This is from CTV.
The Taser company obviously has a great selling and research team and the RCMP seemed ready and willing to accept everything at face value. Much of the research on Tasers is funded by the very company that sells them. The article gets the phrase "exited delirium" wrong I think. It is excited delirium I believe. I am no fan of Zaccardelli but I must give credit where credit is due. It was a brave act to speak out against the tasers and no doubt it will not help his popularity in some quarters.
RCMP didn't research Tasers enough, report says
Updated Fri. Sep. 12 2008 7:31 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
The RCMP didn't do enough independent research into Tasers and relied too heavily on data supplied by their American manufacturer before authorizing their use, a new report says.
"The information provided to the (RCMP) was limited in scope, as much of it came from the manufacturer," explains the independent report, which was released publicly on Friday.
The report goes on to conclude that a review "of the decision making process" authorizing the use of the stun guns "revealed several problems."
"While manufacturers understandably need to provide (and are entitled to do so) information to potential customers or clients as part of their marketing and promotion efforts, the policing community needs to be assiduous in assessing the manufacturer's information," the report states.
More than 70 Canadian police forces currently use Tasers, which were approved in December 2001 by Giuliano Zaccardelli, who was commissioner of the Mounties at the time.
Since then, the stun guns have been indirectly linked to about 20 deaths, and Zaccardelli has publicly stated that Tasers should be decommissioned.
The report goes on to state that excessive force by officers has lead to an erosion of trust in police forces across the country.
"The use of force by police, particularly when it has resulted in death, has posed serious issues for public confidence and trust in policing."
William Elliot, the head of RCMP, called for the report following the death of Robert Dziekanski.
Dziekanski, a Polish immigrant, died in October of last year after he was shot by a Taser by police at Vancouver's airport. The incident was caught on camera and sparked international outrage.
Taser International maintains that the company has completed thorough research on their products, and that they say are safe.
The report also urges new national standards for stun gun use and suggests that Public Safety Canada and the Canadian Firearms Centre take an active role in their development.
The report's authors also conclude that had the RCMP done more independent research, they may have delayed, or at least limited, the use of Tasers.
The review also says "there was no consultation with national medical and mental-health associations" like the Canadian Medical Association, who may have provided important information to the Mounties.
While the report notes the RCMP used data from other Canadian police forces, it states this information lacked "the rigorous standards" of a proper peer-review.
"Some reports not only overlooked some important sources of information, but also contained some factual errors," it states.
"The problems ... have not only negatively influenced the RCMP's decision making process but also that of many other police organizations."
The report's authors also dismiss the term of "exited delirium," which is often used by police to explain the behavior of aggressive or combative suspects, as "folk knowledge."
The report states that the term, which was used to describe Dziekanski in the moments before he was Tasered, should not be included in any RCMP manuals without a full review.
The review, which was completed earlier this year, became public after the Toronto Star obtained a copy through an Access to Information request.
Its release comes as a Red Deer, Alta., family launches a $1.7 million wrongful death lawsuit against the RCMP.
The family is suing the Mounties over an incident in August 2006, when 28-year-old Jason Doan died after RCMP officers shot him with a Taser.
With files from The Canadian Press
Showing posts with label RCMP use of Tasers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RCMP use of Tasers. Show all posts
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Use of RCMP Tasers rises dramatically, records show
This is from the CBC. Scattered among the human interest stories and verbatim reports of official garbage there is still some critical investigative journalism going on. This article is a good example.
Perhaps the RCMP is taking a page from the Harper government in its lack of accountability. The best way to withold information is not to collect it in the first place!
Use of RCMP Tasers rises dramatically, records show
Last Updated: Monday, March 24, 2008 | 4:47 PM ET Comments91Recommend43CBC News
The number of incidents involving RCMP stun guns has more than doubled since 2005, according to records obtained by CBC News.
Statistics prepared by RCMP officers on the use of stun guns, or Tasers, show Mounties across the country drew or threatened to draw their Tasers more than 1,400 times last year — a dramatic rise in incidents, compared with 597 in 2005.
The spike was greatest in jurisdictions such as British Columbia, where the number of Taser incidents rose from 218 in 2005 to 496 in 2007, and in Alberta, where it grew from 89 to 371 over the same period.
But while reliance on stun guns has increased sharply since the force began using them in 2001, documents obtained under the federal Access to Information Act indicate that record-keeping about Taser incidents has either become less comprehensive or that the RCMP is unwilling to share all the details of the cases with the public.
More than 2,800 Tasers are in use across the country by the 9,100-plus RCMP officers trained to use them. The RCMP forms that are supposed to be filled out every time an officer even threatens to use a Taser formerly included details such as whether the person encountered by police was armed or suffering from a mental illness. That data was previously disclosed under the Access to Information Act in RCMP Taser reports from 2002 to 2005.
