Jesse Kline (National Post) – An all-party committee of the B.C. legislature heard yesterday that Taser use in the province has dropped 87% since 2007 — the year Robert Dziekanski died after being Tasered by police at the Vancouver International Airport. B.C. police used the weapon 85 times last year, compared to 640 in 2007. This raises troubling questions: Was it necessary for police to use the weapon as often as they did in 2007? How are police subduing people if they rely less on conducted energy weapons? Are they shooting guns more often?
As it turns out, the committee was told police shootings have not gone up, despite earlier warnings that without Tasers police might feel vulnerable. Instead, they’re using their words. According to a CBC report, a justice ministry official said police “appear to be relying more heavily on verbal skills and physical tools other than Tasers when dealing with potentially dangerous situations.”
The dramatic drop in Taser use, without a corresponding rise in firearm use, suggests police were overusing the weapon in the past. National data appears to back this trend. According to a report from the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, which examined the use of conducted energy weapons between 2002 and 2010, Taser use spiked between 2004 and 2007, but has been falling sharply ever since. Overall deployment of the weapon dropped 14.2% in 2010 and the number of times Tasers were actually fired dropped 26.4%.
The RCMP now has a policy in place, which states that Tasers can only be used when there is a clear and present danger of someone getting hurt.
According to Peter Bebring, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, the fact that police believe Tasers to be less harmful makes them “more likely to use them in circumstances where they would never consider using more serious force, like a gun.” While energy weapons can be used as a non-lethal way to subdue hostile people, they can also be used inappropriately, just like a gun or a billy club.
Now that police appreciate the dangers of Taser use, they appear to be using them less often. The problem was never the use of the weapon itself (it’s still better to be shot with a Taser than hit by a bullet); it was misuse by officers who came to rely too heavily on the device. If cops started shooting people, we wouldn’t blame the gun, we’d blame the cops. When it comes right down to it, Tasers don’t kill people — people kill people.
So while the RCMP should be commended for learning from their mistakes — and we should hope other police departments do the same — we should not forget that there is a severe power imbalance between the police and the citizens they deal with. Even non-deadly weapons can be dangerous when they are used with excessive force and the public needs to constantly be vigilant to ensure police officers are not abusing the power we entrust them with.
[Source]
Where and how do you measure factors such as people being more compliant because of the publicity the taser received about being deadly? How do you measure how many members do not even carry one because of the hassle? How do you measure how many suspects are just not arrested?
The pursuit policy has given the criminals a free ride if they take off or refuse to stop. The consequences for the member are just not worth the effort. Case in point the member in White Rock being charged with dangerous driving because the suspect hit someone. How do you measure the reluctance and lack of action of the police that will not engage in anything that could result in such repercussions? Just the reporting procedures and paper are staggering for even threatening to use some level of force, never mind actually using any.
The attitude I see developing is one of reluctance in such areas. Is the public well served by the police avoiding sticky situations because of the possible outcomes like the member in White Rock? No support, just criminal charges for trying to do your job? The fleeing suspect kills someone while trying to avoid the police. So naturally this is the fault of the police? In speaking to criminals, they laugh because even they will tell you all you have to do to not be chased by the police is cross the center-line a couple of times and as such its becomes to “dangerous” for the chase, its called off, and away the suspect goes. True story. An hour later this guy wrapped his stolen car around a post and said the above in the subsequent interview. Make things so difficult and convoluted, its a natural reaction to just avoid it all together.
If you want to go back to one transition, fists to guns, I am all for it. Just don’t whine when someone gets a bloody nose upon arrest. Mind you I would rather get tasered than beat with an ASP, shot, or punched out, having been subjected to all three.
The very fact that no one is dying on either side and that this horible shocking device is not being used as much is awesome news.
This shows all of us that it wasn’t needed in all those cases in the past…. I’m so happy!
Thanks RCMP Watch for posting this one.
There should also be a survey of injuries to police and bystanders before and after 2007. If weapon use is down, even less-than-lethal choices, I suspect that hand to hand interactions would certainly increase when words are not enough.
