Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Immediate Restriction on Tasers

An interim report on Taser Use released by the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP (CPC) today has made 10 recommendations for immediate implementation.

Here are two important highlights:

Recommendation 1: RCMP immediately restrict the use of the Taser by classifying it as an "impact weapon" in the use of force model (allowing use only in those situations where an individual is behaving in a "combative" manner or posing a risk of "death or grievous bodily harm" to the officer, themselves or the general public.

Recommendation 2: In situations where an individual appears to be experiencing the condition(s) of excited delirium that the RCMP only use the Taser when the behaviour is also combative or poses a risk of death or grievous bodily harm to the officer, the individual or the general public.

Read the Executive Summary and the full recommendations online.

1 comment:

gary said...

I get the feeling that the public are under the assumption that those two recommendations are already policy.
I know that tasering incidents that appear on youtube, such as the "Don't tase me bro!" guy and that speeder in Utah (among others) are more than likely exceptions to how tasers are generally used, but it seemed pretty clear that those were both cases of forcing compliance rather than any sort of self defense of the officer.

As to your question about the counter, it is counting down to the end of my year of separation from Tracie.