3/4 Of People Hit With RCMP Tasers Were Unarmed

Electronic guns have come under intense international scrutiny since the sudden death of Robert Dziekanski, a Polish immigrant whose videotaped ordeal at the Vancouver airport last month has been flashed around the globe. He died after being hit twice with a Taser and subdued by the RCMP. The national police force is reviewing its Taser policies and procedures and is to report to Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day. The 606 incidents analyzed by The Canadian Press took place between March 2002 and March 2005, the latest data available from the RCMP under the Access to Information Act. (In 43 cases, officers removed a Taser from its holster but did not fire.) Most incidents by far were recorded in western Canada where the RCMP leads front-line policing. Many involved First Nations. A request for more recent reports of Taser use has gone unanswered by the Mounties for more than a year despite a complaint to the federal information commissioner. RCMP Cpl. Gregg Gillis is the force's expert on Taser training and excited delirium - the mysterious condition of heart-pounding agitation used as a kind of catch-all label by those who can't otherwise explain why a growing number of people have died soon after being zapped. The Taser is the best option police have to gain control without causing injury or having to draw their guns in the most serious situations, Gillis said in an interview. "But it also is an appropriate option for us in other circumstances," he said. "We want to get quick and effective control, but we want to do it in a method that causes the least amount of harm." Tasers are an "intermediate device," he said. "Where an officer would consider using other tools like (pepper) spray or potentially a baton, the Taser can be assessed as a tool to be used in those same sort of circumstances." Asked about the dozens of reports that suggest police used Tasers against unarmed suspects whose behaviour prompted only verbal interventions before they were stunned, Gillis stressed the need for context. ... http://www.canadaeast.com/rss/article/130752

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