Tasers overused and unreliable

September 24, 2009
John Lapsley, McGill Daily

Polytechnique professor condemns taser lethality, inconsistent performance

A lecture held at McGill Monday night warned that overuse and risk of malfunction make tasers far more dangerous than previously believed.

Pierre Savard of the École Polytechnique de Montreal led the audience through his research on the effects of electric stimulation on the human heart, demonstrating that use of electric stun guns can at times cause fatal complications.

“For many subjects with individual susceptibilities, the taser is in fact lethal,” Savard said, pointing out that individuals with heart disease and drug users face greater risks.

“The taser shock is analogous to the stress test hospitals give heart patients to test for defects,” Savard said. “These shocks stimulate flexors, extensors, and every nerve ending in the body.”

According to Savard, the danger present in these so-called “non-lethal weapons” is further exacerbated by what he saw as the RCMP’s gross overuse of tasers.

Savard illustrated this point with instances in which police used stun guns to wake up a subject sleeping on a bench and to pacify a grandmother who was making too much noise at a nursing home.

“It’s so easy to silence a subject [with a taser],” Savard said. “Too many policemen use it like the mute button on a remote control.”

Savard, a professor of electrical and biomedical engineering, began his investigation into taser safety after the October 2007 death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski. Dziekanski could not understand English and became lost shortly after arriving at Vancouver International Airport. After an agitated Dziekanski threw a computer and small table to the ground, RCMP officers tasered him five times. Dziekanski died almost immediately.

Dziekanski’s death spurred a Michener Prize-winning CBC-Radio Canada investigation into taser safety, which found that at least 10 per cent of the stun guns currently in use in Canada malfunction outside of manufacturer specifications, putting subjects at greater risk of death.

Several individual police forces in Canada launched concurrent investigations that supported CBC-Radio Canada’s findings.

Based on these studies, groups like Amnesty International and the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP stepped forward, condemning taser overuse and urging a moratorium on stun guns until further research could be done.

Taser International, the sole manufacturer of tasers, responded dismissively to these studies.

Peter Holran, the company’s spokesman, called it regrettable that “false allegations based on scientifically flawed data” could raise such concerns and reaffirmed the quality of Taser International’s products.

Savard was concerned by Taser International’s lack of transparency. Savard noted that medical instrument manufacturers have “traceability,” meaning that a defective medical instrument can be traced piece by piece back to the raw materials, allowing selective safety recalls. Weapons manufacturers also undergo strict objective scrutiny from outside safety agencies. Tasers, however, qualify as neither medical instruments nor weapons, and are therefore subject only to the manufacturer’s testing standards.

Savard quipped, “If it’s not a weapon and it’s not medical equipment, it’s a toy.”

Tasers, however, still rank among police officers’ safest methods of applying force.

Savard cited a 2006-2007 study of Calgary police officers’ force interactions which demonstrated that out of all non-lethal force methods, stun gun interactions least frequently necessitated medical attention for the subject or the officer.

Savard himself admitted that tasers are among the safer means of subduing suspects, but firmly reiterated that more research into stun gun lethality, and more transparency in the manufacturing process are necessary if police officers are to continue using them on suspects.

CBC taser test results

This is worth another look ... the most comprehensive and ***independent*** electrical test of tasers ever conducted in the world was done by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.


PART 1 OF 2:



PART 2 OF 2:

RCMP shocked 16 people five times or more last year

April 8, 2009
Dave McKie, CBC News

Despite a dramatic drop in the RCMP's use of stun guns in 2008, the force is still zapping some suspects five times or more with the controversial weapon.

Mounties shocked at least 16 suspects with a Taser five or more times, according to analysis done by CBC/Radio-Canada and the Canadian Press of RCMP reports released through access to information requests. Ten of the cases topped five stuns.

The most extreme example is an incident in southern B.C., where three officers from the Ridge Meadows RCMP detachment fired a Taser nine times on an unarmed person.

Another report indicated a suspect, who had been drinking heavily and acted aggressively, was jolted eight times. Two other cases involved seven deployments of a stun gun.

"It's obvious that officers in using [stun guns] don't seem to have any serious restraints on multiple use," said NDP MP Jack Harris, the party's public safety critic. "And it has been clearly shown that multiple use leads to a greater danger."

Multiple Taser use has come under increased public scrutiny since the high-profile 2007 death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski in the Vancouver International Airport, which is the subject of a public inquiry. He died after officers deployed a Taser five times in less than a minute.

"As we saw in the case of Mr. Dziekanski, [being stunned five times] was a major contributing factor potentially to his death," said federal Liberal public safety critic Mark Holland.

Holland echoed the concerns of his NDP counterpart, calling such extreme use of stun guns "egregiously wrong."

Independent research conducted by Montreal biomedical engineer Pierre Savard has shown that increased exposure to stun guns is likely to raise the chance of death, a finding that runs contrary to claims made by manufacturer Taser International and many police forces.

Concern in isolated communities

Among the incidents recorded is one in Wuskwi Sipihk First Nation, a Cree community of about 300 people in central Manitoba.

The RCMP report says three officers stunned a suspect six times in the community last year after the individual, who had been drinking, became "actively combative."

Though the RCMP report doesn't reveal names of suspects or exact dates of incidents, there are indications the suspect may have been Pierre Brass.

His friend Daren Mckay said Brass still has the barbs from when he was repeatedly stunned when Mounties arrested him on the reserve in September.

"He wasn't resisting; the cops grabbed him and wrestled him down," Mckay recalled. "They didn't give him no chance or anything."

Grand Chief Ron Evans of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs says there's growing concern about how Tasers are used, especially in isolated native communities often policed by the RCMP.

"When you Taser people, at some point in time, you're crossing beyond the line of cruelty," he said of repeated shocks.

Evans said aboriginal communities are vulnerable because there's a sense "nobody will speak out on their behalf or no one will ever know if you Taser somebody in the remote communities."

MPs call for RCMP to clarify policy

A CBC News investigation recently revealed that the RCMP softened parts of its stun-gun policy by deleting a key sentence ordering officers not to cycle the stun gun repeatedly or for more than 15 to 20 seconds at a time, unless the officer faced special circumstances.

That policy change, made this February, happened despite assurances from RCMP Commissioner William Elliott before a parliamentary committee that the force had adjusted its policy last June to curb multiple use of the stun gun.

The policy did add a warning that stun guns could cause death, particularly for agitated people. The policy also informs officers that multiple or continuous shocks may be hazardous.

RCMP Taser use overall dropped 30 per cent in 2008 compared to the previous year, marking the first decline in years.

But Harris and Holland, who are members of the parliamentary public safety committee studying Taser use, are calling for Elliott to return before the committee to explain the force's policy on multiple stun gun use.

Sgt. Sylvie Tremblay, an RCMP spokeswoman, told CBC News and the Canadian Press in an email that Elliott has informed the committee that he's "happy to reappear to clarify any confusion resulting from his previous statements to the committee." A date has not yet been set.

"What's particularly concerning is that Commissioner Elliott appeared before our committee [and] led us to believe that there were tighter restrictions on … [using] Tasers multiple times against an individual," said Holland.

On Feb. 12, Elliott told the committee that the force had "taken steps to restrict" use of Tasers. The policy deletions were made nine days prior.

Elliott stressed in a letter to CBC News that the policy does include a warning to officers that multiple deployment or continuous cycling of a Taser "may be hazardous to a subject."


RCMP use of Tasers dropped in 2008, after years of increases. (CBC)

Moratorium mulled

The RCMP has not commented on the latest multiple-use findings from the 2008 data.

It's unclear whether the only Taser-related death reported in 2008 involving the RCMP — Frank Frachette, 49, of Langley, B.C., who died on Oct. 30 — was among those jolted multiple times with a stun gun. The force has refused to comment on how many times he was stunned due to a potential inquest.

Holland says he plans to press Elliott for more details about the 16 cases when the RCMP commissioner next appears before the public safety committee.

"Certainly we're going to want to ask him again on this question for the outstanding cases, if he could provide — at the very minimum — the public complaints commissioner with all the details of these cases," said Holland.

And if the committee fails to get action on RCMP multiple Taser use, Harris said the committee may revive its call for a moratorium on use of Tasers until "we can get it under control."

Hilary Homes of Amnesty International Canada says more independent research is needed, since most analysis has been linked to the largest stun gun manufacturer, Taser International Inc., or police forces.

"To hear that we're continuing to see multiple stuns, including as many as five, is certainly of concern," said Homes.

She said many studies, including a 2005 one in B.C., have recommended minimizing the use of multiple stuns due to the increased risk of harming the person.

When it comes to people in vulnerable states, she notes, the effects of a stun gun are still not well understood.

The data was acquired by CBC/Radio-Canada and the Canadian Press as part of an access to information request for RCMP records from 2002 to 2008, which has been compiled into a searchable database.

Locations where RCMP jolted a suspect five times or more:

Nanaimo, B.C.
North Vancouver, B.C.
Ridge Meadows, B.C.
Banff, Alta.
Gift Lake, Alta.
Okotoks, Alta.
Perryvale, Alta.
Slave Lake, Alta.
Strathmore, Alta.
Shamattawa, Man.
Wuskwi Sipihk First Nation, Man.
Hazlet, Sask.
La Ronge, Sask.
Maidstone, Sask.
Milestone, Sask.
Charlottetown, P.E.I.

