New police report probes Taser usage

A new report about Taser usage coming to the Hamilton Police Services Board this week shines a light on the dangerous situations in which officers have used the energy weapons in the city over the past year.

Taser use is up since the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services eased restrictions on who could use them back in 2013, and Hamilton police started rolling them out to front-line officers in 2014.

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The report outlines several instances where a Conductive Energy Weapon or CEW (commonly referred to by the brand name Taser) was used in high-risk situations.

In one instance police were called about a "person in crisis," the report says but when they got to his home, he said he would "slaughter" the officers if they came in.

Family members opened the door, but the man wouldn't back down. When he was shocked with a Taser, he was then brought down without injury.

In another instance police were called about a man who was smashing furniture with a chain and hurling things off his apartment balcony. The man had actually been Tasered and apprehended two days before during a different incident, the report reads.

"Police were able to get access to the apartment, a CEW was displayed and the subject immediately complied, obviously aware of its effects from two days prior."

As a whole, officers are pleased to have a less lethal option at their disposal, the report reads. "After reviewing all the statistics, the group felt that the CEW was working and was a better choice when used appropriately than other more lethal use of force options."

According to statistics in the report, police used force 288 times from September 2014 to 2015, and a Taser was used in 121 of those incidents. But it was used in "display mode" 72 per cent of the time, the report says, and not fired at someone.

Police actually deployed a Taser in 28 per cent of those instances.

Taser usage has almost tripled in that yearlong period but many more frontline officers are now carrying the weapon on a regular basis.