Victim's parents testify at taser inquiry

May 6, 2008
Staff Reporter, The Province

VANCOUVER -- The Braidwood Commission inquiry into Taser use continued Tuesday with emotional evidence from Cathy and Joseph Gallagher, parents of a mentally ill Vancouver man who was subdued by seven police officers and Tasered twice.

Cathy Gallagher held up a small, red T-shirt with a hole in it showing where her son -- a slight, 37-year-old man who had an MBA from McMaster University -- was Tasered in the heart.

Christopher Gallagher has remained in hospital since the incident, which occurred on Feb. 24. The Gallaghers want a complete moratorium on Taser use.

The inquiry also heard from Victoria police Const. Mike Massine, a conducted-energy weapons trainer for the Victoria Police Department, who said Tasers pose very little risk and are useful weapons for police.

The inquiry, headed by retired Supreme Court judge Thomas Braidwood, continued Tuesday afternoon with evidence from an emergency-room physician and a prison warden.

On Monday the inquiry opened with presentations by two American experts who concluded after years of research that the weapon poses very little risk.

Electrical engineer J. Patrick Reilly, a consultant and Johns Hopkins University lecturer from Maryland, said "the hazards are very low, but probably not zero." Outside the inquiry, Reilly said the Taser is "not benign" and admitted he wouldn't want himself or any family member to be Tasered, but insisted the Taser may be one of the more acceptable weapons in the police arsenal.

"If you compare [the impact of a Taser] with a bullet, it's a no-brainer," said Reilly, adding "safety is relative." Inquiry commissioner Thomas Braidwood, a retired Supreme Court judge, said there will be two inquiry phases -- the first, a series of public forums throughout May to get expert opinion on the use of "conducted-energy weapons [Tasers]," by B.C. police forces, sheriffs and corrections officers.

Wisconsin biomedical engineer John Webster outlined by videolink his detailed experiments on pigs that concluded the chances of Taser use causing a person's heart to stop "are extremely low." Webster said the probability that a Taser could stop a person's heart, even in the worst-case scenario where the darts hit a slight or thin person in vulnerable spots near the heart, would be one in several million.

More than 300 people across North America have died after being stunned by Tasers.

The "electrical stun weapons" manufactured by Taser International of Scottsdale, Ariz., can shoot two barbs attached to wires, or the gun can be applied directly to a person's skin.

The second phase of the commission will look into the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, who died after being Tasered by RCMP officers at Vancouver International Airport on Oct. 14, but will not start until the RCMP has finished its own investigation in the fall.

Taser proponents dominate inquiry

VANCOUVER -- The first of two provincial inquiries examining the use of Tasers by police began yesterday, and while it's far too early to predict what conclusions will be made at the end of Round One, one can see where things are headed.

"Stun weapons" are not the malevolent instruments some have learned to hate, suggested J. Patrick Reilly, a U.S. electrical engineer and Taser expert, and the first witness to appear before inquiry boss Thomas Braidwood.

Rather, they are tools that police can use to deal efficiently with "dangerous" or "belligerent" people. The use of electronic control weapons such as Tasers rarely results in death, Mr. Reilly noted. "The probability of that is very small."

It will be a refrain heard often from the inquiry floor in the next three weeks. Many of the 40 witnesses scheduled to speak are from the law enforcement business. Tasers are popular with police departments. Even some transit cops brandish them. In Vancouver, this is another source of controversy. Transit police have fired on 10 people, including "non-compliant" customers, since January, 2007, the Vancouver Sun recently reported.

None of the transit riders has filed an official complaint, but the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, which will make a presentation here, has asked that people come forward and appear before Mr. Braidwood.

The inquiry is to have "no preconceived agenda…no preconceived notions" about the use of Tasers by police, commission counsel Art Vertlieb said yesterday. But in one of several interviews he gave before the inquiry launched yesterday, Mr. Braidwood said it "appears" that Vancouver transit police "didn't follow their own policy in the use of [Tasers]. I'm not involved in making any blame or anything but that would certainly red-flag it."

In another interview, Mr. Braidwood seemed mildly skeptical about how the RCMP was investigating the apprehension and accidental death of Robert Dziekanski. The Polish immigrant died last year during an incident involving the RCMP at Vancouver International Airport. Bewildered and frustrated after a long flight from Poland, Mr. Dziekanski acted aggressively at the airport. The Mounties were called. He was twice hit with Taser shots and was manhandled while writhing on the ground.

The event was captured by a passerby on video and eventually was broadcast around the world. Public reaction, Mr. Braidwood said in his opening remarks, "was immediate and intense."