For more on RCMP Taser incidents, check our database of reports from 2002 to 2008.

EDITORIAL: Shocked, repeatedly

March 30, 2009
The Ottawa Citizen

When police Taser someone, they are administering force -- physically interfering with the suspect's body. Sometimes this is what police have to do, and they have a variety of instruments with which to do it -- not just a Taser but, depending on the situation, their fists, a baton, even a gun.

It ought to be self-evident that the more times you apply a physical force or trauma to a person, the greater the risk of serious injury. Five cracks to the head with a baton are more dangerous than one. Getting shot is never good, but taking three bullets is worse than taking one.

Robert Dziekanski, the Polish immigrant who died in a confrontation with RCMP at the Vancouver airport, was Tasered five times. Common sense suggests that the repeated administration of debilitating electric shocks elevates the risk of lasting injury, or death. Yet because Tasers are officially deemed "non-lethal," some of their defenders deny the risk.

A punch in the face is generally a non-lethal use of force too, but five punches in the head represents an altogether different kind of weapon.

Common sense has now been confirmed thanks to a study by Montreal biomedical engineer Pierre Savard. Savard analysed data from thousands of Taser incidents and discovered what he calls a "linear relationship" -- the more shocks you receive, the more likely your chance of dying. It's becoming increasingly difficult to pretend that multiple Tasering did not contribute to Dziekanski's death.

This isn't to say police departments should stop carrying Tasers -- although in Quebec the weapons are being pulled from service because many are believed to deliver more of a shock than specified by the manufacturer. Tasers can be a useful tool. They are less lethal than guns and cause no injury most of the time. But police officers need to know that any weapon used clumsily, or excessively, can produce an undesired outcome.

Quebec orders police to turn in Tasers - Province recalls 167 weapons after some stun guns malfunctioned in testing

March 27, 2009
CBC News

The Quebec government is pulling all its Taser stun guns off the street for testing after new lab results revealed problems with some of the weapons.

Quebec was the first province to order testing of the stun guns after a CBC/Radio-Canada investigation showed some used by Canadian police did not meet the manufacturer's specifications.

The province sent 52 stun guns made before 2005 to an independent lab for testing. Five of them performed outside normal range.

With the results in hand, on Thursday evening Quebec Public Security Minister Jacques Dupuis ordered all of the province's police departments to send their Taser stun guns to the lab immediately.

As a result, 167 of the weapons will remain off the streets until they are checked.

"All of the measures possible will be taken," Dupuis said in his statement. "Quebec is on the leading edge in this work and nothing will be neglected in guaranteeing the responsible use and security of this type of weapon."

The Quebec government has not yet provided details on how the guns malfunctioned or how much current they delivered.

The problem weapons came from Longueuil, Eastmain and Akwesasne. Police say none of the weapons had been used against a person. The five stun guns will be destroyed.

Quebec tests echo CBC/Radio-Canada findings

Quebec first became concerned about stun guns after a CBC/Radio-Canada investigation last fall. CBC tested 41 Taser stun guns and found that 10 per cent delivered higher jolts of electric current than specified by the manufacturer, Taser International. All the Tasers that malfunctioned were older models.

Pierre Savard, the biomedical engineer who conducted the CBC/Radio-Canada analysis, also worked with the province on developing the protocol for its study.

"It is difficult for me to say something definite about those results but it clearly shows that all Tasers are not perfect," said Pierre Savard.

There are thousands of Tasers in use by police across the country and most major police forces are in the process of having their the stun guns tested.

Critics, supporters applaud recall decision

Critics of stun gun use in Quebec were pleased by the minister's decision.

Marvin Rotrand, a Montreal city councillor, hopes the recall will lead to a full ban in Quebec. "Is this a valid part of the police arsenal? The proof has not been made conclusively," said Rotrand.

"The minister now has an opportunity not only to test whether Tasers in the police arsenal across Quebec actually are safe, but whether we might be better off if Tasers were retired from the arsenal altogether."

Claude Dauphin, the executive committee member responsible for public security, said the Montreal police department will send its 17 Taser stun guns to the lab as requested.

He supports the government's decision to test the stun guns, and hopes the findings will reassure the public that they are important tools for police.

"When we use the Taser gun it is the last resort before the real gun," said Dauphin. "That is why on the island … we made sure with our police authorities that [the stun gun] has to be used in a very restricted operation."

Dupuis is expected to hold a news conference Friday to give more details.

Taser International has not responded to the Quebec action. However, the company has criticized CBC/Radio-Canada's investigation, saying the testing methods were flawed.

"Excited delirium" strikes again

TODAY'S QUESTION, IN HONOUR OF TREVOR GRIMOLFSON (and because his family and friends DESERVE to know) IS:

How did we get from HERE:

From the Toronto Star
February 13, 2009
"...The RCMP has admitted that firing a Taser poses a risk of death" ... "have also dropped the term "excited delirium" - a phrase that had no medical foundation, and was criticized earlier by the Commons committee, the RCMP's public complaints commissioner, independent consultants and civil liberty groups."

To HERE just over a month later:

By THE CANADIAN PRESS
March 26, 2009

Edmonton man who died after Taser shock was killed by excited delirium: Report

Alberta Justice says a man who was Tasered by Edmonton police in October died from a condition called excited delirium — not from the effects of being hit by the electronic stun gun.

Trevor Grimolfson, 38, died on Oct. 29 after going on a rampage in a pawn shop.

The provincial medical examiner said the cause of death was excited delirium brought on by multiple drug toxicity.

Officers on the scene said Grimolfson could not be controlled after just one Taser use, so a second electronic jolt was needed.

More than 25 people have died in Canada after being stunned by Tasers.

The U.S. company that makes the devices points out that they have never been directly proven to have caused a death in Canada.

The RCMP yesterday announced they'd loosened a restriction on multiple Taser shocks amid growing evidence that repeated stun gun jolts increase risk of death.

A new statistical analysis by Montreal biomedical engineer Pierre Savard suggests the chances of someone dying after being hit with a police Taser increase the more times they are stunned.

That research comes as a public inquiry examines the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, who got five shocks from an RCMP Taser in October 2007 at the Vancouver airport. An amateur video of Dziekanski writhing on the floor was beamed around the world, sparking new questions about stun gun safety.

Savard carried out the study using a database of over 3,200 RCMP Taser incidents from 2002 to 2007 compiled by The Canadian Press and the CBC/Radio-Canada. He also looked at an Amnesty International study of Taser cases involving more than 300 deaths in the United States.

During the six-year period, nine people died in Canada after being Tasered by the RCMP. In at least seven of the nine deaths, accounts indicate the person was jolted multiple times.

And here it is again, from the Edmonton Journal:

Taser didn’t kill man who smashed pawnshop: medical examiner
By Journal Staff, edmontonjournal.com
March 26, 2009 5:01 PM

EDMONTON — Trevor Grimolfson did not die from the Taser strike he received from city police last October after he busted up a Stony Plain Road pawnshop, according to the medical examiner's office. "The cause of death was excited delirium brought on by drugs he'd taken," said Alberta Justice spokesman David Dear. Grimolfson, 38, was Tasered twice by Edmonton police after he attacked a man at his tattoo parlour and went on to smash windows and destroy a nearby pawnshop. He died shortly afterwards. A fatality review board will determine whether or not a fatality inquiry will be recommended. The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team is still investigating to determine whether or not the police officers involved will press criminal charges. Alberta Solicitor General spokesman Andy Weiler said no one from ASIRT will comment on the medical examiner's report until the investigation is complete.

Is Alberta Justice (like BC Justice) just having one big long nap until this nasty anti-taser business blows over?? Seems they haven't been keeping up with what's new in news ... they're not getting with the program.

RCMP softened Taser-use restrictions - New research suggests more shots raise likelihood of causing death

'If one ping-pong ball hit to the head does not kill you, 1,000 probably cannot either.'
—Taser International

"It is a linear relationship: the more you are exposed — if you double the exposure, you double the risk of death." —Pierre Savard, biomedical engineer at Montreal's École Polytechnique who specializes in effects of electricity on the heart

March 25, 2009
CBC News

In response to national anger at the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski in the Vancouver airport, the RCMP was urged to curb multiple Taser use by its officers — but instead deleted an existing restriction from its stun-gun policy.

CBC News has learned that on Feb. 3, 2009, two sentences were erased from the main document that guides officers' actions — the first limiting Taser usage to one shot and no more than 20 seconds at a time, and the second requiring officers to warn suspects before deploying a stun gun.

"They have in fact not placed stricter guidelines on the multiple usage of the Taser; they've in fact removed the ban on multiple use in their new guidelines," said Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh, who chaired a parliamentary committee that reviewed RCMP Taser use.

"And that is absolutely reprehensible, it's unacceptable, it's retrogressive — it's actually moving backwards."

The RCMP's policy change comes at a time when new independent research has emerged suggesting that chance of death from stun guns rises with each exposure, contrary to claims by the largest stun-gun manufacturer and police forces using the devices.

"It is a linear relationship: the more you are exposed — if you double the exposure, you double the risk of death," Pierre Savard, a biomedical engineer at Montreal's École Polytechnique who specializes in effects of electricity on the heart, told CBC News.

