STUNNING OVERSIGHT

Problem Isn't Tasers But Kid-Gloving Of Taser-Happy Cops

Despite the fact that most brit ish cops still patrol without a gun, I
don't think there's a compelling case for disarming our police. And if
cops are authorized to discharge a firearm to subdue a belligerent and
aggressive target, why should we object to the use of tasers?

It's a question we should be addressing following reports last week
that our cops used tasers against some angry soccer players from Chile.

It's generally accepted that prolonged or continuous exposure to the
charge of the taser, a conducted energy weapon, can lead to serious
medical complications, including respiratory failure.

In "touch-stun" mode, the weapon sends a 50,000-volt shock that causes
overwhelming but momentary pain, while in "probe" mode it can fire
dart-like electrodes up to 9 metres that override the target's sensory
and nervous systems, resulting in temporary paralysis.

Amnesty International has documented 245 taser-related deaths
worldwide, 15 of them in Canada, since 2001. No doubt these numbers
are troubling, but the firearm is clearly still more dangerous than
the taser.

Although data are difficult to obtain, it appears that on average
police shootings kill 10 Canadians every year; 16 deaths a year
occurred in 2004 and 2005.

The numbers actually mean very little, as the real question is whether
the infliction of deadly force was justifiable in the
circumstances.

The Criminal Code says little about police use of force. Use
"reasonable force" is the Code's only sage advice. A brief perusal of
the June 2007 report from the Commission for Public Complaints Against
the RCMP shows that some officers have a very unreasonable idea of
what is reasonable.

The commission condemned the force for using attack dogs and tasers in
a casual, routine manner. In one case, a police service dog was sent
in to attack a fleeing suspect hiding in a bush despite the fact that
officers were close by who could easily have caught the suspect if
they had not been so averse to running.

In another, a short, intoxicated and belligerent woman was tasered
twice in touch-stun mode after she had already been handcuffed.
Apparently, the suspect was reluctant to enter the jail cell, and
police tasered her as if "using a cattle prod" to move her into the
cell.

The Special Investigations Unit in Ontario has been busy looking into
fatalities and serious injuries caused by police use of force in the
past few years. Since 2004, the unit has reviewed over 550 cases, and
just last month it laid charges of assault against three Halton police
officers for the alleged tasering of a 79-year-old man who fell and
broke his hip.

But out of hundreds of cases, only eight charges against police have
been laid as a result of the investigations.

The idealist will say the low charge rate demonstrates that most
officers exercise good judgment and reasonable force, while the cynic
will say the SIU is just a bunch of cops whitewashing their
colleagues' actions.

The credibility of the cynics' view was enhanced a couple of weeks
back when the provincial ombudsman, Andre Marin, was moved to initiate
an investigation into the SIU after hearing numerous "serious
allegations" that the unit was "not doing its job properly."

Enforcing the criminal law is not an exercise in etiquette and grace.
Shit happens, and people get hurt whether the police are bare-fisted,
wielding a baton, discharging a firearm or sparking a taser. So it is
impossible to take an absolute position on the justifiability of
packing a taser.

The focus of concern should always be on the mechanisms for
accountability when someone claims that the police acted like bullies
with dangerous toys.

If there is a mechanism for independently investigating allegations of
police misconduct, with the possibility of real disciplinary
sanctions, it's more likely that officers will act reasonably in the
exercise of their duties.

As it stands, the unfortunate reality is that our current mechanisms
for policing the police are woefully inadequate. Investigations are
usually haphazard and incomplete, and when on rare occasions
misconduct is found, disciplinary sanctions are toothless.

After the RCMP Commission found that an officer had used the taser
like a cattle prod, the official response amounted to no more than an
apology and some retraining of the aggressive officer. This is
nonsense. If the tasering of a handcuffed woman was unjustified, then
this particular act of policing constitutes the criminal offence of
assault, and as a general rule, offering an apology does not give most
people a free pass from prosecution.

So the real problem is not the weapon per se, but the lack of courage
and resolve of those with the authority to punish taser-happy officers.