RCMP Watch

Michael Staples (Daily Gleaner) - Fredericton Police Force Chief Barry MacKnight says he has no plans to declare a moratorium on tasers.

MacKnight said he believes the stun gun is an effective law enforcement tool.

The police chief said a taser reduces the chances of potential harm to officers and to the person it’s being used on.
“Sometimes we have to accept a level of risk in order to ensure the greater good,” MacKnight said.

Concern over usage of the weapon has intensified since Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski died after being shocked twice with a taser by RCMP officers in October at the Vancouver International Airport.

At least two reviews into the use of tasers are underway in Canada.

MacKnight said people who call for a moratorium on tasers are “risk averse” and aren’t willing to look at the hazard and measure it against the benefit.

Criminology and criminal justice expert Michael Boudreau of St. Thomas University said he fails to see any benefit from deaths which have occurred after tasers have been used.

“There have been far too many deaths in custody for this issue not to be given serious attention,” Boudreau said. “Moreover, more research into this matter would benefit the police, because if it is determined that tasers do not directly cause deaths, then the police will be able to use these devices without the fear of their actions being challenged.”

According to Amnesty International, there have been 17 cases in Canada since 2001 where individuals have died after being stunned with a police taser. There’s been more than 280 cases in the U.S. over recent years.

“If I get any kind of definitive finding that a taser has caused a death, then we will be out of this thing until it is completely thrashed out,” MacKnight said. “But there has been no finding.”

An unrecognized medical condition called excited delirium — a state of agitated, exhaustive mania, which can lead to sudden cardiac arrest — has been cited as the cause of death in many of the cases.

MacKnight said his officers are trained to recognize excited delirium and, if a person is seen to be in that state during an incident, it must be viewed as a medical emergency.

“Regardless of whether there is a taser involved, they may die from being in that state — regardless of what we do,” MacKnight said.

Boudreau said the phrase excited delirium has been socially constructed and is quickly becoming an accepted explanation for such deaths. He said he’s still waiting for medical proof that excited delirium exists as a bona fide medical condition.

The Fredericton Police Force first acquired tasers in 2004.

Since then, there have been 22 incidents where the device has been drawn and 13 times where it has been used on a person — either through direct contact or through the firing of darts. So far in 2007, it has been used three times.

During all the cases, the most dangerous weapon anyone has been armed with has been a knife.

Not included in the official statistics is an incident in June where a city dog died after being tasered.

Boudreau said the Fredericton figures are in line with recent data which indicates that, in taser incidents reported by the RCMP between 2002 and 2005, 79 per cent of the individuals hit weren’t brandishing a weapon.

“This figure indicates the possibility of a troubling trend, whereby some police forces are using tasers as a first line of response in their efforts to detain suspects,” he said.

MacKnight said many things happen before tasers are used, including verbal intervention.

All Fredericton Police Force tasers have an integrated video camera that comes on as soon as the taser is engaged and the incident is recorded for review.

When a cartridge is fired, hundreds of little confetti-like papers with the serial number of the specific cartridge are also discharged, providing the ability of further investigation.

The Fredericton Police Force intends to acquire more of the devices in the months ahead.