Savard studied statistics on more than 300 Taser-related deaths compiled by Amnesty International and results from 3,200 RCMP Taser deployments amassed by CBC/Radio-Canada and the Canadian Press.

That electrical current, says Savard, increases the heart rate and can directly affect the cardiac rhythm. "There are plausible mechanisms that can relate the Taser itself to death," said Savard.

A direct link between Tasers and death cannot yet be established, says Savard, until there are enough deaths for such analysis. He notes as an example that it wasn't immediately possible to link lung cancer to smoking when mass cigarette use first began.

Dziekanski hit by stun gun for 31 seconds

The Arizona-based Taser International maintains that its stun guns don't affect the heart and several zaps have no more effect on your health than one.

It points out that thousands of people have survived stun guns and compares the weapon's cycles to hollow ping pong balls: "If one ping-pong ball hit to the head does not kill you, 1,000 probably cannot either."

Based on his findings, however, Savard believes police forces should limit exposure to one or two shocks and not more than 20 seconds in total.

RCMP Corp. Gregg Gillis, a use-of-force trainer in B.C., denies the sentences were removed due to legal concerns. He says the force never had an outright ban on using the weapon more than once and instead allowed the situation dictate the use.

The restriction written in the 2005 policy was based on older research, since proven wrong, about electrical weapons impairing breathing, said Gillis.

"We said be cautious about the use of multiple exposures, because we're not sure what the outcome might be from that, because there wasn't clear medical research that spoke to that issue."

Use of Tasers by the RCMP and other police forces has come under intense scrutiny since Dziekanski's death on Oct. 14, 2007, in the arrivals area of the Vancouver International Airport.

A bystander's amateur video captured Dziekanski's final moments, allowing officials and people around the world to witness the encounter between him and the four RCMP officers.

Committee pushed for restrictions

The video reveals that RCMP Const. Kwesi Millington deployed the Taser on Dziekanski five times, for a total of 31 seconds in the span of a minute. At the Braidwood inquiry, Millington testified he feared for the officers' safety after Dziekanski grabbed a stapler. Dziekanski clearly falls to the floor in the video, taped by Paul Pritchard, but the constable uses the stun gun four more times. After learning that her son had been shocked five times with a Taser, Zofia Cisowski told CBC News that she wondered why police use Tasers at all. "They say they are human being[s] but who was my son? Also a human being," she said.

The House of Commons public safety and national security committee was among a handful of groups to investigate in the months that followed. In a report released in mid-June of 2008, the group, representing politicians of all stripes, called the RCMP's policy too permissive and pointed out weaknesses in officer training.

Most importantly, the committee called for the force to put "clear restrictions" on officers discharging stun guns multiple times and recommended they limit use to cases where the suspect is combative or poses a "risk of death and grievous bodily harm."

And if the Mounties weren't willing to do so by mid-December, the committee threatened to seek a moratorium on their use of the weapons. Eight months after the committee's report, RCMP Commissioner William Elliott told the committee that the force had introduced a revised Taser policy back in June 2008.

"I believe the facts are we have made significant changes in response to the committee's report and to respond to the recommendations," Elliott told the parliamentary committee on Feb. 12, 2009. "We have taken steps to restrict its use."

The policy added recognition that a stun gun could cause death, especially for "acutely agitated" individuals, and still informed officers that multiple or continuous shocks may be hazardous.

But the RCMP eliminated a line prohibiting officers from shocking someone more than once.

The old policy, in place since 2005, had stated: "Multiple deployment or continuous cycling of the [Conducted Energy Weapons] may be hazardous to a subject. Unless situational factors dictate otherwise … do not cycle the CEW repeatedly, nor more than 15-20 seconds at a time against a subject."

RCMP out of touch: Dosanjh

In another section, the policy instructed officers to issue a warning before using a Taser. "Police, stop or you will be hit with 50,000 volts of electricity!"

Dosanjh, the Liberal MP who chaired the parliamentary committee, was outraged by the removal of the two sentences. "The public safety minister has an obligation to call Mr. Elliott into his office and say, 'What are you doing? Why are you not levelling with Canadians?' " said Dosanjh. "'Why are you not levelling with the House of Commons committee that made recommendations?'"

He said the RCMP's upper echelons appear to be out of touch with Canadians' views on Taser use and the force is in need of an overhaul. "They don't understand the depth of the anger that Canadians feel about the Taser."

Some also fear such policy changes could serve to protect the RCMP in future cases of Taser-related deaths.

"It could weaken the case of a victim if indeed the policies of the RCMP are more permissible than they were at the time of Robert Dziekanski's death," said Don Rosenbloom, the lawyer representing the Polish government at the Braidwood inquiry.

RCMP trainer Gillis cited two studies for making the force's policy change: one examining police officers who received one five-second shock; and another paid for by Taser International on the effects of repeated stuns on breathing.

And Gillis insists that officers are hearing the message on how dangerous multiple stun-gun use can be during training.

In fact, three of the officers involved in the Dziekanski case were trained by Gillis three months before the death, but appeared unclear on the policy during testimony at the Braidwood inquiry.

Two of the officers, Millington and Const. Bill Bentley, couldn't recall why the policy on multiple Taser use was adopted.

And in fact, the study cited by Elliott to the parliamentary committee to defend the safety of Tasers, done by a U.S. government agency, the National Institute of Justice, questions multiple stun-gun use.

While it found stun-gun exposure is safe in most cases, it clearly stated that the risk of death following repeated or continuous Taser exposure is still unknown.

"Law enforcement should be aware that the associated risks are unknown. Therefore, caution is urged in using multiple activations of CED as a mean to accomplish subdual."

An analysis of RCMP stun gun reports by CBC and the Canadian Press found that 45 per cent of cases involved an officer firing the stun gun more than once.

As for deleting the verbal warning officers are to give suspects, Gillis said it was taken out due to accuracy.

Tasers don't conduct 50,000 volts of electricity, he says, noting that the weapon's electrical impact is measured in current, the rate of the flow of electrons, rather than voltage, the amount of force driving the flow.

Gillis said officers are generally trained to use appropriate warnings to de-escalate situations, even though the policy no longer requires it.

In Dziekanski's case, no warning was issued by Const. Kwesi Millington before the first of five stun-gun deployments.

For more on this story, watch The National Wednesday at 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET/PT on CBC Newsworld and at 10 p.m. local time on CBC Television and 10:30 p.m. NT.

RCMP operational manual on conducted energy weapons (as amended Feb. 2, 2009)

RCMP operational manual on conducted energy weapons (cached version from before Feb. 2, 2009)

March 25, 2009
CBC News

Sir:

This is to follow up on your request for an interview today with me and your subsequent telephone conversation with Supt. Tim Cogan. We understand you wanted to ask about your perception that there is a discrepancy between the RCMP’s revised policy on Conducted Energy Weapons and statements I made to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (SECU) on February 12, 2009. Unfortunately I am not available to be interviewed.

In your conversation with Supt. Cogan, you referenced my opening remarks to SECU where I addressed the second recommendation of the Standing Committee’s June 2008 Report and indicated “The RCMP’s revised CEW policy restricts the use of CEWs and specifically warns of the hazards of multiple deployment or continuous cycling of the CEW.”

I stand by this statement. It refers to the two aspects of the recommendation in question, relating to usage guidelines more broadly and multiple discharges.

The revised RCMP policy does restrict the use of CEWs. Section 3. 1. 1 of the revised Operational Manual (O.M.) states: “The CEW must only be used in accordance with CEW training, the principles of the Incident Management/Intervention Model (IM/IM) and in response to a threat to officer or public safety as determined by a member’s assessment of the totality of the circumstances being encountered. NOTE: Member’s actions must be reasonable and the force used must be necessary in the circumstances.”

With respect to the second aspect of the recommendation, RCMP policy includes a warning to Members that: “Multiple deployment or continuous cycling of the CEW may be hazardous to a subject.” (O.M. 3. 1. 3).

The new policy further provides that: “Acutely agitated or delirious persons may be at a high risk of death. If an individual is in an acutely agitated or delirious state, and whenever possible when responding to reports of violent individuals, request the assistance of emergency medical services. If possible bring medical assistance to the scene.” (O.M. 3. 1. 4)

The policy also directs members to make every effort to “take control of the subject as soon as possible following deployment of a CEW, and if possible during the CEW deployment”. The new policy also clearly states that “the CEW is not intended as a restraint device” (O.M. 3. 1. 5).

The statements I made to the Standing Committee are completely consistent with the policy.I trust this clarifies any misunderstanding you may have had about the RCMP’s revised CEW policy and my statements to the Standing Committee.

William Elliott

EDITORIAL: Patterns of force

February 8, 2009
News Herald

The advantage Tasers have over traditional firearms - their being less lethal - can also be one of their biggest drawbacks.

It's not hard to see why Tasers are now used by more than 12,000 police agencies across the country, including in Bay County. Instead of firing bullets, these plastic guns deliver a jolt of electric current - up to 50,000 volts - that is designed to briefly incapacitate a target without endangering his life. No blood is spilled, no vital organs are supposed to be damaged. The weapon is seen as a safer, humane alternative to traditional firearms.

