS report as “minor.” He was held several hours, then released to police custody. He spent a day in jail before he made bail.

After that, “he was different,” said Deborah Cain, who’s lived with Steen for nearly eight years. “For a while when he came home he tried to act normal, but he wasn’t the same man. I mean, he was carrying doors up and down stairs before this happened, and then he just began deteriorating to the point where he could hardly walk.”

Doctors eventually determined that Steen had had a massive coronary that night. The heart attack and subsequent lack of treatment have left him with only 10 percent heart function — not enough to keep his lungs working properly, so that he has to be on oxygen for a large part of each day.

In a letter to Steen’s lawyer, Dr. A. J. Morris described Steen as a “cardiac cripple” due to “the obvious assault and multiple tasering during his arrest,” which “resulted in an acute myocardial infarction.”

“This man was healthy and working before this happened,” Morris told the Weekly, “and now he’s got 10 percent heart function. It’s amazing he’s still alive. Now I can’t prove medically that the Taser did it, but it’s ... not a difficult deduction. And then he was basically not treated at JPS when he was brought in having been electrocuted. They just wanted him out of there.”

Steen was charged with felony possession of methamphetamines. Last November, in an agreement with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to time already served — that is, his one day in jail.

Steen’s attorney Danny Burns said they had been ready to go to trial on the drug charge, when prosecutors acknowledged that Palomares had previously gotten in trouble for “writing misleading police reports.” Shortly after that, Burns said, prosecutors offered the plea, “and Steve Steen thought it better to take the time served.”

A police spokesman said Palomares is still with the department but — remarkable, considering his past problems with misleading reports — is now working as a crime scene officer.

Steen is not doing well. On a recent visit to the well-kept, modest home he shares with Cain, he appeared shorter than his police-listed height of 6 feet, 1 inch, and certainly lighter than the 190 pounds he weighed at his arrest. He moves slowly, his eyes nearly closed. His hands are still thick, though, the sign of a working man. “I wish I could still work,” he said. “I hate just sitting around the house, not being able to do anything.”

According to Cain, he has his good days and his bad days. “His good days, he gets up and dressed and can go to the yard. His bad days, he stays on oxygen nearly all the time,” she said.

Steen “is a walking dead man,” Morris said. “He might outlive me, of course, but I wouldn’t bet on it.”

BC RCMP tasered teen in handcuffs

April 2, 2008
Richard Watts, Victoria Times Colonist

West Shore RCMP officers twice used a Taser on a handcuffed 15-year-old boy while he sat in the back seat of their cruiser after being arrested for violating his curfew last month.

Lawyer Tom Morino, who is representing the teen, said his client told him one officer acted like it was a joke and even laughed. Although Morino admits the teen has anger problems, he argues there was no need to use the electro-shock device on him, given his slight build -- he weighs 135 pounds and is five-foot-10 -- and that he was already cuffed and in the cruiser. "You have to be a blind fool not to believe many police are using the Taser as an attitude-adjustment device," Morino said yesterday.

The Youth Criminal Justice Act forbids identification of the teen, who is awaiting trial on a mischief charge.

The teen is known to police and child welfare authorities and clearly has an anger issue, Morino said. He is living with his grandmother after social workers demanded he be removed from the family home out of fear for the safety of his younger sisters.

"But that does not justify this approach of 'Gee, I think you're going to be a jerk so I think I'm going to Taser you in anticipation,' " he said.

The boy was arrested on March 21 for being out past a 9 p.m. court-imposed curfew. The curfew was a condition of an interim release while the boy awaits a court appearance on a mischief charge.

It's not known how many officers took part in the arrest, but it was at least two, according to various statements. A police report about the incident, obtained by Morino after his client told him of the Taser, confirms the boy was in handcuffs before the device was used.

According to the report, the officers were trying to get the teen into the backseat of the cruiser when the boy "started to lift his legs as if he was going to kick." As he "was making an attempt to wiggle out of the car," an officer tasered him on the leg.

The report says pepper spray "was not a suitable tool" at the time because the boy was lying face down on the back seat. The Mounties got the teen into the car, but he lay "on his back and began kicking the right back door and window hard enough the car was shaking." So an officer opened the back door where the teen's head was and tasered him again, on the chest.

The report mentions two small burn marks on his chest, which a police officer told the teen were from a Taser and would heal. The teen, meanwhile, did not even recall being shot with a Taser, said the report.

West Shore Const. Tasha Adams confirmed the conductive energy device was used twice after the boy was handcuffed. But Adams said there will be no investigation outside the normal review process that accompanies use of the device and the ongoing investigation into the arrest. She said the boy was being combative and kicking the officers who had some safety concerns as they tried to get him in a car.

