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Tuesday 27 February 2001

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COLUMNISTS
Dave Brown
Ron Corbett
Tony Cote

Alternative to lethal force could
still prove fatal to some
Amnesty urges police to suspend Taser use

Randall Denley

Randy Boswell
The Ottawa Citizen
Amnesty International has urged police forces in
cities across Canada -- including Ottawa -- to
suspend their use of Taser electric stun guns
pending independent medical testing to prove
their safety.

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The hand-held Taser device, which can subdue an
individual with a pulsating electrical current that
overpowers the target's nervous system, has been
used on several occasions in Ottawa, mainly to
help police arrest suspects with psychiatric
problems who are threatening violence to
Bruno
themselves or others.
Schlumberger,
Ottawa Citizen /
The Taser received a national spotlight earlier this Const. Leo
month when police in Toronto -- in an incident
Benvenutti
captured by television news cameras -- used the demonstrates use
device to subdue a man in a park who appeared to of Taser gun.
be holding a gun. A two-hour standoff ended
when the suspect was knocked down by 50,000
volts shot from the Taser.
"I thought it worked out great," said Toronto police Const. Derrick
Goobie following the incident.
"He's not hurt We're not hurt Everybody's safe That's the way we're

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/city/010227/5006429.html

02/27/2001

City - Ottawa Citizen Online

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He s not hurt. We re not hurt. Everybody s safe. That s the way we re
supposed to resolve it."
Although Amnesty noted that police use of Tasers could ultimately
prove beneficial by giving officers an alternative to using lethal force, a
report released yesterday raised concerns that a sudden, high-powered
electric shock could, in fact, prove fatal to some people.
"We believe these devices have the potential to be very useful," said
John Tackaberry, an Amnesty spokesman in Ottawa. But he said there
are at least two cases in the United States in which individuals hit with
a Taser "superbolt" might have died as a result.
"We're concerned about people with a pre-existing medical condition,"
he said, adding that evidence of product safety for stun guns has been
provided by manufacturers rather than independent researchers.
Several Ontario cities began using Tasers after the provincial
government approved a pilot project last year. In Ottawa, police began
using Tasers last June.
The weapon, which looks somewhat like a handgun, shoots a pair of
thin wires ending in barbed probes.
When the probes attach to their target, the Taser sends out an electrical
current of 50,000 volts. The shock induces muscle spasms in the
target's body, causing instant, but temporary, paralysis.
At a demonstration of the Taser last summer, Ottawa police indicated
that heart doctors had been consulted to ensure that a person using a
pacemaker wouldn't be killed by a stun gun.
"We certainly hope that in the next six months we don't have to use the
darn thing," said Chief Vince Bevan at the time. "But I don't think any
of us are presumptuous enough to think that we won't need the thing
from time to time."

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Copyright 2001 Ottawa Citizen Group Inc.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/city/010227/5006429.html

02/27/2001