However, when force becomes less dangerous to apply, it is more likely to be used, such as in situations which might not call for such action. A law-enforcement officer who would never draw his firearm to defuse conflict might be more susceptible to deploying his Taser knowing the risks of serious injury were much lower, even though the confrontation could be resolved with even less force than electro-shock.

Indeed, there are numerous anecdotes of questionable tasings. In 2005 alone in Florida, police zapped a 6-year-old boy, a fleeing 12-year-old girl who was allegedly drunk, a 14-year-old girl who was sitting in the back of a squad car and a man in a wheelchair who was brandishing a pair of scissors. Do unarmed children and the disabled really constitute severe threats to police that warrant their being tased? More likely, officers were exasperated and frustrated with uncooperative suspects.

Just because force is not lethal does not mean it should be applied liberally. Getting tased might not be like getting shot with a bullet or beaten with a nightstick, but it's anything but routine. Just ask any law-enforcement officer who has received a jolt in training (which has become standard procedure in many agencies). It makes an impression. Of course, that's the point of putting the officers through it - so they know what they're delivering and thus will consider using it sparingly.

Nevetheless, there is growing evidence that Tasers aren't as benign as some of their supporters claim. Since 2001, more than 300 people have died after being tased. That's a high price to pay for what often is not a life-and-death situation. According to Amnesty International, about 80 percent of all those who have been tased were unarmed and 36 percent were zapped for verbal non-compliance. Only 3 percent of the cases involved "deadly assault."

A recent study by a Montreal biomedical engineer and a U.S. defense contractor at the request of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. concluded that Tasers can fire more electricity than their manufactuer, Taser International, says is possible. The study says that raises the risk of cardiac arrest as much as 50 percent in some people. Even stun guns firing at their expected electrical levels carry some risk of inducing a heart attack.

Clearly, though, Tasers have a place in law enforcement if employed judiciously. They can save officers' lives without putting civilians' at as high a risk as if they were shot. The key is not to go around zapping everyone who initially resists or mouths off to a cop - situations where force normally would not be used.

It's good to see that local law enforcement agencies have tightened rules for Taser usage. Sheriff Frank McKeithen told The News Herald's Jon Miltmore that he was not satisified with the BCSO's policy and had it rewritten so it's harder to justify using the weapon. The Panama City Police Department in 2006 similarly moved Tasers further down its "use-of-force continuum" scale. Beach police adopted the stun guns just last year.

Police force always should be applied as a last resort, not a first response, regardless of its level of lethality. Just because chemical sprays, Tasers and beanbag guns, to name a few, are less dangerous than bullets shouldn't mean they are substitutes for other methods of routine crowd control or subduing suspects. There are no shortcuts to good police work.

Engineers counter company's claim CBC taser tests flawed

December 12, 2008
By Sandra Bartlett and Frederic Zalac, CBC News

Scientists who conducted tests for CBC News/Radio-Canada finding that some stun guns produced higher than advertised voltages are disputing suggestions by Taser International that their data was "scientifically flawed."

Roger Barr, among the engineers who reviewed the testing protocol, dismissed Taser International's concerns and said the CBC-commissioned tests were based on solid practices.

"The CBC tests measured the voltages and currents that came out of Tasers when they were fired. It measured in a systematic and professional way," said Barr, a biomedical engineering professor at Duke University in Raleigh, N.C.

The procedure, conducted by U.S.-based lab National Technical Systems, found that 10 per cent of the stun guns produced more electrical current than the weapons' specifications.

"This is not simply a matter of opinion," said Barr. "This is an issue of objective evidence, and perhaps not all of the evidence is in, but it is not a case where one can simply disregard some of the findings because someone else disagrees with them."

Taser International said CBC made scientific errors by failing to spark-test the weapons before firing them, which the company recommends police officers do on a regular basis.

Spark test a red herring: engineer

University of Montreal biomedical engineer Pierre Savard, who designed the testing system, says the spark-test issue is a red herring, since some Tasers delivered a higher electrical current after the first firing, the equivalent of a spark test.

"A spark test would last probably less than one second. And for two Tasers that showed abnormal currents, we were able to do repeated measurements after one or two seconds, and the current was still abnormally high after those initial tests."

Savard points out that the written instructions from Max Nerheim, Taser International's vice-president of research and development, made no mention of a spark test.

Taser International also criticized the CBC tests over the way the tests replicated electricity moving through a human body, which was measured in ohms. Prior to the tests, the company advised using a resistance of 250 ohms, but later said it should have been 600 ohms.

Savard says these changes in the testing protocol highlight a significant problem for anyone wanting to do independent testing of the Tasers.

"I think the real problem is that there's no international standard in how to test these devices and so the company is changing the protocol from one value of the resistance to the other," said Savard.

Savard said there's a need for more independent studies of the devices, but it would require a uniform protocol.

The CBC commissioned the tests using Tasers from seven unidentified police departments in the U.S., who agreed to provide the guns on the basis their identities would remain unknown.

Of 41 older-model X26 Tasers tested, four delivered significantly more current than Taser International advertised was possible. In some cases, the current was up to 50 per cent stronger than specified.

The X26 Tasers were manufactured before 2005 and are one of the most commonly used models.

Agencies review use of older Tasers

The findings prompted Savard to recommend police stop using any older versions of stun guns until they are tested.

Since then, several police agencies have begun checking their inventories for older devices. B.C, Alberta, Nova Scotia, Quebec and the RCMP have ordered police to suspend the use of Tasers bought before 2005 and in some cases before 2006.

On Thursday, Alberta Solicitor General Fred Lindsay announced a plan to gather up about 400 Tasers from police agencies around the province, purchased before Jan. 1, 2006, and have them tested.

"The plan is to test all of the approximately 400 Tasers in question to determine if they are working within the manufacturer's specifications," said Lindsay. "We'll await the results of those tests before deciding on next steps."

"In the interest of public and police officer safety, my department is currently in discussions with the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology and the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology to implement a testing protocol for all X26 model Tasers purchased by Alberta police services before Jan. 1, 2006," said Lindsay.

Some provinces appear to be leaving the decision to pull the older Tasers to individual police departments.

Winnipeg police plan to remove the older Tasers from service and have them tested. While they couldn't say how many of the about 200 Tasers in their stockpile are being pulled from use, police said they are focusing their efforts on locating devices manufactured prior to 2005.

"These devices are being pulled from service," Const. Jason Michalyshen said.

Taser International has always insisted there is never a need to test a Taser's electrical output after it leaves the factory. In news releases over the past few days, however, the company is now offering to help police get their Tasers tested.

"Taser International welcomes proper testing of its devices and has provided its factory test protocols to test laboratories in Canada."

The taser myth: how does a 'non-lethal weapon' kill 400 people?

December 13, 2008
By Liliana Segura, AlterNet

On Sept. 24, in Brooklyn, N.Y., a 35-year-old man named Iman Morales fell to his death after a 22-minute standoff with New York Police. Morales, who was described as "emotionally disturbed," had climbed onto the fire escape of a building in Bedford-Stuyvesant, naked and waving a metal pole. Unable to talk him down, one officer, under order from his lieutenant, shot Morales with a Taser gun, at which point he fell to the sidewalk, head-first.

He was taken to the hospital, where he was declared dead.

One week later, the officer who gave the order, Lt. Michael W. Pigott, drove to Brooklyn's Floyd Bennett Field, a former air base used by the NYPD, took a 9mm Glock from a locker room, and shot himself in the head.

It's hard to know which are more ubiquitous at this point: stories of accidental death by Tasers, or stories of police brutality involving bullets. Just this week, in New York, a Bronx man was shot and killed after he allegedly waved a baseball bat at police officers who entered his home. In theory, these sorts of confrontations are the reason such "non-lethal" weapons as Tasers exist. But news reports tell a different tale. In the United States and Canada, more than 400 people have died after being Tasered since 2001.

Apart from his suicide, what sets Pigott apart from most police officers who kill people using Tasers is that he must have realized that the order to Taser Morales could deal a fatal blow. Why he decided to do it anyway will remain unanswered. And it's impossible to know whether remorse over Morales' death was the driving factor behind his decision to take his life, or whether it was the stripping of his badge after over 20 years on the force -- or something else.

Regardless, for people who carry a Taser as an alternative to a gun, the realization that they are actually deadly weapons must deal a hard blow.

Despite the rather old news that Tasers can kill, the news media continue to be littered with reports of trigger-happy Taserers, many of whom should be relieved that their victims lived. This week in Oklahoma, police Tasered a man who had gone into diabetic shock while driving, which caused him to spin out of control on the road. (The officers felt "extremely bad" upon realizing that he was not drunk or high but rather in need of medical attention.) In another report, last month, undercover cops in North Carolina Tasered a man acting as a pallbearer at his father's funeral. (The local sheriff apologized for the deputies' behavior. "Family, friends, relatives. … That was a bad decision.")

Appalling social behavior aside, it doesn't seem hard to unearth the psychology behind excessive Taser use. It must be easy to be quick on the draw when toting a weapon that is like a pretend firearm. Like guns, Tasers are about much more than self-defense. For civilians (and cops), the sense of power that comes from carrying a weapon is a central part of the appeal. Taser International, Inc. has capitalized on this -- a trio of new C2 Taser models, which have been aggressively marketed toward women, come in leopard print and two styles of camouflage. ("Who says safety can't be stylish?" reads the marketing tag on the Taser Web site.) Tasers fulfill a powerful, violent fantasy: the ability to shoot someone without deadly consequences.