Adams also said she couldn't comment on the accusations the officers laughed after they applied the device. "But I would suggest when an individual is being combative with officers, there is not much time for laughing."

The teen's mother, whose name must also be kept confidential to protect the name of the boy, said her son spoke of officers laughing. She raised concerns about her son's safety that night as he was high on amphetamines when he was arrested and tasered.

"They are lucky they didn't kill him because he was on E (ecstasy) that night and he told me it felt like his heart was going to come right out of his chest," said the woman. She agreed her son has problems with anger. But if his behaviour warranted the use of the Taser, she questioned why he wasn't charged with resisting arrest or damaging property. The mother has not filed an official complaint thus far.

RCMP overuse of tasers concerns officials

April 2, 2008
Richard Watts and Rob Shaw, Victoria Times Colonist

Civilian officials charged with overseeing the RCMP have long held strong concerns about Tasers and their expanding use by police. Nelson Kalil, spokesman for the Ottawa-based Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, said they're worried about "usage creep" within the force.

He said officers appear to sometimes use the weapon to enforce control of a suspect or prod someone along, as opposed to using it as a near-to-last resort option to bring a suspect under control. "You can see how this weapon is being downgraded over time," Kalil said yesterday.

In a presentation last month to the federal government committee on public safety and national security, commission chairman Paul Kennedy said the use of Tasers should be restricted to incidents where the individual is combative or poses a serious risk of death or harm.

"I want to be very clear, the Taser is a pain-inducing weapon, where application on the human body, unlike a service handgun or baton, leaves very little residual evidence of use," Kennedy told the committee. "This device causes intense pain."

The Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, which answers directly to Parliament, will release a final report in June, recommending how and when officers use the electro-shock device.

In general, most police forces train their officers to use reasonable force to subdue a person -- however, they aren't expected to try out all their options before using a Taser. The National Use of Force Framework, used as a training tool in municipal police forces -- the RCMP has its own similar guidelines -- does not bind officers to think about types of force in sequential order, said Const. Mike Niederlinski, Victoria police control tactics co-ordinator.

For example, police don't have to try and fail to subdue the person by tackling or striking them, or using pepper spray, a baton or a bean-bag gun, before turning to the Taser or handgun.

"It's not a linear model where you have to exhaust each step," said Niederlinski. "What courts expect us to do is what a reasonable, well-trained, officer would do in a similar set of circumstances."

"There's no obligation under law to use minimum force, there's an obligation to use reasonable force," said Joel Johnson, B.C.'s police use of force co-ordinator at the Justice Institute police academy in Vancouver. "There is an ethical obligation to try and resolve things without having to use force."

Johnson said that the reality of many situations, though, is based on the suspect's response to the officer. "Unfortunately, there are some people, no matter what you say and no matter who says it, who are going to cause an escalation in officer response based on their behaviour."

Quebec Public Safety Minister opposes taser moratorium

April 2, 2008
Kevin Dougherty, The Montreal Gazette

Public Security Minister Jacques Dupuis opposes a Parti Québécois proposal for a moratorium on the use of Taser stun guns. Dupuis said yesterday Tasers are already more strictly controlled in Quebec than in other provinces. "In Quebec, the use of Taser guns is limited to the most experienced police officers in the most dangerous situations," the minister said. He added the Sûreté du Québec provincial police have 24 Tasers and use is restricted to the SQ tactical squad "who act only in the most dangerous cases." Dupuis said the Taser may only be used when a citizen refuses to obey a police officer, places the officer's life, his own life or other lives in danger.

The deaths of two men who were tasered are still under investigation. Quilem Registre, 39, died in Montreal last October, and Claudio Castagnetta, 32, died in Quebec City last September.

The PQ proposed a motion yesterday calling for a moratorium on Taser use, pending assembly hearings on the issue. Jacques Côté, the PQ member who made the proposal, said Dupuis's first public position on Taser use has not clarified the issue. "He says the use of this weapon is safe, controlled and without danger, but he can't prove it," Côté said.

If the Action démocratique du Québec joins the PQ in voting for the motion, the government would be bound by an assembly motion. Yesterday, ADQ leader Mario Dumont was non-committal. "We will give it a close look," he said.

Kansas man dies after being tasered

Walter E. Haake, 59, unarmed, died on Sunday, March 30th - he was tasered THREE TIMES because he wouldn't step out of his car.

Language help came too late for taser victim

March 30, 2008
The Canadian Press

OTTAWA -- A border services officer who spoke a few words of Robert Dziekanski's native tongue may have come within minutes of helping avert the Polish immigrant's death, newly released documents show.

