Technicality eh?, Not the RCMP but I guess the Edmonton people have to follow the rules too.

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EDMONTON – Disciplinary charges were tossed out on a technicality Tuesday against a Edmonton city police constable accused of using a Taser on two sleeping men.

The same technicality threatens charges in 11 other cases, said acting Insp. Chris Boehnke of the Edmonton police professional standards branch. Two were already thrown out May 1, but at that time the branch thought it was an isolated problem.

“The extent of the problem just became apparent today,” Boehnke said.”

http://www.edmontonpolicewatch.org/

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I do not know why people keep up this mantra. So what? Maybe its small cops and big strong fighting bad guys. Maybe its old cops in their 50’s against some young iron pumper. If somebody had a weapon and I had a gun, I would use it before some wire unfolding dart gun anyway.

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Ottawa (Canadian Press) — A last-minute call from the public safety minister delayed release of what’s expected to be a hard-hitting report on RCMP Taser use.

A spokesman for Paul Kennedy, the RCMP complaints commissioner, said the minister’s office asked late Wednesday for a meeting on the report, resulting in hasty cancellation of its publication Thursday.

Nelson Kalil said Kennedy agreed to meet Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day early next week, and release of the Taser report is now slated for Wednesday.

“Paul was happy to do this. He wanted to meet with him beforehand, to explain to him what he’s recommending. Unfortunately this comes at the last minute,” Kalil said.

“But it doesn’t change the report. The report’s done.”

Day, who is in Japan to discuss issues with G-8 allies, received an advance copy of the findings Tuesday.

“Minister Day has accepted Mr. Kennedy’s offer to meet in person prior to the release of the report,” Day aide John Brent said in an e-mail message.

Brent added the minister also plans to discuss the report with RCMP Commissioner Wiliam Elliott.

He did not explain why Day waited until Wednesday to request the meeting, given that Kennedy had announced plans Monday for a Thursday news conference on the report. “I do not have control over when Mr. Kennedy issues his media advisory,” Brent said.

Last November, Day asked Kennedy to study the RCMP’s Taser use amid a public uproar over the stun guns.

Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski died in October after being repeatedly zapped with an RCMP Taser and subdued by officers at Vancouver International Airport.

Kennedy’s interim report, released in December, stopped short of calling for a moratorium on the 50,000-volt weapons.

But it recommended an overhaul of Taser training, stricter reporting requirements, and more research on the controversial devices.

A Canadian Press CBC-Radio-Canada investigation of more than 3,200 incidents in which Mounties fired the powerful stun guns in the last six years shows that officers used the Taser multiple times in almost half of cases.

The pattern of repeated shocks has continued in recent years despite a 2005 RCMP directive warning numerous zaps could be hazardous.

The RCMP, which also received a copy of Kennedy’s final report Tuesday, declined comment Thursday on its officers’ Taser use.

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