Taser's marketing coup has been to convince consumers that there is such a thing as a gun that won't kill. The number of deaths caused by Tasers cuts through this myth.

Recently, a new study discovered that the most common model of Taser used by police officers are far more hazardous than the company claims, capable of firing dangerous levels of electricity that can raise the risk of heart attack by as much as 50 percent. Shortly after the release of the findings, Canadian police departments pulled Tasers from their forces. ("Police departments in the United States, however, appear to have taken no similar action," reported the Arizona Republic.)

Pierre Savard, a biomedical engineer at the University of Montreal, led the study, which Taser International claims is composed of "false allegations based on scientifically flawed data". Last year, he also examined the high-profile death of Robert Dziekanski, a Polish immigrant who died after being Tasered by police at Vancouver International Airport.

"At first, I thought (Taser) was a great product," Savard told the Arizona Republic. "My point of view is that police officers already carry firearms, which are definitely more dangerous. So the Taser is much less dangerous to start with. But it should be used in a cautious manner.

"As a scientist … the risk is not zero."

EDITORIAL: tasers and public safety

December 13, 2008
Kingston Whig-Standard

Police departments across Canada, including the RCMP, are pulling older Tasers from service after concerns were raised about their safety in a CBC investigative report. The study found that four out of 44 of the X26 model stun guns fired charges significantly higher than what the company's specifications indicate. The medical analysis accompanying the findings suggests that these higher charges could increase the chance of inducing cardiac arrest by up to 50%.

Following the CBC report, a spokesman for the Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services said they had instructed all police services in the province "to test their X26 models to ensure they're functioning correctly."

But here in Kingston, Police Chief Stephen Tanner has decided not to follow the ministry directive, even though all 34 of the force's Tasers are X26s. Tanner said nothing in the ministry instructions specifically calls for the weapons to be "electrically tested." He also told the Whig-Standard that he doesn't want to leave his officers without access to the Tasers.

"The risk would be much greater in not having those weapons on the street, either for the officers not to have them to protect themselves or to have that alternative level of force available to them," Tanner said.

Tasers are highly controversial. Since 2001, more than 400 people in Canada and the U. S. have died after being shocked by the weapons, which are considered a less deadly alternative to handguns. Kingston police used Tasers five times this year, without any reported problems.

Arizona-based Taser International is denying any irregularities with the X26 and disputes the CBC findings. It says the study was flawed because the weapons under scrutiny hadn't been test-fired first, as they recommend.

But National Technical Systems, the Californiabased engineering firm that conducted the tests for the CBC, confirmed that one of the X26 Tasers did emit a higher-than-expected charge on a second firing.

Tanner said his officers always pre-test. But that provides no assurance that a safe level of current is being discharged.

Tanner's decision is hardly reassuring for Kingstonians.

The main issue, after all, is not officer safety but public safety.

It's as though someone had discovered that the 9-mm handguns used by Kingston police were leaving wounds indicative of much larger-calibre pistols -yet retesting or reassessment isn't necessary.

No one wants Kingston police officers to be denied the proper equipment to do their job. However, if they have 34 Tasers that were used only five times all year, wouldn't it be possible to take a certain number out of use to be tested on a rotating basis?

This is an urgent matter of public safety. If Tanner doubts the potential health risks, he should call Pierre Savard, the University of Montreal biomedical engineer who has written an analysis on the health risks posed by Tasers. Savard told the Arizona Republic newspaper this week that the weapons can accelerate some people's heart rates to dangerous levels. "As a scientist," he concluded, "the risk is not zero."

And that, we hasten to add, is his assessment of Tasers that fire at properly calibrated levels.

Chief Tanner must change his position and begin testing of his force's stun guns.

Canadian police pull old tasers off streets

December 12, 2008
by Ronald J. Hansen and Robert Anglen, The Arizona Republic

Police departments across Canada, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, are pulling older Taser stun guns off the streets following a new study that found the weapons can deliver more power than the manufacturer says is possible.

Police departments in the United States, however, appear to have taken no similar action.

Taser International responded to the study, commissioned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., with e-mails to police departments claiming the research is flawed.

"It is unfortunate that false allegations based on scientifically flawed data can create such uncertainty," Steve Tuttle, a Taser vice president, told The Arizona Republic. Taser also said researchers redid the test after the company pointed out errors.

However, Taser's assertions about specific data flaws contradict company documents and a letter from one of its top scientists. An audio recording also shows Taser was told that no retest took place.

"No, we never did (a retest). Absolutely not," said reporter Frederic Zalac of the CBC, which commissioned the study by a U.S. defense contractor and a Montreal biomedical engineer. "It is completely untrue."

The study, released last week, found that four of 44 stun guns of the X26 model used most by police departments fired jolts that were 47 percent to 58 percent higher than the manufacturer's specifications. The four high-firing weapons were sold to two police departments in 2004.

An accompanying medical analysis concluded that the higher jolts pose as much as a 50 percent risk of inducing cardiac arrest in some people and that stun guns firing at expected electrical levels pose some risk.

Taser maintains that shocks from its stun guns can't kill.

The president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, based in Washington, D.C., said Thursday that he was not aware of the study. Police officials with Valley departments, where most officers are armed with Tasers, have said they will evaluate it.

Canadian authorities are not waiting. Calling it a matter of national safety, the ministers of public safety for the provinces of British Columbia and Quebec in the past week ordered Tasers manufactured before 2006 to be recalled for testing and recalibration, if necessary.

"It is just to be secure, safe," said Mario Vaillancourt, spokesman for the public-safety minister in Quebec. "We want to be sure that all Tasers are safe in the province."

The order applies to Tasers being used by police officers, corrections officers and transit police. It is unknown how many Tasers could be recalled for testing.

"All impacted organizations are currently doing an inventory to determine exact numbers of devices that will require mandatory outside testing," British Columbia Public Safety Minister John van Dongen said in a written statement.

Van Dongen said his office will work with police departments to establish a standard for regular calibration of all Tasers used in the province.

Similar moves have been announced by the Mounties and police departments in Nova Scotia and Winnipeg.

For its part, Taser considers the CBC testing troublesome and wrong.

"Taser International stands behind the quality and safety of its products and is providing full cooperation and all information necessary to allay any concerns," said Tuttle, the Taser vice president.

"Taser International welcomes proper testing of its devices and has provided its factory test protocols to test laboratories in Canada so police agencies can avoid the scientific errors made by the CBC."

Taser officials have not yet addressed the issues related to the study's medical claims or issues the study raised about quality control in manufacturing or whether the stun guns' performance declines over time.

Tuttle on Thursday declined to comment on documents and a recording that contradict Taser's challenges to the study.

In an e-mail to police and others, Taser said that researchers failed to conduct a "spark test" to warm up the stun guns, which the company said is critical to getting a reliable shock reading. The company also said researchers measured the shocks using the wrong resistance level to calculate the impact of shocks on the human body.

Resistance, measured in ohms, refers to an object's ability to withstand an electrical charge. The higher the resistance level, the less effect the charge will have.

Magne Nerheim, Taser's vice president of research and development, said the study measured the Taser shocks at 250 ohms instead of the necessary 600 ohms, leading to false measurements.

However, in a May 21 letter to Canadian police officers who were testing two Taser stun guns involved in a death, Nerheim advised them to use a 250-ohm resistance.

The letter accompanied a step-by-step guide for hooking up the equipment and included an arrow pointing to an image of a 250-ohm resistor.

The testing protocol from Taser does not mention the spark test.

Taser also maintained in its e-mail to police that the CBC rested the guns after consulting with Taser. "The four devices were retested using the recommended spark test," resulting in current levels within the manufacturer's specifications, the e-mail said.

Zalac, of the CBC, said this didn't happen and supplied an audio recording of a Dec. 3 telephone conversation with a Taser representative. In it, Zalac says that no Tasers were retested using Taser's recommended spark test. Zalac tells the Taser official that one Taser was tested twice and that the results were the same, with the gun producing higher shocks than the manufacturer specified.

Tasers are in use by more than 12,000 police agencies across the United States, and police credit the stun gun with reducing officer and suspect injuries. More than 400 people in the United States and Canada have died after police Taser strikes since 2001.

Pierre Savard, a University of Montreal biomedical engineer who co-authored the Canadian report with two Americans, defended their work and the response by police in his country.

"It's a responsible reaction. It's the right thing to do," Savard said. "There's a need to know more about Tasers."

Savard said no spark test was done last summer by National Technical Systems, a California-based engineering firm that measured the electrical output for the X26 stun guns.

Instead, NTS technicians noticed unusually high electrical output from two guns and fired them again seconds after the first shot, he said.

One of the guns that was fired a second time still registered an output level that was beyond what Taser expected and could pose nearly a 50 percent risk of cardiac arrest, Savard said. Four of the Tasers in the study would not fire or could not maintain a charge.

In pointing to the safety of its products, Taser has cited an international guideline that helps doctors assess the risk of heart troubles.

But the guideline Taser referred to changed in 2007 and "very significantly" understates the risk electricity can pose to humans, Savard said.