How utterly and pathetically predictable. Statistics without context, assumptions without analysis, factors left wanting, and hyperbole from the predictable talking heads. How typical of the media to broadcast, stand back and create a frenzy of exchange.
Police Taser use in B.C. down 87 per cent since death at Vancouver airport
Dirk Meissner
Victoria, B.C.
Canadian Press
Taser use by police in British Columbia is down 87 per cent since Robert Dziekanski died at Vancouver’s airport five years ago, prompting questions Tuesday from politicians wondering what police are doing now to control out-of-control people.
B.C. police officers used their Tasers 640 times in 2007, compared to 85 deployments last year, assistant deputy justice minister Clayton Pecknold told an all-party committee assessing the status of recommendations to tighten provincial Taser policy since Dziekanski’s October 2007 death.
The figures had Liberal MLA John Slater wondering what police have been doing instead to subdue people who are potentially dangerous.
“How many of them have been shot by police?” said Slater. “What has happened in the last five years?”
Gabi Hoffmann, program manager for the police services division in the justice ministry, said police shootings have not increased since Dziekanski’s death and the 2009 public inquiry and recommendations of former judge Thomas Braidwood, but she did not provide data.
Hoffmann, who accompanied Pecknold, told the committee police appear to be relying more heavily on verbal skills and physical tools other than Tasers when dealing with potentially dangerous situations.
Pecknold said he couldn’t definitively explain why police Taser-use numbers have dropped since Dziekanski’s death other than to say it’s obvious police are limiting their use of Tasers when it comes to incidents when police resort to force.
But Slater was concerned.
“You go from 645 to 85 incidents, so are the police officers more exposed to danger from the public?” he asked outside the committee hearing.
Slater said he wanted to know if Taser use by police has declined across Canada.
Hoffmann said she didn’t have national Taser-use data, but a recent report by the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP found threatened or actual use of the Taser by RCMP officers dipped 14 per cent from 2009.
The public complaint commission’s report stated actual firing of the Taser declined by more than one-quarter from the previous year. The commission examined 597 reports filed by officers who either used their Taser or pulled it out of a holster.
In spring 2010, the Mounties introduced a new Taser policy, saying they would fire them at people only when they’re hurting someone or clearly about to do so.
Abbotsford Police Const. Ian MacDonald, who did not attend the Victoria committee hearing, said he can confirm huge drops in Taser use by officers in his department, with only two Taser deployments this year.
He said Abbotsford officers were undergoing incident de-escalation training sessions Tuesday which involves offering better training in recognizing and handling people in states of emotional or mental upheaval who may have prompted Taser use in the past.
“The (Braidwood) recommendations have had an impact,” MacDonald said.”There has been a real acceptance by law enforcement and a real absorption of the training. There is a greater understanding of the application of the Taser and when is an appropriate application.”
But MacDonald said the heightened attention drawn by Tasers has resulted in many officers not carrying Tasers even though they are certified to use the weapons.
“The other side is that because of the scrutiny, the issues in and around the Tasers, you will also find that fewer officers are carrying Tasers,” he said.
But MacDonald stressed that police are not turning to their guns — a tool of last resort and deadly force.
“When we draw our pistol our intention is to stop the threat,” he said.
The all-party committee is holding hearings “to inquire into the use of conducted energy weapons and to audit selected police complaints.”
It has until the end of the year to assess the status of recommendations from Braidwood’s two-pronged public inquiry into Dziekanski’s death.
Braidwood, who is expected to appear before the committee next week, found what he called a lack of consistency in the way police use Tasers in B.C., and a troubling lack of government leadership in developing provincial Taser standards.
He also called for changes to the Police Act.
The B.C. government accepted Braidwood’s recommendations.
Dziekanski died in October 2007 in an incident at Vancouver International Airport where he was shocked by Tasers several times during a confrontation with four RCMP officers.
Source http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Police+Taser+down+cent+since+death+Vancouver+airport/7364008/story.html