Patrick Book (News Talk 980) – The public may be concerned about the use of tasers today, but the RCMP’s Taser expert says there’s still no reason to believe that the weapons are responsible for the death of Robert Zeekanski.
Constable Greg Gillis insists that several world-wide tests have been conducted to determine that tasers are non-lethal, according to how the RCMP uses them. That includes work done in Canada by the Canadian Police Research Centre, a study Gillis says was, “held out to the world in relation to being an independent scientific evaluation of the device.” He says that study looked at, among other things, whether or not a uniform amount of electricity was released every time and consultation with cardiologists and other medical professionals.
Appearing on News Talk Radio’s The Murray Wood Show Thursday, he warns speculation is merely that until the cause of death is determined. “If we were having this conversation five years ago it would’ve been about the use of pepper spray. Before that it would’ve been, ‘What if five officers have to pile on a guy?’ The method of restraint has to be looked at as part of the equation, but it’s not where we go to find the answer. We have to go to the medical cause of death.”
He notes that officers receive two days worth of taser training and that they’re required to consider a number of variables in any given situation before the weapon is used. Part of that is the ability to recognize “excitable delerium,” a condition that is believed to be linked to previous deaths where Taser use was a factor.
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