But records recently released to the CBC and the Canadian Press have been stripped of this information, as well as the precise date of each incident, actions taken by the officer before resorting to the Taser, and whether the stun gun caused any injuries — leading some to criticize the RCMP for a lack of transparency.
"The RCMP is a public police force. They are accountable to Canadians," Liberal public safety critic Ujjal Dosanjh told CBC News. "They have to be on the up and up, they have to be transparent, they have to be accountable. They have to provide that information so that people can judge for themselves whether or not their police force is acting appropriately."
"The more I look at how [the RCMP] function, the more I see the lack of transparency and lack of accountability. I am flabbergasted," said Dosanjh, who was the attorney general in B.C. when Tasers were introduced there.
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day was travelling in the Middle East and wasn't immediately available for comment.
RCMP spokesperson Insp. Troy Lightfoot declined to comment on the missing information, while officials in the RCMP access to information office say the incident reports were censored to protect the privacy of people who were stunned with the Tasers.
The head of the Commission for Complaints Against the RCMP, Paul Kennedy, said the RCMP is contradicting itself by not providing the additional information at the same time that it seeks to assure the public that police are being responsive to concerns about Tasers.
"A more mature response, I think, would be one where they would make their best effort to make as much information available as possible," he said.
Vancouver airport Taser incident was a watershed moment
Kennedy said the death of Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport last October was a watershed moment for public interest in police use of the Taser.
The electric shock weapons — which unleash 50,000 volts of electricity and are designed to incapacitate a person — have come under intense international scrutiny since Dziekanski, a Polish immigrant, died shortly after RCMP officers repeatedly shocked him with a Taser and pinned him down in the airport's arrivals area.
Statistics from the human rights organization Amnesty International indicate there have been 19 Taser-related deaths in Canada since 2001. While "excited delirium" — a heart-pounding state of agitation — has been cited as one possible cause of death following a Taser shock, Amnesty International has repeatedly called for a moratorium on Taser use pending an independent, comprehensive study of the stun guns' effects.
An analysis of 563 incidents by the Canadian Press last year found that three in four suspects shot with a Taser by the RCMP between 2002 and 2005 were unarmed.
In an interim report released last December, the Commission for Complaints Against the RCMP criticized the force for allowing the use of Tasers to grow over the past six years. Authored by Kennedy, it noted 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."
The House of Commons public safety committee is also studying the growing use of stun guns in Canada. It will hear testimony from RCMP officers, customs officials and airport workers before drafting a report to Parliament.
Arizona-based manufacturer Taser International Inc. argues that the device has never been directly blamed for a death, though it acknowledges it has been cited repeatedly as a contributing factor.
For their part, Canadian police say Tasers have saved 4,000 lives since police forces started using them.
The RCMP's Lightfoot, who is part of an internal group analyzing police use of Tasers, said the majority of cases he's studied have shown Tasers were used appropriately.
"It is an appropriate device for law-enforcement use, and it does enhance police and public safety," he said. "And it is one of the least injurious means that we have available to take people into police custody."
Perhaps the RCMP is taking a page from the Harper government in its lack of accountability. The best way to withold information is not to collect it in the first place!
Use of RCMP Tasers rises dramatically, records show
Last Updated: Monday, March 24, 2008 | 4:47 PM ET Comments91Recommend43CBC News
The number of incidents involving RCMP stun guns has more than doubled since 2005, according to records obtained by CBC News.
Statistics prepared by RCMP officers on the use of stun guns, or Tasers, show Mounties across the country drew or threatened to draw their Tasers more than 1,400 times last year — a dramatic rise in incidents, compared with 597 in 2005.
The spike was greatest in jurisdictions such as British Columbia, where the number of Taser incidents rose from 218 in 2005 to 496 in 2007, and in Alberta, where it grew from 89 to 371 over the same period.
But while reliance on stun guns has increased sharply since the force began using them in 2001, documents obtained under the federal Access to Information Act indicate that record-keeping about Taser incidents has either become less comprehensive or that the RCMP is unwilling to share all the details of the cases with the public.
More than 2,800 Tasers are in use across the country by the 9,100-plus RCMP officers trained to use them. The RCMP forms that are supposed to be filled out every time an officer even threatens to use a Taser formerly included details such as whether the person encountered by police was armed or suffering from a mental illness. That data was previously disclosed under the Access to Information Act in RCMP Taser reports from 2002 to 2005.
But records recently released to the CBC and the Canadian Press have been stripped of this information, as well as the precise date of each incident, actions taken by the officer before resorting to the Taser, and whether the stun gun caused any injuries — leading some to criticize the RCMP for a lack of transparency.
