TASERs Safely Used by Police Force

A report recently released cast a critical eye across all the Use of Force Reports filed regarding incidents in which TASERs were used by the Ottawa, Canada police force.

Here are some items gleaned from the report:

• Three people were TASERed in hospital settings, four people were TASERed in police custody (cellblocks), but most incidents occur in either houses or apartments.

• A technique called a “touch Tase” was used to force a combative drunk to release a door. He was refusing to go into his cell and had grabbed the cell door. He continued to hold the door of the cell, preventing it from being closed.

• In at least 44 cases, suspects/combatants were in possession of weapons, usually a knife or other edged weapon. In 25 cases the existence of a weapon was “unknown.”

There were several less-usual cases in which TASERs were used.

• An individual who was injecting cocaine refused to drop the needle when directed to do so. Officers then used first pepper spray, then a TASER to get control of the situation.

• Police used a TASER on a male holed up in a public bathroom. Police stated that the individual was being uncooperative and brandishing a TASER he allegedly owned.

• In at least one case, a subject told security guards he had a gun. The black object he pointed at police officers turned out to be a phone.