Tasers could be restricted to high-ranking officers

(Vancouver Province) -The man conducting an independent review of Taser use in Canada says one option may be allowing only senior police officers to use the weapons.

Paul Kennedy, the RCMP’s public complaints commissioner, has been appointed by the federal Public Safety Minister to conduct a review of Taser use.

He said Wednesday he will look at jurisdictions where police officers who have a rank of sergeant or higher are the only ones allowed to use the Taser.

“The fact is in some areas it is only deployed by a sergeant or higher,” said Kennedy.

Kennedy is expected to complete his review by Dec. 12.

“I don’t have the answers right now,” he said. “What I’ll be doing is collecting all the relevant information. We recognize the Taser policy has many aspects to it.”

Minister Stockwell Day announced the new role for Kennedy after mounting criticism over the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski Oct. 14 at Vancouver International Airport.

Dziekanski, 40, had been in a secure area of the airport for 10 hours before being Tasered twice by RCMP after he became agitated. He died a short time later.

A coroner’s inquest has been scheduled for May 5 to 16, 2008, to probe the events that led to Dziekanski’s death.

During the inquest a five-person jury will hear testimony from subpoenaed witnesses to determine the facts surrounding the death. They will then have the chance to make recommendations aimed at preventing similar deaths. The inquest may not make any finding of legal responsibility.

Meanwhile, a health authority spokesman said Wednesday that RCMPshocked a patient with a Taser at a B.C. Interior hospital last week.

The incident took place on Nov. 14 at a Prince George hospital, just an hour before a video of Dziekanski being Tasered was released to the public.

Mark Karjaluoto, a spokesman for the Northern Health, said hospital security called the RCMP after failing to restrain a patient who was acting aggressively in the hospital emergency room.

The patient had wandered into the parking lot, where he attacked a vehicle before heading back inside to punch a pay phone and knock a door off its hinges, Karjaluoto said.

Karjaluoto said he did not know if the patient had threatened any people, nor whether the RCMP knew the man’s medical history.

“(They)would have taken any precautions they thought necessary,”he said.

The man was treated overnight and released the next day.

And, in a third B.C. Taser incident, an independent review is being conducted after a 36-year-old Chilliwack man was Tasered Monday in a rental store.

The man, who is known to police, was listed in stable condition in hospital, said RCMP Const. Lea-Anne Dunlop on Wednesday.