Dziekanski died in the wee hours of Oct. 14 after the RCMP zapped the 40-year-old with a Taser and pinned him to the floor of the Vancouver International Airport.

Police fired the stun gun less than 30 seconds after arriving on the scene of a sweaty, agitated Dziekanski tossing furniture in frustration following more than nine hours in the airport.

Internal documents and accompanying security camera video of Dziekanski provide fresh glimpses into the confusing sequence of events that led up to the tragedy.

Citing ongoing investigations into Dziekanski's death, the Canada Border Services Agency declined to be interviewed about what happened at the airport or to make employees who were present that night available for comment.

But the records, obtained from the CBSA by The Canadian Press and CBC under the Access to Information Act, help flesh out a series of encounters with several border staffers.

On the video, Dziekanski at first resembles any other first-time visitor to a foreign country. He can be seen calmly pulling his rollaway luggage through airport corridors -- a striking contrast with the turmoil that would soon ensue.

Officer's recollection

Border Services officer Adam Chapin was called upon to help Dziekanski about 90 minutes before the shooting as the befuddled newcomer, who spoke almost no English, tried to navigate his way through a maze of airport procedures.

"The client appeared dishevelled, his hair was uncombed and his shirt was untucked,'' Chapin wrote in a two-page account of his dealings with the Polish man.

Dziekanski had already spent several hours in the CBSA's arrival hall. He was unaware that his mother Sofia, who had travelled from Kamloops, could not enter the secure area to greet him.

She returned home after being unable to find her son.

Dziekanski eventually continued on through customs and to an immigration desk so his landing documents could be processed.

His dream of reuniting with family in a vast and mysterious country he had only read about appeared a step closer.

A phone message was left for his family in Kamloops, and there was a check of the public area to see if anyone was waiting for him. No interpreter was available. Chapin, who spoke a bit of Polish, helped a fellow officer approve Dziekanski's documents.

A short time later Chapin was handling passengers arriving from Mexico when he noticed Dziekanski sitting down. He approached the bewildered passenger and offered some help.

"I again explained to the subject that he was done and he could go. He said, `OK, good' (in Polish).''

Chapin noted that Dziekanski "did stumble at one point but was able to steady himself'' with his luggage cart and walk the remaining steps to the final customs checkpoint without difficulty.

He then helped the Polish man find his declaration card, which he had tucked inside a bag, and coded the card accordingly.

"I wished the subject goodnight and he wished me goodnight and said thank you,'' Chapin recalled.

"The client never exhibited any hostile or angry behaviour while I or any other officer dealt with him. The client was thankful for the help.''

Just after 2 a.m., Chapin was packing up for the night when he answered a call from Dziekanski's mother, looking for Robert from Poland. He assured Sofia he knew her son, that he was about to leave, and would look for him on the way out.

"I told her that if I did find him I would bring him to the immigration office so that he could call her back.''

Chapin began combing through the airport welcoming hall. When he saw no sign of him, he approached a Mountie.

"I told him I was trying to pass on a message. The RCMP officer then took me inside to get some details.

"It is at this point that I observed the subject on the floor by the visitors' booth being attended to by paramedics."

About 30 seconds later, they pronounced Dziekanski dead, Chapin wrote.

"I then assisted the RCMP in locating his documents from the subject's bags.''

An account prepared by the evening's acting superintendent said Dziekanski was "assisted beyond the normal level of client processing.''

He was given five or six glasses of water. His luggage was retrieved for him. Staff helped find his documents. Numerous attempts were made to contact his family. He was assisted to the exit. And once his family reached staff by phone, there was an effort to locate him.

CBSA review

In November, the CBSA announced several steps including a review of services to international travellers, installation of more cameras in the agency's area of the Vancouver airport, consideration of additional patrols and security checks, and changes to ensure people report for secondary examination within a reasonable time.

Walter Kosteckyj, a lawyer for the Dziekanski family, says the agency's efforts lacked overall co-ordination.

"Clearly here was a guy that was totally lost and no one decided to track someone down that could actually help him,'' Kosteckyj said.

"How is it that when you let a guy go, finally, and he is clearly lost and doesn't want to leave that there is no one you can turn him over to?

"There is nowhere to turn over a lost soul, because that is what he was.''

After speaking with Chapin, the RCMP did not call Dziekanski's mother to relay the awful news.

She returned to the Vancouver airport from Kamloops late the next morning. Upon hearing of Robert's death, she fell to the floor and cried.

Kosteckyj says the RCMP didn't tell her the whole story. She went back to Kamloops not knowing how her son died, later learning of the Taser shock from a television report.

