RCMP Watch

Suzanne Fournier (Vancouver Province) - Vancouver pathologist Dr. John Butt warned yesterday that despite the fact “there are deaths due to the Taser,” its use is “exploding” among police forces in the absence of strict-usage rules or monitoring.

Butt, a former coroner and chief medical examiner with 45 years’ experience, told the Braidwood Inquiry into Taser use that “it’s difficult to say they are a non-lethal weapon.”

He said there are “an estimated 600 deployments a day of the weapon in North America.”

Butt said a complicating factor in looking at Taser-related deaths is that “an autopsy cannot determine a recent cardiac arrhythmia nor seizure” which may have been brought on by the use of the stun gun.

Butt said it “worries” him that Taser International, the Arizona-based company that supplies B.C. police with the weapon, has pursued legal action against medical examiners in Taser-related deaths.

“In a recent [court] decision in Ohio, Taser forced the medical examiner to change the cause of death to get Taser off the death certificate,” said Butt.

Butt said some questions need to be answered:

“What are the rules of engagement for the Taser? Who made the rules up? Are they the same for the Vancouver police as they are for the RCMP?”

He said better recordkeeping was needed on Taser use and its consequences.

“Of course it’s bad that no one is collecting information on deployment on a provincial or national basis,” he said.

Later yesterday, retired Vancouver psychiatrist Maelor Vallance called for “unbiased” research and said Taser use should be covered by strict rules, restricted to the most serious cases and only used if de-escalation techniques fail.

Both medical experts agreed the Taser has a role in policing, but should be researched and regulated first.

- The overall use of Tasers by the RCMP soared to 1,119 incidents in 2006 and 1,414 in 2007, compared with only 597 incidents in 2005, according to a Canwest Access to Information search.

In B.C., the usage jumped from 218 incidents in 2005 to 496 in 2007.

Details of incidents, injuries or the reason for usage were blacked out.

TASER PROMOTIONAL VIDEO

Taser International has been marketing a consumer version of its conducted-energy weapons in the U.S. (It’s illegal for the public to own or use in Canada.) Watch the company’s promotional presentation here.