Savard said the rule is imperfect but is widely considered more accurate than the 1987 rule used by Taser.

RCMP to test some Tasers after CBC investigation

December 9, 2008
CBC News

The RCMP says it is pulling some of its Tasers for testing after a CBC News and Radio-Canada investigation found some of the stun guns deliver a higher level of electricity than the manufacturer promises.

Three of the X26 Tasers tested by U.S.-based lab National Technical Systems as part of a CBC/Radio-Canada investigation into the devices. (CBC)
In a release issued Monday, the RCMP said it will remove 24 units for analysis.

"Given concerns raised by recent CBC/Radio Canada broadcasts, the RCMP has undertaken a review of its national inventory of Conducted Energy Weapons (CEWs) and has identified 24 Taser Model X-26 units acquired by the RCMP prior to January 1st, 2006," the release said.

"It has directed that these units be removed from service and undergo testing."

In a series of CBC-commissioned tests on 41 stun guns, four of the units delivered significantly more current than Taser International says is possible. In some cases, the current was up to 50 per cent stronger than specified on the devices.

The four abnormal X26 model Tasers were manufactured before 2005, prompting some scientists to suggest police should stop using any older versions of the stun guns until they can be tested.

CBC/Radio Canada broadcast the test results on Dec. 4.

Upon learning about the CBC investigation in early November, the RCMP says it pulled a random sample of 30 of the force's Tasers for independent testing at MPB Technologies Electronic Centre.

The 30 Tasers included 15 M26 units and 15 X26 units. The RCMP said preliminary results showed all units tested within the manufacturer's specifications and accepted variance limits of plus or minus 15 per cent.

"Although we are awaiting a final report, the RCMP can confirm that all our CEW units tested were within the manufacturer's specifications," the release said.

In light of CBC's investigation, however, the RCMP said it is pulling an additional 24 X26 units for testing, all of which were acquired before the beginning of 2006.

May deteriorate with age: engineer
"The steps taken by the RCMP to remove some CEWs from service and to conduct tests is part of our ongoing effort to ensure our policies and practices continue to be appropriate and are based on the best available information," the release said.

The RCMP does not know how long it will take to test the 24 units, Sgt. Greg Cox told CBC News Tuesday.

Nearly all stun guns, also known as conductive energy weapons, used by police forces are manufactured by Arizona-based Taser International Inc. The devices are intended to incapacitate people with an electric shock.

Pierre Savard, a biomedical engineer at the University of Montreal who designed the technical procedure for the CBC's testing, said the cause of the increased current could have been either due to faulty quality control during the stun guns' manufacturing or electrical components that deteriorate with age.

In a written response to the results of CBC's investigation, Taser International's vice-president of research and development, Magne Nerheim, called the four malfunctioning Tasers an anomaly — one that could be explained if the weapons are not spark tested on a regular basis.

All Tasers tested as part of the CBC investigation were provided by seven police departments in the U.S. and analyzed by the U.S.-based lab National Technical Systems.

The CBC showed the results to several electrical engineers as a peer review of the analysis. They agreed that at the very least, the Tasers made before 2005 should not be used again until they are tested and proved reliable.

Researcher's background

December 5, 2008
Arizona Republic

Pierre Savard, a biomedical engineer at the University of Montreal, is the lead author of a new analysis on the health risk of Tasers.

Savard's main professional work has mapped the flow of electrical current through the human torso. He developed a system that placed 256 electrodes on the surface of the heart to understand what happens when it suffers an abnormal electrical pattern that can precede a heart attack. This was done so doctors can better track where heart problems begin.

Savard said he first looked at Taser safety last year when police authorities in Quebec wanted to know if it was safe to use two Tasers on one person.

He said he presented his findings on Tasers to a commission in Ottawa probing the safety of the stun guns. Later, he gave a similar presentation to officials in British Columbia in a probe known as the Braidwood inquiry.

That inquiry looked into what happened in the October 2007 death of Robert Dziekanski, a Polish man who was shot with Tasers by police after becoming unruly at Vancouver International Airport. The inquiry also examined the safety of Tasers generally.

"At first I thought (Taser) was a great product," Savard said in an interview with The Arizona Republic. "My point of view is that police officers already carry firearms, which are definitely more dangerous. So the Taser is much less dangerous to start with. But it should be used in a cautious manner."

Savard determined that Tasers accelerate heart beats in a way that can be deadly for some people, especially those with heart disease. He also concluded that existing research on healthy animals and humans is inadequate to fully gauge the risk Tasers may pose.

Savard said before his commissioned work for the Canadian Broadcast Corp., he has never been paid for his work related to Taser products and the company never responded to it. He said he also never worked with groups opposed to Taser like Amnesty International or the American Civil Liberties Union.

"As a scientist . . . the risk is not zero," Savard said. "After that, police officers can make their own judgments that we can use the Taser is such-and-such circumstances. . . . It's not that I don't like Taser. The risk is not zero."

New study fuels debate on Taser safety - 9% of stun guns in study gave more powerful jolt

December 5, 2008
Ronald J. Hansen and Robert Anglen, The Arizona Republic

A new study has found that the type of Taser stun gun used most by police officers can fire more electricity than the company says is possible, which the study's authors say raises the risk of cardiac arrest as much as 50 percent in some people.

The study, led by a Montreal biomedical engineer and a U.S. defense contractor at the request of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., also concluded that even stun guns firing at expected electrical levels carry some risk of inducing a heart attack, depending on the circumstances.

The researchers' analysis contradicts Taser's position that electric shocks from the weapons cannot kill. The study said the results raise questions about quality control in the stun gun's manufacturing and decline in performance over time.

Taser International Inc., based in Scottsdale, called the study flawed. "Regardless of whether or not the anomaly (high-firing guns) is accurate, it has no bearing on safety," Taser Vice President Steve Tuttle said.

The study, which authors say tested more Tasers than any previous independent review, examined 44 stun guns being used today by U.S. law-enforcement agencies. It found that four would not fire at all or fired improperly and that four others produced from 47 to 58 percent more power than the manufacturer specified.

Researchers said the fact that 9 percent of the guns tested abnormally high was significant enough to recommend a freeze in using X26 stun guns made before 2005. They also recommended more electrical tests on Tasers now in use by Canadian and U.S. law enforcement.

Pierre Savard, a biomedical engineer in Montreal who co-authored the report with two Chicago doctors, said they may have understated the risk Tasers pose because there is little available research on the effects of the weapon on humans, especially those who have heart disease. Although Savard said he recognizes the value of less-lethal weapons, he added that he is convinced Tasers can kill in some circumstances.

"Scientists who had evaluated the Taser to start with said, 'Well, there's zero probability of death.' I'm sure that's not the case," Savard said in an interview with The Arizona Republic. "I'm 100 percent certain that cardiac diseases increase the risk of death after receiving Taser shock. I think there's enough scientific evidence for that."

It's still unknown if illegal drugs also change the risk factor, Savard added.

Taser officials acknowledged the possibility of a higher-than-normal initial charge in weapons not first given a "spark test" to ensure they are in proper working condition. They insist this does not affect safety and cautioned Canadian Broadcasting in a memo not to use "engineering minutiae to confuse the (public) and create a false sense of controversy."

The study fuels a long-standing debate within medical and law-enforcement circles about the safety of Taser's stun guns.

The safety issue

The guns are used by more than 12,000 police agencies across the country, including every major law-enforcement agency in the Valley. Many authorities credit the weapon with preventing deaths and injuries to officers and suspects.

But since 2001, there have been more than 380 deaths following police Taser strikes in the United States and 26 in Canada. Medical examiners have ruled that a Taser was a cause, contributing factor or could not be ruled out in more than 30 of those deaths.

Taser has challenged those findings and maintains the stun gun is safe.

Taser executives have said for years that the guns could not produce shocks greater than the manufacturer's specifications and that the stun gun would melt before producing high-level shocks. "The device is calibrated such that it cannot output any more power. It's running at 100 percent," Taser Chief Executive Officer Tom Smith testified in May during a British Columbia government inquiry into Taser safety.

The inquiry was spurred by the 2007 death of a Polish citizen at Vancouver International Airport who stopped breathing within moments of being shocked twice by police.

Law-enforcement agencies that use Tasers typically do not conduct their own testing of the gun's discharge or safety but rely instead on the company's testing.

"We do not recommend (agencies') testing the output," Smith said at the hearing.

Valley police agencies contacted Thursday confirmed that they did not conduct any independent electrical tests on the stun gun before arming officers. Both Phoenix and Chandler police departments issued statements saying they were not aware of the study and will review its validity and reliability.

"We are going to take a look at the study and evaluate it," Chandler Detective David Ramer said. "Anytime something like this comes out, we look at it."

The 44 Tasers used in the recent study were obtained from seven undisclosed U.S. police agencies. Canada's national public-television and -radio broadcaster, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., paid for the study as part of its ongoing investigation of Taser.

CBC hired National Technical Systems, a California-based firm that tests weapons systems for the U.S. military. It found that four of the X26 guns fired more electrical current at their peak than Taser guidelines show is possible for that model. Three other guns didn't fire at all, and one couldn't sustain its current properly. The rest fired within the guidelines.

The tests were based on Taser's own testing protocol and the electrical-load level recommended by Taser. Each stun gun was tested six times and the results were inconsistent, Savard said, raising manufacturing concerns.