Kosteckyj says five months after the terrible psychological blow, Sofia is not doing well.

"She is unable to work. And it appears from everything that I have seen so far, that it's very unlikely that she is going to recover.''

Man dies in Indiana after police use taser on him

March 29, 2008

Henry O. Bryant, 35, unarmed

EDITORIAL: Trusting the use of tasers

March 28, 2008
Barrie Examiner

Whether Canadian police officers should have Tasers or not isn't the issue. The issue is how they are used. This question came to a head last year when a Polish man died after a Taser was used on him at Vancouver airport. A partial video of this incident convinced many Canadians that using a Taser was not required in this situation.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have since been criticized for removing details about Taser firings from their public reports - due to what has become an on-going controversy. Ontario Provincial Police say a report is filed every time a Taser is fired by an officer, but OPP won't release any statistics because they say it's an operational issue.

So the police, or at least the OPP and Mounties, aren't helping their cause by being secretive, even obstructive, about Taser use. And the public perception is that if it appears efforts are being made to hide information, then it is being hidden for a reason.

In this case, that reason would appear to be that the police don't want the public to know about how officers use their Tasers. But reality and perception are often different, and our police often have a way of keeping certain information close to the vest - even though releasing it would do them no harm.

It's also instructive to look at the Taser situation from a police perspective. When the Taser was introduced by police about four years ago, the explanation was that it would be used when a less-than-lethal dose of force is required. Police said (and presumably still say) that Tasers work better than pepper spray and/or police batons.

Suspects who are combative, emotionally disturbed or have been using alcohol or illegal drugs are examples of persons police may use Tasers against. The idea is that not only is using a Taser safer for police officers and any other nearby civilians during an incident, but safer for the suspect, as well.

A Taser fires two probes, attached by wires to a hand-held unit, which sends out a current that overpowers the body's normal electrical signals. This over-rides the central nervous system and causes an involuntary muscle contraction, causing the suspect to collapse.

Police say that in 95 per cent of cases, the suspect is incapacitated and on the ground in one second.

The Taser isn't supposed to cause heart problems or pacemaker failure, nerve or muscle damage. But there can be minor skin irritation, temporary blisters, redness or even minor bleeding, if the probes puncture skin. It is, however, a weapon for police. It is not unlike a gun, a baton or pepper spray. And as Barrie Police Chief Wayne Frechette says, "no weapon is without risk."

Like other police weapons, questions surround when it should be used. And it's an old question with police; just what is sufficient force during an arrest or to ensure public safety? There are always questions when a police weapon is used, especially a gun. And there always should be. If our police are to have weapons like Tasers, doesn't the public need to trust that officers will use them appropriately? Otherwise, take them away.

Toronto cops back tasers

March 28, 2008
IAN ROBERTSON, SUN MEDIA

Tasers are a safe, less deadly way to deal with violent suspects, a Toronto police union official told commissioners after opponents yesterday sought a ban or reduced use of the electric stun guns. "Contrary to the media hype and disinformation, Tasers are a safe and effective direct use of force," George Tucker told the Toronto Police Services Board.

The Toronto Police Association director said there has been "not one single death in Canada from the direct use of a Taser."

After public lobbyists and several board members queried why zappings ranged from "pain compliance" to stun mode, Tucker told the Sun use of force is a last resort, depending on circumstances. Tasers are fired either in response to obvious danger or after efforts to calm a suspect fail and they become agitated, posing a physical threat to themselves or others including police, he said in an interview. Most people don't realize if the ETF is called, "the scene has already escalated to very serious."

Defenders have insisted deaths from a Taser would be instantaneous and those who died had other conditions.

Opponents told the board fears increased after the death of a man the RCMP zapped in October at Vancouver airport.

"There is a lot of confusion about what it is and the circumstances of their use," said Tan Goossen, of the Urban Alliance on Race Relations. "What is the criteria for officers to use them?"

Graeme Norton, of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, demanded an independent body review of all stun gun use plus restrictions for their use only to stop "serious, imminent threat and peril to life." In a letter, Andrew Buxton, head of the local Amnesty International branch, demanded "a moratorium on Taser use."

Since their introduction here and elsewhere, Buxton said police shootings have dropped, but Taser use has risen as officers get into the "habit" of using them.

Blair wants the province to change regulations to permit Tasers for all front-line officers. It has 454 of the 50,000 volt, hand-held devices, which are issued only to trained supervisors and Emergency Task Force (ETF) officers, he told the board. "They are always trained to use the use-of-force option that is ... less lethal."

