Canadian Police Use TASER Guns

Use of Force reports filed by the Ottawa, Canada police force were recently gathered and surveyed by a Canadian newspaper. The time frame covered includes the period starting right after TASER Guns were provided to the force (October 2000) and concluding in March of 2008.

An overview of the report looks like this:

• Most of the incidents during which TASER Guns were used took place in houses or apartments.
• Police used TASER Guns in cases involving suspects who were actively resisting arrest or threatening and assaulting officers, as well threatening or assaulting as other citizens in the area.

In 2000, shortly after TASER Guns were originally issued to Ottawa police, the officers responded to a call about a highly combative male at an apartment. When they arrived, police faced a “very aggressive, very large six-foot-four, 250-pound male” who was “not interested in verbal communications.” He threatened officers by saying, “I’m going to punch your f—king lights out.” Officers used TASERs to subdue him.

• The reports, which provide only a brief description of pertinent events, revealed that 65 males and 13 females “were involved in TASER incidents.” In 37 reports gender was not noted.

Ottawa was the first municipality in Ontario to purchase and use TASERs. It has managed to avoid controversy by restrained use of the device in spite of having armed their “front-line officers” with the leading-edge technology.

The Ottawa department’s 32-member tactical squad was the only unit armed with TASERs up until fall of 2007. Then, in October, front-line supervisors were also equipped with TASERs which are capable of downing someone using a pulsing current that effectively jams the nervous system. One method the Ottawa force employs to manage its TASER usage is the Use of Force reporting forms. In that way, the force effectively tracks the types of incidents which precipitate TASER deployment and tailors its training to provide earlier interventions thereby reducing the need for the level of force TASERs provide.

In most cases, the officer made TASER use decisions once the subject was within about three meters. However, in at least 46 cases, subjects had approached to a distance of less than two meters.

In some cases TASERs were not effective. On one occasion an adult male swung a refrigerator and blocked the probes. In another case, the TASER was ineffective because of the baggy clothes worn by the suspect.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a nationwide agency, issued a recommendation that each branch of law enforcement direct that it secure medical attention for anyone who has been TASERed and also to include more information on its various reporting forms.

On average, Ottawa has about 14 TASER incidents annually. By contrast, Calgary, Edmonton, and Winnipeg, where front-line officers are also TASER-equipped, the incident level is much higher. Between January and October of 2007 TASERs were used 88 times in Edmonton alone!