B.C. Mounties top users of Taser among RCMP members in Canada: report

An RCMP officer drew, but did not fire, his Taser in at least one other incident at Vancouver International Airport, where a Polish immigrant died in October after being stunned.

The earlier incident at the airport, in 2004, was one of 230 involving Mountie stun guns in British Columbia over a three-year period, events expected to come under review at a provincial inquiry into Taser use announced this week.

An RCMP report obtained by the Canadian Press shows three Mounties turned up to a reported disturbance at the Vancouver airport on New Year's Day 2004.

A constable drew his Taser but did not fire it after the RCMP team managed to control the suspect using physical force, says the heavily censored three-page document.

The Mounties weathered a torrent of criticism since disclosure last week of a disturbing amateur video of the Oct. 14 death of Robert Dziekanski, who was hit twice with a Taser by RCMP patrolling the Vancouver air terminal.

Paul Levy, vice-president of operations at the airport, said Tuesday he was unaware of any other incident in which the RCMP fired a Taser at the facility.

"I would know if one was used," Levy said.

In British Columbia, Vancouver city police have also come under scrutiny over Taser use.

The RCMP, however, carry Tasers in towns and cities all over British Columbia, using them more than Mounties in any other province or territory between March 2002 and March 2005, reports filed by force members reveal.

207 Taser firings by B.C. Mounties in 3 years

B.C. RCMP fired their Tasers 207 of the 230 times they were drawn from their holsters during the three-year period, according to the documents — stripped of names of suspects and incident details before being released under the Access to Information Act.

In more than three-quarters of the 207 B.C. Taser firings, the suspects were unarmed, the reports indicate, a figure consistent with the findings of a Canadian Press analysis of RCMP stun gun use across the country.

In November 2003, an RCMP constable from the Chilliwack detachment shot her Taser at a violent psychiatric patient from a distance of about 1.5 metres. The unarmed subject was also touch-stunned at close range.

RCMP in Maple Ridge fired a Taser at an individual with no weapon who ran away after a traffic stop in November 2004.

A couple of months earlier in Coquitlam, the Mounties used the stun gun to bring another unarmed subject under control. The report says that without the Taser, "physical force would have been necessary" to make the arrest.

In perhaps the most controversial case of Taser use by the B.C. RCMP, a Prince George man died in July 2003 after being zapped. The coroner's report found the cause of death to be cocaine overdose, but also recommended changes in Taser use by Canadian police.

Police are ideally supposed to try oral warnings and force by hand before resorting to the Taser or other means such as pepper spray or the baton.

Taser not tool to make suspects obey: officer

The Taser should not simply be a tool to make suspects obey police commands or corral prisoners into jail cells, said RCMP Cpl. Gregg Gillis, who helps train Mounties in use of the stun guns.

"That would be problematic and definitely something we wouldn't want to see. And we would want to have a look at that."

The federal NDP said this week there should be a national moratorium on Tasers because there is no standard for police use across Canada.

Gillis notes Canadian police agencies have agreed to what is known as the "national use of force framework," which guides officers on the level of intervention to be used in various scenarios.

"From that, then those individual departments go into more depth to develop their policies."