"The RCMP is a public police force. They are accountable to Canadians," Liberal public safety critic Ujjal Dosanjh told CBC News. "They have to be on the up and up, they have to be transparent, they have to be accountable. They have to provide that information so that people can judge for themselves whether or not their police force is acting appropriately."
"The more I look at how [the RCMP] function, the more I see the lack of transparency and lack of accountability. I am flabbergasted," said Dosanjh, who was the attorney general in B.C. when Tasers were introduced there.
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day was travelling in the Middle East and wasn't immediately available for comment.
RCMP spokesperson Insp. Troy Lightfoot declined to comment on the missing information, while officials in the RCMP access to information office say the incident reports were censored to protect the privacy of people who were stunned with the Tasers.
The head of the Commission for Complaints Against the RCMP, Paul Kennedy, said the RCMP is contradicting itself by not providing the additional information at the same time that it seeks to assure the public that police are being responsive to concerns about Tasers.
"A more mature response, I think, would be one where they would make their best effort to make as much information available as possible," he said.
Vancouver airport Taser incident was a watershed moment
Kennedy said the death of Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport last October was a watershed moment for public interest in police use of the Taser.
The electric shock weapons — which unleash 50,000 volts of electricity and are designed to incapacitate a person — have come under intense international scrutiny since Dziekanski, a Polish immigrant, died shortly after RCMP officers repeatedly shocked him with a Taser and pinned him down in the airport's arrivals area.
Statistics from the human rights organization Amnesty International indicate there have been 19 Taser-related deaths in Canada since 2001. While "excited delirium" — a heart-pounding state of agitation — has been cited as one possible cause of death following a Taser shock, Amnesty International has repeatedly called for a moratorium on Taser use pending an independent, comprehensive study of the stun guns' effects.
An analysis of 563 incidents by the Canadian Press last year found that three in four suspects shot with a Taser by the RCMP between 2002 and 2005 were unarmed.
In an interim report released last December, the Commission for Complaints Against the RCMP criticized the force for allowing the use of Tasers to grow over the past six years. Authored by Kennedy, it noted 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."
The House of Commons public safety committee is also studying the growing use of stun guns in Canada. It will hear testimony from RCMP officers, customs officials and airport workers before drafting a report to Parliament.
Arizona-based manufacturer Taser International Inc. argues that the device has never been directly blamed for a death, though it acknowledges it has been cited repeatedly as a contributing factor.
For their part, Canadian police say Tasers have saved 4,000 lives since police forces started using them.
The RCMP's Lightfoot, who is part of an internal group analyzing police use of Tasers, said the majority of cases he's studied have shown Tasers were used appropriately.
"It is an appropriate device for law-enforcement use, and it does enhance police and public safety," he said. "And it is one of the least injurious means that we have available to take people into police custody."
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
RCMP falls short on limiting Tasers
This is an editorial from the Star. A similar criticism is given in the Province.
"We want the Taser classified as an impact weapon for use in combative situations, just below firearms or on the same level as the baton," Kalil said.
Currently Tasers are classified as "intermediate" devices, in the same category as pepper spray.
However our ever vigilant CBC news fails to notice the problem and even adds this gratuitous bit of information to the end of its article.
Taser International, makers of the device, claim that the weapons have never been directly linked to a cause of death.
Of course diabetes never directly killed anyone either. Diabetics die of heart failure, kidney failure etc. Taser is even pushing a new cause of death excited delirium!
With files from the Canadian Press
EDITORIAL
RCMP falls short in limiting Tasers
Dec 18, 2007 04:30 AM
The recent death of Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport after Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers jolted him with a Taser has sparked a welcome reassessment of how and when the high-voltage stun guns should be used.
Yet Canada's problem-plagued national police force inexplicably responded last week with only a half-measure when faced with a critical report from RCMP public complaints commission chair Paul Kennedy. The report rightly urges the RCMP to restrict Taser use to instances where suspects are "combative" or pose a risk of "death or grievous bodily harm" to police, themselves or others.
RCMP Commissioner William Elliott has announced a policy change that would limit Taser use to cases where someone "is displaying combative behaviours or is being actively resistant." That means officers can no longer use a Taser against someone who passively resists, by lying down or being otherwise unco-operative.
But according to one expert, the policy potentially could still allow a Taser to be wielded against someone who makes as unmenacing a gesture as pulling their hand away when an officer reaches for it.
By that standard, it is hard to say if Dziekanski, who was unarmed and appeared to pose no immediate danger to anyone, would still have been tasered. That very uncertainty means the new threshold the RCMP has set for the use of stun guns is still too low.
