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The Canadian Press
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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 lll: Multiple RCMP Taser zaps on rise
despite warning
(published June 11, 2008)
In about one out of six incidents, the RCMP applied the stun gun
three times.
In 31 cases, the suspect was zapped seven or more times.
By Jim Bronskill and Sue Bailey - The Canadian Press
OTTAWA - The RCMP has repeatedly zapped people with Tasers in a
steadily rising percentage of multiple-stun cases despite an
internal policy that warns numerous jolts may be hazardous.
A Canadian Press CBC-Radio-Canada investigation of more than 3,200
incidents in which Mounties fired the powerful stun guns in the last
six years shows that officers used the Taser multiple times in
almost 43 per cent of cases.
In about one out of six incidents, the RCMP applied the stun gun
three times.
In 31 cases, the suspect was zapped seven or more times.
The electronic devices can be fired from a distance and cycled
repeatedly once steel probes puncture a suspect's skin or clothing.
The guns can also be used multiple times in up-close stun mode, a
sensation likened to leaning on a hot stove.
The findings, the most extensive public analysis of RCMP Taser use
to date, come as the national police faces growing pressure to
resort to the 50,000-volt weapons only when defusing serious clashes
with truly violent or armed suspects.
Paul Kennedy, commissioner for complaints against the RCMP, will
release a report Thursday expected to pointedly reiterate his
interim call late last year for a much tighter rein on Mountie Taser
use. An imminent Commons committee report is likely to echo the
recommendation.
Kennedy's probe is among a flurry of investigations following public
outrage over the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, who
died after being stunned twice with an RCMP Taser and pinned to the
floor of the Vancouver International Airport.
Dziekanski was one of more than 1,375 people the Mounties zapped
repeatedly in confrontations from 2002 through 2007, the analysis
shows.
In almost two-thirds of these cases, the suspect was unarmed.
About a dozen red sores covered Curtis Wasylenko's back and buttocks
after he was stunned by the Mounties several times - he lost count -
one night in Kelowna, B.C.
A heated spat with cab company employees in November 2004 led to a
parking lot confrontation. Wasylenko, then 21, says he was only
defending himself from attack. When police showed up they demanded
he stop struggling and threatened to Taser him.
Don't even think about it, Wasylenko told the RCMP officer.
“And the second I finished that sentence he shot me with the Taser,”
he recalls.
“The feeling of it, was I literally couldn't fight the shock anymore
and I felt my heart boom boom, you know, all I could feel was my
heart all of a sudden and it just started to slow down. It felt like
I had the wind knocked right out of me, I couldn't breathe. ”
Wasylenko says the officer continued to Taser him as he wailed in
pain. A second officer zapped him as he lay on the ground.
“I thought they were going to kill me.”
The Canadian Press and CBC/Radio-Canada compiled figures from
standard forms RCMP officers must file each time they pull a Taser
out of its holster. Thousands of heavily censored pages _ stripped
of names and other identifying details _ were obtained under the
Access to Information Act.
The percentage of cases in which RCMP officers fired their Tasers
more than once rose to a high of more than 45 per cent last year, up
from 31 per cent in 2002. The pattern of increase continued even
after a mid-2005 policy bulletin to Mounties that said multiple zaps
from the electronic gun “may be hazardous to a subject.”
Officers were advised not to cycle the Taser repeatedly against a
person unless “situational factors dictate otherwise” under the
force's overall policy on use of force.
The six-level police force continuum begins with officer presence
and builds in intensity to verbal commands; empty-hand control
techniques; use of pepper spray, batons or Tasers; less-lethal force
such as weapons that fire bean bags or rubber bullets; and finally
deadly force.
The RCMP had no comment on the force's increasing reliance on
multiple stuns.
“At this point, there is nobody available to speak to this,” said
Sgt. Nathalie Deschenes, an RCMP spokeswoman.
A request last week to interview RCMP Commissioner William Elliott
was refused.
In March, the force said it was confident that officers were using
Tasers appropriately. The Mounties plan to issue quarterly
statistical reports on stun gun firings, but have yet to do so.
Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty International, said the
latest findings should “be of real concern to the RCMP” due to the
dangers of repeated stuns.
“We have very serious concerns, because it is multiple use of a
Taser which is clearly going to have the greatest possibility of
leading to death or serious injury of a suspect,” Neve said.
“It is therefore quite shocking to see these numbers that
demonstrate that Tasers are being used multiple times on numerous
occasions.”
Dr. Stanley Nattel, a cardiologist at the Montreal Heart Institute,
questioned whether the repeated stuns were necessary.
“The longer the shocks continue the greater the direct risk of
capturing the heart and causing irregular and dangerous heart
rhythms,” he said. “In addition, if there's an accumulation of toxic
materials in the blood from the severe muscle contraction, that also
can interfere with the heart's rhythm and cause problems.”
Twenty people in Canada have died after being Tasered.
Manufacturer Taser International stresses that the weapons have
never been directly blamed for a death, though they have been cited
as contributing factors.
Dozens of Canadian police forces use the stun guns, touting them as
a safer alternative to the lethal force of a conventional firearm.
Critics have called for a moratorium on the electronic weapons until
sufficient independent research has been completed.
Simmering controversy prompted Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day
to ask Kennedy, an independent watchdog over the force, to study the
RCMP's Taser use.
In an interim report last December, Kennedy cited a pattern of
“usage creep” and said Tasers should be deemed impact weapons, used
only when suspects are “combative” or pose a risk of “death or
grievous bodily harm.”
The RCMP has resisted such restrictions.
Though the RCMP forms paint an unprecedented picture of Taser use in
Canada, the many deletions _ to shield the privacy of those stunned
and protect details of police investigations _ make it difficult to
clearly assess many of the incidents.
The Canadian Press and CBC complained to Information Commissioner
Robert Marleau about the censored forms in late February. Marleau,
struggling with a large backlog of files, has not begun looking into
the complaint.
In April, the RCMP yielded to pressure from critics and disclosed
more details about Taser incidents. However, the police force
continues to withhold descriptive summaries of events, precise dates
of firings, injuries suffered by those zapped and whether the person
hit was experiencing a mental health crisis.
© 2009 The Canadian Press
Series Continues:
| Taser Secrecy |
Dziekanski
| Zaps on rise |
RCMP-Taser-QuickFacts |
Medical Care |
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