|
The Canadian Press
 |
The joint award-winning project by CBC/Radio-Canada and
The Canadian Press produced a multimedia analysis of Taser
stun guns and their use by the RCMP. This endeavour in 2008
created a multitude of stories for newspapers, websites,
radio and television - including the following exclusive
reports from The Canadian Press. |
Part I: Taser Secrecy
(published March 24, 2008)
Mounties zap details from Taser reports as
firings soar across Canada
By Jim Bronskill and Sue Bailey - The Canadian Press
OTTAWA - The RCMP is stripping crucial details about Taser firings
from public reports as use of the controversial stun guns skyrockets
across the country.
A joint investigation by The Canadian Press and CBC found the
Mounties are now refusing to divulge key information that must be
recorded each time they draw their electronic weapons.
As a result, Canadians will know much less about who is being hit
with the 50,000-volt guns, whether they were armed, why they were
fired on and whether they were injured.
Taser report forms obtained under the Access to Information Act show
the Mounties have used the powerful weapons more than 4,000 times
since introducing them seven years ago.
Incidents have increased dramatically, topping 1,000 annually in
each of the last two years compared with about 600 in 2005. The
overwhelming majority of firings took place in Western Canada, where
the national force often leads front-line policing.
As Taser use escalates, however, the RCMP has tightened the lid of
secrecy.
Information stripped from the forms includes details of several
Taser cases the Mounties previously made public under the access
law. In effect, the RCMP is reclassifying details of Taser use _
including some telling facts that raised pointed questions about how
often the stun guns are fired and why.
A Canadian Press analysis last November of 563 incidents between
2002 and 2005 found three in four suspects Tasered by the RCMP were
unarmed. Several of those reports suggested a pattern of stun-gun
use as a handy tool to keep drunk or rowdy suspects in line, rather
than to defuse major threats.
But the Mounties are now censoring Taser report forms to conceal
related injuries, duration of shocks, whether the individual was
armed, what police tried before resorting to the stun gun, and
precise dates of firings.
In fact, Canadians now know more about the Tasering of dogs than
humans. One of the most detailed new reports describes how a pooch
named Princess was zapped with a stun gun in Maple Ridge, B.C., as
five officers carried out a search warrant.
Princess was not given the standard warning: “Police! Stop or you
will be hit with 50,000 volts of electricity!”
There was little point, the report goes on to note: “Subject would
not have understood the command, as subject was a dog.”
The RCMP cites the need to protect privacy and continuing
investigations to justify why it removed such basic details from
other reports.
Liberal public safety critic Ujjal Dosanjh scoffed at the
explanation.
“That's hogwash. That's absolute nonsense,” the former attorney
general for British Columbia said in an interview. “Whether or not
someone was armed ... how does that violate privacy?”
Dosanjh noted that names and addresses are already removed from the
forms.
“The RCMP is a public police force. They are accountable to
Canadians. ”
“They have to provide that information so that people can judge for
themselves whether or not their police force is acting
appropriately.”
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day was travelling Monday and was
not immediately available for comment.
Insp. Troy Lightfoot, who helps oversee RCMP Taser use, would not
speculate on why the reporting changes were made. But he stressed
there are still ways to monitor stun guns and other uses of force.
“I can tell you that there are many accountability systems in place
with regards to police actions. You have the courts, you have
coroners' inquests, you have a multitude of oversight bodies,” he
said. “There is a complaints process that can be followed.”
Paul Kennedy, head of the Commission for Public Complaints Against
the RCMP, said the decision to withhold details of Taser firings
amounts to a self-defeating lack of transparency that bucks
widespread calls for more - not less - public reporting.
“There seems to be something that is touching a chord with Canadians
when they see the Taser. ”
“Now, it may be because the person is just reduced to a squirming
ball of flesh on the ground, that it seems to be used against men
and women, it is used against young people, it is used against old
people. There is the issue as to whether or not deaths are
associated with it.”
The RCMP should be making public as much Taser data as possible,
Kennedy said.
“There is nothing more important to the police than maintaining and
restoring public confidence. How do you do that? You do that by
getting your story out.”
Stun guns have swiftly become the go-to weapon for scores of police
and correctional officers across Canada. The RCMP has more than
2,800 Tasers and some 9,100 Mounties are trained to use them.
