RCMP halts use of older model Tasers after B.C. decision

An article posted June 1st on CBCNews.ca:

The RCMP is pulling all older model M-26 Tasers from service nationwide after the B.C. government announced Monday such weapons don't meet the manufacturer's specifications.

B.C. Solicitor General Rich Coleman ordered the province's RCMP service to pull all 578 of its older-model M-26 Tasers from service after testing showed the same models used by municipal police forces, sheriffs and corrections officers didn't meet the manufacturer's specifications 80 per cent of the time.

The province's decision prompted the Mounties to issue a statement from Ottawa saying the force is removing all its M-26 stun guns from active service "until each unit can be tested."

To read the entire article, please click here.

Also see:

Nova Scotia RCMP pulls older Tasers out for testing

Mounties pull some Tasers

Photograph by Jim Slosiarek / The Gazette / Canadian Press.

Watchdog questions RCMP’s Taser use

An article published in today's edition of The Chronicle Herald:

Caution urged when using stun guns on young people, mentally ill

By Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — The RCMP complaints commissioner says the Mounties should be more careful about using stun guns on young people and the mentally ill.

In a final report on RCMP Taser use last year, Paul Kennedy also says the force’s tracking and analysis of incidents still needs improvement.

The findings come 10 months after Kennedy, chairman of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, called on the police force to rein in Taser use and better monitor how officers use the potent device.

In his report Monday, the RCMP watchdog said there has been commendable progress on his 22 recommendations to the force, "however, more needs to be done in order to alleviate many of the concerns repeatedly expressed by the commission."

To that end, the commission is working with the RCMP on member training, reporting and policy development "with the view to providing a more in-depth analysis of the RCMP’s progress on all of the recommendations."

Some of the commission’s figures, released in a preliminary report last week, show the Mounties were far less likely to fire their Tasers last year. Use dropped 30 per cent from a peak of 1,583 incidents in 2007.

The statistics suggest police officers were more cautious about firing the stun guns following a public furor.

A B.C. inquiry is probing the case of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, who died in October 2007 after he was stunned five times with an RCMP Taser at the Vancouver airport.

The RCMP says it has limited Taser use to situations involving a threat to officer or public safety.

The new Mountie policy warns officers that Taser use carries a risk of death, particularly for agitated people.

But Kennedy says it’s too early to tell whether the changes will address the issues he’s outlined. "While the revised policy is a positive step forward, the commission remains concerned."

The report flags two specific groups — young people and the mentally ill.

"It is not that (Tasers) should never be used with these groups, but rather, that there should be a higher threshold for usage where these subjects are concerned. This higher threshold is not always observed."

It says the RCMP still appears to define "at-risk populations" as acutely agitated and delirious people and, before using the Taser, the force needs to consider those experiencing mental health crises or people who’ve taken large quantities of drugs or alcohol.

"This is problematic as there is a higher statistical likelihood that these persons will die in police custody and therefore any effort made to mitigate this outcome should be adopted by the RCMP."

The report also notes that while members reported that use of the Taser avoided the use of lethal force — that is, a conventional gun — in over half of the reports, "there is reason to be suspicious of this figure."

In many cases, the summaries of these Taser incidents "did not support the members’ statement" that lethal force would have been used if not for the Taser.

Finally, Kennedy said the RCMP has not fully addressed how it will tackle the issue of under-reporting by members who use stun guns — a problem identified in his previous report. And while the force has begun to share Taser usage reports with more people inside the force, it is not clear how the information is being incorporated into training.

The RCMP had no immediate comment on the report.

Hilary Homes, a human rights campaigner with Amnesty International Canada, says there is a lack of clarity about RCMP policy on Taser use.

"Until there is clear policy, and a demonstration that that clear policy is followed, there simply won’t be the confidence that the police would like to see in their own work."

‘While the revised policy is a positive step forward, the commission remains concerned.’

Also see:

News Release – CPC Chair Releases In-Depth Analysis of 2008 Conducted Energy Weapon (Taser) use by the RCMP

RCMP Use of the Conducted Energy Weapon (CEW): January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008 (March 31, 2009)

RCMP shocked 16 people five times or more last year

New RCMP policy says Tasers potentially lethal, limits use

Posted today on CBC.ca:

The RCMP is restricting how officers can use Tasers through a new policy that recognizes the stun guns can cause death, especially when fired on "acutely agitated" individuals, the head of the Mounties said Thursday.

RCMP Commissioner William Elliott outlined the policy shift on the devices known as conductive energy weapons, or CEWs, as he spoke to the House of Commons public safety committee in Ottawa.

"The RCMP's revised CEW policy underscores that there are risks associated with the deployment of the device and emphasizes that those risks include the risk of death particularly for acutely agitated individuals," Elliott told the committee.

To read the entire article, click here.

Video:

Terry Milewski reports: Tasers potentially lethal, RCMP head tells MPs(RealPlayer, Runs: 2:13)

Audio:

Listen to RCMP commissioner William Elliott's testimony before Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, as well as the subsequent question and answer session, by clicking here (Windows Media Player; be patient, there is one minute and ten seconds of silence before the testimony starts in the English audio provided).

Also see:

RCMP commissioner William Elliott's remarks on changes to taser policy

New RCMP policy says Tasers potentially lethal

Photograph courtesy of CBC.ca.