Tasers were used in 368 cases last year -- the largest number 52 times in Parkdale and 43 in downtown Toronto. Scarborough ranked highest as a district for Taser use.

11-year-old girl tasered in Florida

March 27, 2008
ABC News

ORLANDO -- An Orange County deputy tasered an 11-year-old girl after she punched the deputy in the nose. It happened Thursday at Moss Park Elementary School in Orlando.

Deputies say the girl pushed another student into oncoming traffic. A teacher approached the girl, but she walked away. In homeroom, the girl became violent, yelling and spitting at other teachers, according to reports. A school resource officer was called in to remove the student, who punched her in the face, causing her nose to bleed. The deputy fought back by shocking the girl with her Taser gun.

The sheriff's office says the deputy may have suffered a broken nose.

The girl was taken to a juvenille detention center and faces charges of battery on a law enforcement officer, disrupting a school function, and resisting with violence.

Liberal MP says Mounties should speed up taser document review

March 27, 2008
The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — The Liberal public safety critic says the RCMP should accelerate its plan to consider releasing more information about Taser use. The Mounties have launched a review, expected to take two weeks, to see if additional information, gleaned from forms detailing use of the electronic weapons, can be publicly disclosed.

Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh called on the Mounties to fix their "colossal mistake" more quickly.

A joint investigation by The Canadian Press and CBC found the Mounties are now censoring key elements that must be recorded each time officers draw their stun guns.

The force no longer reveals whether the people targeted were armed or not, the precise dates of firings, and whether the device caused any burns, cuts or bruises.

The RCMP, stung by accusations of undue secrecy, revisited its decision to strip Taser reports of crucial information after Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day demanded the police force take a second look.

A spokesman for Day said late Wednesday the minister, whose chief-of-staff spoke with Mountie Commissioner William Elliott, "has asked for and received assurances from the commissioner that the RCMP will further review the matter."

11-Year-Old Girl Tasered At School After Punching Officer In Face

March 27, 2008
WFTF.com

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- An Orange County deputy said she had no choice but to shock an 11-year-old girl with a Taser on Thursday morning in an elementary school classroom. Deputies said it was to stop a violent temper tantrum.

The girl at Moss Park Elementary punched the deputy in the nose so hard the deputy went to the hospital. While an 11-year-old shocked by a Taser sounds extreme to some parents, other parents told Eyewitness News the girl deserved it.

Eyewitness News talked to several parents Thursday who said that Thaliamar Jimenez has caused trouble before. Most of those parents are coming down firmly on the side of the deputy.

Meanwhile, the mother of the fourth grader is having a hard time understanding how another day at school turned into her daughter going to jail.

"The school knows pretty well that my daughter is like a 5-year-old," explained the girl's mother, Sandra Garcia.

Garcia told Eyewitness News that her 11-year-old daughter has a learning disability and when she was approached by the deputy Thursday morning in class she was simply scared to death.

According to the arrest report, before school Thursday morning, another student told teachers at Moss Park that Thaliamar pushed a boy into the street. When teachers tried to talk to the girl she became combative, started pushing her desk and chair and even spit at the teachers.

The school resource officer, Orange County Deputy Donna Hudepohl, tried to take Thaliamar to the principal's office and that's when the child started swinging, hitting the officer in the nose. Hudepohl was transported to Florida East Hospital. She sustained severe bruising to the nasal cavity as a result of the injury.

"My daughter told me, 'Mommy, you know I wouldn't hit nobody! If I hit her in the nose, it was by mistake. I didn't hit her intentionally. I didn't do that!'" Garcia said.

"She actually spoke to the student, told her multiple times to come. Even after the student punched her, she still continued to try and make the arrest without having to taze her. And that obviously wasn't working," explained Corporal Susan Soto, Orange County Sheriff's Office.

Outside the school, many of the parents Eyewitness News talked to question the use of a Taser on an 11-year-old child.

"I just don't know if that's necessary," one parent said.

Many other parents are standing by the woman they call "their deputy."

"She had it coming. She assaulted an officer. You can't let that go," said parent Shanna Herrick.

Those same parents Eyewitness News talked to said that, to their knowledge, it was the first time an incident like this has taken place at the school.

Jimenez was transported to Florida East Hospital to have the Taser prongs removed, but she had no other injuries. She was arrested and charged with battery on a law enforcement officer, disrupting a school function as well as resisting with violence.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office policy allows deputies to use Tasers when there is "active resistance" from a suspect. There is no rule against using Tasers on children, but in 2005 a Florida lawmaker tried to make it illegal for any officer to shock children with Tasers. The proposal was stalled because there is no scientific research showing what Tasers can do to kids medically.