"Since 67 percent of the older devices . . . showed this type of problem, this raises the issues of quality control during manufacturing and component aging," Savard wrote in the report.

In other tests at different load levels, Savard said, all of the four Tasers that showed excessive current fired within normal ranges.

All four of those that fired beyond their expected capacity were sold to two police departments in 2004, making them among the oldest tested. That raised questions about how the guns age and how they were made in the first place, Savard said.

Magne Nerheim, Taser's vice president, challenged the study on significant areas. He said researchers failed to spark-test the gun before testing the power, which created exaggerated results "not representative of actual output." He also said the guns were tested using an incorrect resistance level that does not reflect the effect of Taser shocks on a human.

Resistance, measured in ohms, refers to how any object withstands an electrical charge. The higher the resistance level, the less effect the charge will have. Nerheim said if the resistance level had been increased, the guns would not have recorded such powerful shocks.

Nerheim's challenges, however, differ from a protocol that Taser sent this year to Canadian police officers who were testing Tasers used on a suspect who died after being shocked.

The testing protocol, obtained by the CBC, specified using the lower resistance level, the same one NTS followed for its study.

The protocol Taser sent to police also made no mention of conducting a spark test. A spark test is an initial pull of the trigger. "Inside the device, it takes a higher initial voltage to wake up the component that has become inactive from not being regularly operated," Nerheim said.

But Taser is not consistent in its spark-test recommendations. The company tells police to conduct a test every day on the X26, but the operating manual for the consumer model (X26C), which is modeled after the police version, says a test is needed once every six months.

Nerheim stressed that the study concentrated only on the first pulse of the stun gun, which fires 19 electrical pulses per second, and suggested averaging all the pulses over the span of a second would offer a more relevant safety picture.

In any event, he said the first pulse would not reach a person shot with the device's darts. Nerheim didn't address how an overly high initial pulse would affect someone shocked by direct contact with the gun, one of the methods used by police.

Taser officials did not address findings concerning the age of the guns that fired at abnormally high levels.

Design and manufacturing issues have surfaced before on the stun guns.

"Design flaws and manufacturing-process problems" were key elements in a shareholder lawsuit against Taser in 2005. The lawsuit alleged that faulty quality control and unstable circuit boards led to major returns of Tasers, and a former employee testified that "as much as 70 percent of the M26 and X26 (Taser models) tested in-house by Taser were defective."

Taser settled the lawsuit in 2006 for $21 million, but company officials steadfastly denied the accusations, describing the payout as a business move and a way to avoid expensive litigation.

Effects on the heart

The doctors and engineers hired by the CBC to interpret the results determined the higher electrical current was enough to raise the risk of an irregular heartbeat to as much as 50 percent for those with existing heart troubles.

The risk level depends on various factors, including whether the heart lies between the Taser's barbs and how long the shock lasts. The risk would decline if, for example, the Taser's barbs fell off or didn't fully penetrate the skin.

Savard also concluded that multiple shocks from normally working Tasers posed up to a 5 percent risk of ventricular fibrillation, the abnormal heart rhythm associated with a heart attack.

Savard said he is worries that police are given Tasers that are potentially deadly but are told they are totally safe. He suspects such pronouncements have led to a dangerous "drift" in usage of the weapons.

"If you're told there's zero risk . . . you can start using it just to save time because you're tired of talking with the subject," he said.

Click HERE to read the report.

Some tested Tasers fire stronger current than company says: CBC/Radio-Canada probe

December 5, 2008
CBC News

Some Tasers deliver a higher level of electricity than the manufacturer promises, reveals a series of tests on 41 stun guns that was commissioned by CBC News and Radio-Canada.

The abnormal X26 model Tasers were manufactured before 2005, prompting some scientists to suggest police should stop using any older versions of the stun guns until they can be tested.

Of the 41 Tasers tested, four delivered significantly more current than Taser International says is possible. In some cases, the current was up to 50 per cent stronger than specified on the devices.

The tests, conducted by the U.S.-based lab National Technical Systems, used X26 Tasers from seven police departments in that country. Each weapon was fired at least six times.

Arizona-based Taser International makes virtually all the stun guns being used by police forces. The technical term for a stun gun is conductive energy weapon, or CEW. They are intended to incapacitate people with an electric shock.

The RCMP says it has pulled a random sample of some of the forces' Tasers for testing based on the results of the CBC News/Radio-Canada investigation.

"Given that you have raised this issue with us, we are taking steps to take CEWs out of our inventory devices that have deployed across the country, we are gathering up samples from each of our divisions, every province and every territory and we will have them independently tested," RCMP Commissioner William Elliott told CBC News at a recent policing event.

A force communications official, Supt. Tim Cogan, informed CBC News late Thursday that preliminary test results showed the sample of Tasers operated within the manufacturer's specifications.

Cogan said the tests were conducted at an accredited, independent laboratory in Ottawa, but didn't provide details on how many Tasers were tested or which lab conducted the analysis. The RCMP is still awaiting final test results.

"The RCMP recognizes that any use of force, including the CEW, carries risks, both to the public and to the police," Cogan said in a letter to CBC News.

"We do not take the use of force lightly. Ongoing assessment of the tools provided to our members and of the policies that guide their use is essential to mitigate these risks."

Pierre Savard, a biomedical engineer at the University of Montreal, designed the technical procedure for the CBC's testing based on Taser International’s specifications.

Savard told CBC News it is scientifically significant that about nine per cent of the Tasers fired in the tests delivered more current than they are supposed to do, especially since he believes no one is verifying the company’s claims.

"I think it's important because Taser is not subjected to international standards," Savard said. "When you use a cellphone, well, cellphones have to respect a set of standards … for the electric magnetic field that it emits. The Taser, well, nobody knows except Taser International."

Savard said the cause of the increased current could be either due to faulty quality control during the stun guns' manufacturing or electrical components that deteriorate with age.

The findings are troubling, since police officers are trained to aim a Taser at the chest, said Savard, who studies heart rhythms and how they are affected by electrical stimulation. "When you combine an increased current intensity with a dart that falls right over the heart for somebody who has cardiovascular disease or other conditions such as using drugs, for example, it can all add up to a fatal issue," Savard said.

Malfunctioning Tasers

Police forces across North America assure people that Tasers are safe. The manufacturer, Taser International, has said its product has a higher safety margin than Tylenol.

Taser International said they couldn’t provide someone for an interview before the CBC published results from the tests.

However, Magne Nerheim, Taser's vice-president of research and development, sent a written response to the results, in which he called the four malfunctioning Tasers an anomaly — one that could be explained if the weapons are not spark tested on a regular basis.

Nerheim also suggested the testing be repeated to verify the results. He made no comment about the age of the Tasers and whether there could be an issue of reliability.

During the tests commissioned by CBC News and Radio-Canada, three of the weapons didn't fire, even with charged battery packs. Those were set aside and not counted in the final results.

But a Taser that doesn't deploy can potentially create a safety issue for a police officer, Savard said. "When we are talking about Tasers that don’t function, I think it is dangerous for the policeman who would try to use the Taser and the individual response can be aggressive," he said.

The CBC showed the results to several electrical engineers as a peer review of the analysis. They agreed that at the very least, the Tasers made before 2005 should not be used again until they are tested and proved reliable.

TASER INTERNATIONAL OFFICIAL STATEMENT:

"TASER International has reviewed the testing results from the National Technology Systems study various TASER X26 electronic control devices as provided by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The results from the testing are generally consistent with the specifications provided by TASER International and which would be expected from such tests.

TASER acknowledges that there are four data that appear to be outliers — instances where current increased as resistance increased which would not be expected based on the laws of physics. TASER International intends to contact NTS to suggest that the tests be repeated to verify the results.

TASER International appreciates the continued interest in TASER technology, and sincerely hope that the CBC report will focus on the proven injury reductions law enforcement experience with this technology rather than using engineering minutiae to confuse the viewer and create a false sense of controversy over a test that confirms the output of TASER X26s are consistent, and well below acceptable safety thresholds."

Concern about older Tasers

December 5, 2008
By THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA -- A new analysis of Taser stun guns finds some of the police weapons pack more of a shock than the manufacturer promises, raising questions about their safety.

The scientific review commissioned by the CBC and French-language Radio-Canada found four out of 41 guns tested actually discharged more current than Taser International says is possible.

In some of the test firings the guns delivered 50% more current.

The examination was conducted by an American lab, National Technical systems, using X26 model Tasers from seven police departments in the U.S. eager to see how the guns fared. The police services agreed to participate on condition of anonymity.

University of Montreal engineer Pierre Savard, who designed the testing procedure based on Taser International's own guidelines, found the results troubling.

Savard studies heart rhythms and how they are affected by electrical stimulation.

He says since cops are trained to aim the Taser at the chest for the best chance of a hit, the increase in current could be highly dangerous under certain circumstances.

"When you combine an increased current intensity with a dart that falls right over the heart for somebody who has cardio-vascular disease or other conditions, such as using drugs for example, it can all add up to a fatal issue."

EXPERTS AGREE

Two other experts consulted by CBC, engineer Stephane Masse of the Toronto University Health Network, and engineer Roger Barr at Duke University in North Carolina, agreed with Savard's analysis.

