RCMP Taser Restrictions; "Significant"
RCMP restricts Taser use
Stun guns have been used inappropriately, commissioner admits as he announces new rules
Dec 15, 2007 04:30 AM
Bruce Campion-Smith
OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF
OTTAWA–The RCMP says it's restricting when its officers can use their Tasers, admitting that the stun guns have been used inappropriately on suspects in the past.
Front-line Mounties were issued a new edict yesterday saying that weapons can be used only on people who are "combative" or "actively resistant."
As well, the new policy says it's "not appropriate" to deploy a Taser on a person who resists only through "passive" physical actions and "verbal refusal to respond to lawful commands."
"The changes ... make it clear that in certain instances, including I would say instances where the Taser has been used in the past, it's not appropriate to use a Taser," RCMP Commissioner William Elliott told a news conference yesterday.
The force moved quickly to enact the new policy just days after a police watchdog urged the Mounties to immediately restrict their use to cases where an individual is "combative" and is at risk of killing or injuring himself or a police officer.
In an interim report this week, Paul Kennedy, chair of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, said the authority for police to use force "is not absolute; it must be proportionate and reasonable to the situation that the officers find themselves in."
The use – and potential dangers – of Tasers were thrust into the spotlight on Oct. 14, when a Polish immigrant died at the Vancouver airport soon after being shot with the weapon.
The 40-year-old man was zapped by four RCMP officers less than a minute after they approached him.
The new policy raises questions about whether officers would have been justified in using the Taser on Robert Dziekanski.
While Elliott called the changes "significant," he stressed that the Tasers, which can deliver 50,000 volts of electricity, remain a vital tool for police officers "in appropriate circumstances."
"It's not a total rewrite of our policy nor is it anything akin to suggesting that Tasers are not an appropriate tool. They are and continue to be ... a very useful tool that promotes officer and public safety," Elliott said.
However, a spokesperson for Kennedy said the RCMP's actions didn't go far enough and expressed regret that the force didn't classify the Taser as an "impact weapon," which would only be used in more serious circumstances.
"It's encouraging that they recognize that it's inappropriate to use in passive resistance, that's one step. But the matter of where it is on the force continuum ... we don't think they go far enough," said Nelson Kalil, spokesperson for the complaints commission.
"We're disappointed with the (measures) because they don't follow our recommendations."
Elliott also pledged that the force would improve its analysis of the weapon's use by RCMP officers.
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With files from The Canadian Press