Braidwood recommends restriction of Taser, not moratorium
In his 546-page report to the provincial government released to the public today (July 23), Justice Thomas Braidwood and his investigative team stopped short of recommending a moratorium or total ban on the provincewide use by police of Tasers and other “conducted energy weapons”. However, among his 19 recommendations, Braidwood did recommend the threshold for use of a CEW be raised so that they are used only for “truly criminal offences”. This excludes the enforcement of provincial and municipal bylaws.
Justice Thomas Braidwood explains why his report states that it should be the Province's responsibility to set the roles about conducted energy weapons' use and officer training.
“On balance, I am satisfied that our society is better off with these weapons in use than without them,” Braidwood told reporters at the downtown news conference at the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue. “However, my support for their use is conditional on significant changes being made in when and how the weapon is deployed.”
Police will now need to show that a suspect was committing, or had threatened, bodily harm to justify firing a Taser.
Braidwood noted that 49 percent of calls answered by Vancouver police officers involve “emotionally-disturbed individuals”. For their safety and well-being, Braidwood said police must use de-escalation and/or crisis-intervention techniques before deploying a CEW.
Speaking shortly after Braidwood in the same venue, solicitor general Kash Heed said he had issued a directive that all police departments—”irrespective of the colour of their uniform”—could use a Taser or other CEWs only in accordance with the recommendations laid out by the Braidwood report.
“I want to thank Justice Braidwood for perhaps the most comprehensive examination of CEWs anywhere in the world,” Heed told reporters. “Adoption of these recommendations builds on the work already underway to strengthen the standards for use, review, and oversight.”
Braidwood did say that although 70 percent of the province is policed by RCMP detachments, they were not part of his terms of reference. He also said that he was adding a 19th recommendation: with the province set to negotiate a new contract with the RCMP in 2012, a “precondition” would be that they “contractually agree” to rules, policies, and procedures that apply to “provincially regulated law-enforcement agencies”.
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Values Ethics
Jul 23, 2009 at 8:25pm
Justice Thomas Braidwood issued 19 recommendations on how and when the Conducted Energy Weapon (the Taser) should be used. His list ought to be augmented with some of the items set out in the June 2009 complaint that Adam Dormer filed against the RCMP. In January 2009, in Banff Judge John Reilly found that on July 21, 2007 RCMP officers arrested Dormer without cause and violated his Charter rights by Tasering him five times, three times after he was in handcuffs. The judge rebuked the officers for providing deliberately false evidence. The Crown appealed Dormer’s not-guilty verdict but the Appeal Court dismissed it saying that the officers were responsible for the incident.
Where Braidwood recommends that all police officers receive training on crisis intervention, Dormer requires that all RCMP officers receive annual training on how to diffuse a situation without use of weaponry.
Braidwood recommends that all officers. when dealing with emotionally disturbed people. be required to use de-escalation and/or crisis intervention techniques before deploying a Taser. Dormer requires that officers use conflict resolution skills before use of any weaponry in all instances.
Braidwood recommends the province develop an electronic system for the reporting and analysis of Taser incidents, with reports reviewed quarterly and reported annually to the responsible provincial minister. Dormer wants the establishment and weekly updating of a publicly available web site providing proactive disclosure of all Taser events; “event” being defined as the Taser being drawn, whether fired or not. Information to be provided will include, but not be limited to: name and rank of officer(s) involved, whether or not the Taser was fired, age and sex of Tasered person, date and location of event, whether the Tasered person was armed, why they were fired on, whether they were injured, whether medical treatment was provided, number of shocks, duration of shocks, what the police tried before resorting to the Taser, if the Tasered person dies within seven days of being Tasered, the date of death must also to be provided, a tally of how many incidents an officer has used a Taser as well as the number of shots per incident by the officer. The web site is to be audited for accuracy and completeness annually by an independent authority. The audit reports are to be tabled in the House of Commons.
Dormer also wants a change in RCMP policy so that it will be mandatory that every time the Taser is deployed/used/fired, the full report generated by the Taser will be provided within 24 hours to the person Tasered.
Dormer was attacked by the RCMP four months before Robert Dziekanski was Tasered and killed. Had RCMP management paid attention and taken corrective action then, Robert Dziekanski might still be alive.