They can be fired from a distance, laying suspects low with
high-voltage bursts that override the central nervous system. They
can also be used up close in touch-stun mode, which has been likened
to leaning on a hot stove.
The potent devices are hugely popular with officers who say they're
a safer, more efficient option than pepper spray or batons. But a
rash of recent headlines has raised questions about the extent to
which painful Taser jolts are used much like cattle prods on
unarmed, non-violent suspects.
RCMP reports previously released to The Canadian Press also detailed
several head injuries when suspects struck the floor, along with
burns caused by stuns and lacerations from sharp Taser probes.
Public wariness about the weapons turned to full-blown anger last
fall when amateur video showing the death of Robert Dziekanski was
released. RCMP were called last October when the Polish immigrant
became agitated at Vancouver International Airport after spending
hours in a secure section while his mother tried in vain to contact
him from the public side.
Although Dziekanski appears more confused than threatening on the
video, the officers waited less than 30 seconds before they zapped
the 40-year-old with a Taser and pinned him to the floor as he
wailed in pain. Within minutes, he was dead.
It took 15 months and an official complaint before the RCMP would
release thousands of pages recording more than 4,000 Taser
incidents.
There are stark differences between the newly released forms and
earlier versions filed about the same confrontations.
For example, the original report on a March 7, 2004, case in
northern Manitoba revealed that an unarmed detainee in a Pukatawagan
RCMP cell was Tasered after only oral intervention. There was no
attempt to subdue the inmate through physical force before the
officer warned: “Let me introduce you to the Taser. It is able to
produce 50,000 volts of electricity. Co-operate with us and you will
not be stunned.”
The new form says only that the confrontation occurred in 2004, with
no precise date. The section entitled Weapons Carried or Immediately
Available by Subject is blank.
And there is no longer any description of verbal commands or other
police response before the Taser was fired.
“It certainly isn't helpful to be in the midst of greater debate
with less and less information,” says Hilary Homes of Amnesty
International Canada. “In general, it's a problem across Canada that
we don't have the same accountability system throughout the many
forces that use the Taser.”
Amnesty International wants the devices suspended pending an
independent, comprehensive study of risks and benefits.
Dziekanski was recorded as the 18th person in Canada to die after
being hit by a Taser since police started carrying them in 2001. The
tally has since risen to 19. Amnesty says at least 280 people have
died in the United States following a Taser zap in the last seven
years.
Arizona-based manufacturer Taser International stresses the device
has never been directly blamed for a death. It has, however, been
cited repeatedly as a contributing factor.
Kennedy referred to “usage creep” in an interim report on Tasers
last December that urged the Mounties to drastically restrict
reliance on the stun guns. The weapons should only be used in
touch-stun or full firing mode when suspects are “combative” or pose
a risk of “death or grievous bodily harm,” he said.
Lightfoot, however, said the cases he has recently analyzed indicate
the Taser was used acceptably. “It is an appropriate device for
law-enforcement use, and it does enhance police and public safety.
And it is one of the least injurious means that we have available to
take people into police custody.”
Kennedy devoted a whole section of his report to the need for more
and better documentation of Taser use. He recommended the RCMP
produce quarterly and annual reports detailing the number and nature
of firings, how often medical care was needed, and the number of
Mounties and instructors who passed or failed related training.
Lightfoot said the force plans to produce regular reports on Taser
use, but could not say whether they would be made public.
Britain's Home Office publishes statistics quarterly on Taser
firings in England and Wales, citing a need for a “rigorous and
measured approach” to introducing the weapons in the United Kingdom.
Dosanjh says revelations of an RCMP clampdown on Taser data is
another blow to the national police force's battered reputation.
It comes as the federal government moves to overhaul an iconic
institution that has seen more than its share of major gaffes in
recent years _ from the Maher Arar torture affair to claims by
rank-and-file Mounties of high-level meddling in RCMP pension and
insurance plans.
“I'm actually embarrassed,” said Dosanjh. “I dealt with the RCMP ...
in British Columbia when I was the attorney general. I was proud of
that. But the more I look at how they function, the more I see the
lack of transparency and accountability, I am flabbergasted. ”
“I don't know whether the red serge is any more a symbol that we
should be so proud of.”
© 2009 The Canadian Press
Series Continues:
| Taser Secrecy |
Dziekanski
| Zaps on rise
|
RCMP-Taser-QuickFacts|
Medical Care |
<<Previous
Next>>
|