The Taser X26 is widely used by the RCMP and many other police forces across North America. The four Tasers that malfunctioned were amongst the oldest, manufactured prior to 2005.

Savard wants police to stop using these older guns altogether until they have been tested to find out why so many stray from the manufacturer's specifications.

In a written response to the CBC, Taser International acknowledges the results show four of the devices are anomalies.

Magne Nerheim, Taser vice-president of research and development, suggests because the unusual behaviour appears in the first moments of firing it is a sign that the guns may not have been spark-tested regularly as Taser recommends to police officers.

But a Taser International testing protocol obtained by CBC makes no mention of a spark test.

Nerheim also says the results aren't "relevant from a medical safety perspective."

More than 20 people in Canada have died after being hit with a Taser.

Taser International insists the devices cannot be blamed for deaths.

RCMP in B.C. used tasers 496 times last year, taser inquiry told

May 23, 2008
The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER — The RCMP learned much from the incident last fall at Vancouver airport where a Polish immigrant died after being Tasered by RCMP and the force will "answer to what happened on that day," the force's assistant commissioner said Thursday.

"It was tough for us, very tough," Asst. Commissioner Al Macintyre told reporters after he gave a submission to a public inquiry looking at Taser use.

"We learned a lot about information management on such an issue, public communications, and we're (still) learning from it."

Macintyre began his presentation by expressing condolences to the Dziekanski family and was asked about it again by reporters.

"Certainly, it wasn't one of our better days in terms of the way we were portrayed in the media and publicly for that matter.

"We will answer to what happened on that day in a court of law at a public inquest, and our officers will give their evidence under oath. We'll hear the truth."

Dziekanski had arrived at the airport after a long flight from Poland. For reasons still not clear, he spent many hours in the customs area. When four police officers arrived late in the evening, an amateur video showed him appearing to be agitated and confused.

He was struck twice with a Taser and died.

The RCMP presentation was also handled by Cpl. Gregg Gillis, a use-of-force expert, and Insp. Troy Lightfoot from RCMP headquarters in Ottawa.

Commission counsel Patrick McGowan asked about the RCMP policy, which uses the term "actively resistant" as a criterion for use by officers instead of the term "combative behaviour" that has been adopted by the B.C. Association of Municipal Chiefs of Police.

The RCMP training, the inquiry also heard, tells officers that the weapon is "not without risk" but does not mention that an irregular heartbeat known as ventricular fibrillation may lead to cardiac arrest and death after a Taser jolt.

"We will look at that as well," said Macintyre. "We're willing to change our policy and our training and our utilization of the device.

It was suggested that Dziekanski showed no active resistance at the airport and was hit with a Taser twice almost immediately after four RCMP officers arrived.

Gillis said the policy is more than just the term "actively resistant."

"It's not just based on behaviours, it's based on situational factors as well."

Gillis declined to answer whether he thought Dziekanski was being "actively resistant."

"There is an ongoing investigation and I can't really get into that," said Gillis.

The inquiry heard the RCMP in British Columbia used Tasers 496 times last year.

Macintyre said RCMP in the province started using Tasers in 2000 and now have 1,154 of the weapons in 53 detachments.

He said 3,153 RCMP officers in the province are trained to use the weapons.

Gillis said in 2007 Tasers were used 496 times in B.C. and so far this year they've been used 148 times.

The initial phase of the inquiry is looking in the use of Tasers in general but the second phase will look specifically at the death of Dziekanski.

There is a lack of data on Taser-related deaths and heart diseases in medical literature but a biomechanical engineer told the inquiry Thursday that he is convinced heart disease increases the probability of death after the stun gun shock.

Pierre Savard, of Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique, told the public inquiry via video conference that he became interested in the subject of Tasers after watching the now-infamous video of Dziekanski falling to the ground and eventually dying.

A subsequent statement by Taser International that the weapon was not responsible for Dziekanski's death piqued Savard's interest, he told inquiry commissioner Thomas Braidwood, a retired B.C. Supreme Court judge.

In addition to concluding that heart disease increases the probability of death after a Taser shock, Savard also said studies - conducted by police agencies and other researchers - on healthy humans or healthy animals are insufficient to conclude that the Taser is "entirely safe."

His first conclusion, he said, is in accordance with product warnings issued by Taser International.

Company literature says there is a risk of injury or death due to "individual susceptibilities" that Savard said included coronary heart disease, arrhythmia-prone susceptibility and aneurysm.

Other heart experts have told the inquiry that Taser shocks may cause heart problems.

Savard said a study by two University of Washington researchers in 2006 looked at "unexplained fatalities" over a four-year period.

They eventually examined 75 cases - all males from age 15 to 50, of which almost 37 had autopsy reports available for review.

Coronary disease was detected in 54 per cent of the 37 victims; 78 per cent had an illegal substance in their bodies. In 27 per cent of the cases, the researchers concluded that the Taser was a "potential or contributory cause of death."

In his submission, Vancouver lawyer Cameron Ward told the commission that he has an outstanding civil case involving a Taser-related death and that he has become an "activist" on the subject.

Like Dziekanski's mother, who gave a submission earlier and called for a moratorium on Taser use until further study, Ward said use of the weapon should cease until there is a rigorous scientific evaluation of its effects.

He said his own research into deaths that followed a Taser jolt uncovered 344 "unexplained deaths" in North America.

Ward said Dziekanski's death was the 301st and there have been 43 since.

Ward said he wants the Taser used on Dziekanski tested to see if its electrical output is the same as specified by Taser International when it sells the weapon.

He also said the commission should consider recommending all Tasers be certified and approved by the Canadian Standards Association, which tests and certifies other electrical products.

RCMP has new taser policy, inquiry told

May 23, 2008
Neal Hall, Vancouver Sun

VANCOUVER - The RCMP has changed its Taser policy and now trains officers only to use the weapon when a person exhibits "active resistance" to arrest or police commands, a provincial Taser inquiry was told Thursday.

The RCMP's national use-of-force coordinator from Ottawa, Insp. Troy Lightfoot, told the inquiry the RCMP changed its policy from "passive resistance" to "active resistance" to adhere to recommendations about Taser use made last December by Paul Kennedy, head of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP.

Lightfoot said the RCMP has also changed the re-certification training period for Taser use to every year from every three years after the initial two-day training session that teaches officers how to deploy Tasers.

Patrick McGowan, counsel for the Thomas Braid inquiry probing the use of Tasers in B.C., asked why the RCMP didn't adopt Kennedy's recommendation that Tasers be reclassified as an impact weapon only to be used in situations where a suspect exhibits "combative behaviour."

"It's a misunderstanding of the lexicon and definition," Lightfoot replied. "I don't think we're far off."

RCMP Assistant Commissioner Al Macintyre, the officer in charge of criminal operations in B.C., began the RCMP presentation by expressing his condolences to the mother of Robert Dziekanski, the 40-year-old Polish man who was jolted twice with a Taser at Vancouver International Airport by RCMP last Oct. 14.

"The unfortunate tragic events that occurred last Oct. 14 were not what anyone would have ever wished," the senior Mountie told the inquiry. "They cannot be undone but the RCMP is determined to learn what we can from this tragedy and to make improvements for the future."

Macintyre said an investigation of the airport incident is still being conducted by members of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, which will eventually forward a report to Crown for a decision on whether charges are warranted.

He said the RCMP looks forward to the results of the inquiry in order to make improvements to safeguard public safety.

Macintyre said Taser use by the RCMP has increased dramatically since it was first introduced in 2000, when there were 4,392 Mounties working in B.C., compared to about 6,500 now.

He suggested the increase in the number of Tasers and the number of officers trained to use the devices has caused usage to shoot up in recent years -- there were 496 Taser incidents in B.C. last year, up from 218 in 2005.

Nationally, the RCMP reported 1,119 Taser incidents in 2006 and 1,414 in 2007, compared with 597 incidents in 2005.

He told the inquiry that trainers teach that the Taser weapon is not risk-free, but nothing is taught about the possibility of causing death. He said that's because there is no medical research to prove Tasers cause death -- a controversial point frequently discussed at the inquiry by several independent medical experts.

Earlier in the day, a Montreal biomedical engineer told the inquiry that Taser jolts involving a person with heart disease increase the probability of death.

"There is a strong statistical association between Taser-related deaths and heart diseases," said Pierre Savard.

He also said the current studies on healthy people or healthy animals are insufficient to conclude that the Taser weapon is completely safe.

Savard, a professor at the Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, said the placement of Taser darts within 1.6 centimetres of the heart could stimulate heart tissue and lead to ventricular fibrillation, which causes the heart to quiver, desynchronizing the pumping action of the heart chambers and causing a drop in blood pressure.

Such an occurrence requires the use of a defibrillator to get the heart to return to its normal rhythm, he said.

The Taser delivers short pulses of electrical current through electrodes over the surface of the body, causing automatic muscle contraction and incapacitation.

Savard said the electrical current is insufficient to cause heart tissue damage in a normal person, but could affect a person with heart disease and cardiac scar tissue.

He said a Taser shock causes the heart rate to jump to 137 beats per minute (72 beats is normal).

Savard said he began researching the issue after the death of Dziekanski. An amateur video of the incident, posted on the Internet, caused an international public outcry and led the B.C. government to order the inquiry.