Kennedy's interim report, which Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day requested after Dziekanski's death, paints a troubling picture of a trigger-happy police force that has relaxed the rules around Taser use since it first adopted the weapons in 2001.
Citing "usage creep," the report says the RCMP authorizes Taser use "earlier than reasonable" by classifying it as an "intermediate" device, in the same category as pepper spray, rather than as "an option in cases where lethal force would otherwise have been considered."
Kennedy properly resists calls for an outright moratorium on Tasers. After all, the weapons can prevent death and serious injury in situations when the only alternative available to police is drawing a gun.
But in light of Dziekanski's death and persistent questions surrounding police use of Tasers, the tighter restrictions the complaints commission has recommended seem reasonable.
The RCMP has agreed to comply with other recommendations, such as beefing up reporting on Taser use and appointing a national co-ordinator to oversee policies on the use of force. But on the critical issue of reining in Taser use, a complaints commission spokesperson was right last week to criticize the force for not going far enough.
This is not the final word on police use of Tasers. Kennedy will release his final report sometime next summer. A public inquiry into Dziekanski's death ordered by the B.C. government, as well as several other probes, may also shed light on the issue. Meanwhile, a coroner's jury into the 2004 police shooting of a mentally ill man last week recommended front-line officers in Toronto be equipped with Tasers.
Whatever the outcome of these proceedings, the complaints commission has already proposed an appropriately high bar for Taser use that should set the standard for police forces across the country. The RCMP should fall into line.
"We want the Taser classified as an impact weapon for use in combative situations, just below firearms or on the same level as the baton," Kalil said.
Currently Tasers are classified as "intermediate" devices, in the same category as pepper spray.
However our ever vigilant CBC news fails to notice the problem and even adds this gratuitous bit of information to the end of its article.
Taser International, makers of the device, claim that the weapons have never been directly linked to a cause of death.
Of course diabetes never directly killed anyone either. Diabetics die of heart failure, kidney failure etc. Taser is even pushing a new cause of death excited delirium!
With files from the Canadian Press
EDITORIAL
RCMP falls short in limiting Tasers
Dec 18, 2007 04:30 AM
The recent death of Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport after Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers jolted him with a Taser has sparked a welcome reassessment of how and when the high-voltage stun guns should be used.
Yet Canada's problem-plagued national police force inexplicably responded last week with only a half-measure when faced with a critical report from RCMP public complaints commission chair Paul Kennedy. The report rightly urges the RCMP to restrict Taser use to instances where suspects are "combative" or pose a risk of "death or grievous bodily harm" to police, themselves or others.
RCMP Commissioner William Elliott has announced a policy change that would limit Taser use to cases where someone "is displaying combative behaviours or is being actively resistant." That means officers can no longer use a Taser against someone who passively resists, by lying down or being otherwise unco-operative.
But according to one expert, the policy potentially could still allow a Taser to be wielded against someone who makes as unmenacing a gesture as pulling their hand away when an officer reaches for it.
By that standard, it is hard to say if Dziekanski, who was unarmed and appeared to pose no immediate danger to anyone, would still have been tasered. That very uncertainty means the new threshold the RCMP has set for the use of stun guns is still too low.
Kennedy's interim report, which Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day requested after Dziekanski's death, paints a troubling picture of a trigger-happy police force that has relaxed the rules around Taser use since it first adopted the weapons in 2001.
Citing "usage creep," the report says the RCMP authorizes Taser use "earlier than reasonable" by classifying it as an "intermediate" device, in the same category as pepper spray, rather than as "an option in cases where lethal force would otherwise have been considered."
Kennedy properly resists calls for an outright moratorium on Tasers. After all, the weapons can prevent death and serious injury in situations when the only alternative available to police is drawing a gun.
But in light of Dziekanski's death and persistent questions surrounding police use of Tasers, the tighter restrictions the complaints commission has recommended seem reasonable.
The RCMP has agreed to comply with other recommendations, such as beefing up reporting on Taser use and appointing a national co-ordinator to oversee policies on the use of force. But on the critical issue of reining in Taser use, a complaints commission spokesperson was right last week to criticize the force for not going far enough.
This is not the final word on police use of Tasers. Kennedy will release his final report sometime next summer. A public inquiry into Dziekanski's death ordered by the B.C. government, as well as several other probes, may also shed light on the issue. Meanwhile, a coroner's jury into the 2004 police shooting of a mentally ill man last week recommended front-line officers in Toronto be equipped with Tasers.
Whatever the outcome of these proceedings, the complaints commission has already proposed an appropriately high bar for Taser use that should set the standard for police forces across the country. The RCMP should fall into line.
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