Indeed, the tragedy moved B.C.'s provincial government to call the two inquiries. Mr. Braidwood was appointed to head them both. But the Dziekanski case, while the catalyst, will not be discussed in any detail at the present inquiry; that is for "later this year," Mr. Braidwood said. Witnesses at the second inquiry, an evidentiary proceeding, will be required to take an oath and avail themselves to cross-examination by lawyers.

It may not happen at all. A date for the second inquiry can't be set until the RCMP completes its own investigation of the Dziekanski death. If charges are recommended to the Crown, and the officers are sent to trial, then Mr. Braidwood's second inquiry could be delayed for years.

And while the RCMP has promised to participate in the inquiry now underway, only its complaints commission chairman, Paul Kennedy, has confirmed he will testify. But he's not free until June, which is after the public forums are to have ended. Mr. Braidwood has asked that the length of the first inquiry be extended. He's still waiting to hear back from the B.C. government, he said yesterday. For now, he'll have to be content hearing from technical experts and municipal police officers, as well as health officials.

Mr. Reilly, the first witness, described how research he con-ducted on the environmental impact of electrical production evolved to the study of electric shocks on people. The research was aimed at determining how much electrical shock a person could tolerate.

He eventually conducted research for the U.S. Army, examining the safety and efficacy of electronic weapons similar to Tasers. A report he wrote in 2004 was funded by the U.S. Department of Defence; he also wrote a book on the subject.

Mr. Reilly described how the devices work. When triggered, a compressed nitrogen charge inside a gun propels two barbed projectiles; these are attached to copper wires. The projectiles lodge into the target's skin. The operator of the weapon then releases "pulsed electric shocks" that are set five seconds apart. These travel the length of the wires and enter the target's body, causing him to lose musculature control. "Usually" the target will "cry out" in pain and "fall down," Mr. Reilly said.

The devices are not "benign," he conceded, but neither do they pose a serious risk of death if used properly. New research conducted since making his studies has simply "reinforced the opinion I had then," he said yesterday. He may have missed a study published by the Canadian Medical Association Journal just last week, which concluded that "in some circumstances, stun guns may stimulate the heart while discharges are being applied … In our view, it is inappropriate to conclude that stun gun discharges cannot lead to adverse cardiac consequences in all real world settings."

The CMAJ authors are not among the 40 witnesses scheduled to speak at the inquiry.

Proceedings continue today with statements from the Victoria Police Department's controlled electronic weapons program co-ordinator, an emergency room physician and a prison warden. Tom Smith, founder and chairman of TASER International, Inc., is to appear next week.

First witness at taser inquiry says risk of death from the weapon very small

May 5, 2008
The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER — An independent expert on the effects of the Taser on the body told a public inquiry into police use of the weapon on Monday that the risk of death or injury after being shocked is very small.

However, the man who has spent decades studying the impact of electricity on living things said he would never want to be "Tased" himself.

J. Patrick Reilly, an electrical engineer at Johns Hopkins University, was the opening witnesses at the inquiry in British Columbia. "There are hazards, but they are rare," Reilly summed up during his assessment. "You could not rule out the possibility of it effecting the heart and possibly even causing a fatal incident."

The death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver airport last October prompted the two-part provincial inquiry that began Monday. The first phase won't directly address Dziekanski's death, but inquiry commissioner Thomas Braidwood made it clear the death set off the need for an inquiry.

"I expect that all of you, and many people indeed around the world, have seen the video recording of the incident at the Vancouver International Airport," Braidwood, a former B.C. appeal court judge, said in his opening statement. The video shot by a bystander shows RCMP officers jolting Dziekanski within seconds of confronting him at the airport's international arrivals area. He was seen on TV and over the Internet around the world screaming and writhing in pain afterwards, while four officers held him down on the airport floor.

"Public reaction to the events at the airport was immediate and intense," Braidwood said.

The first phase of the inquiry will look into police use of the conducted energy weapons, how police are trained and the medical aspects of the Taser. Medical experts, police, the weapon's manufacturer and groups such as the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, as well as a lawyer representing Dziekanski's mother, are among the scheduled witnesses.

The second phase of the inquiry will look specifically at Dziekanski's death.

Reilly spent several hours Monday explaining what the Taser can do to the body.

Most of the studies into the use of the weapons were conducted on pigs and Reilly admitted that further study is needed on how Taser use affects people, especially on someone who has taken drugs such as cocaine, on smaller people, on the elderly and on pregnant women.

He told the media after his presentation that compared to a bullet, the use of the Taser is a "no-brainer."

"I wouldn't want to be Tased myself and I wouldn't want a family member to be Tased," he said. "But I recognize among the arsenal of things police have to deal with, that this may be a useful tool."

Reilly said he has heard of cases of abuse of the weapon and said he hopes the inquiry will address the use of force and that the weapons should not be used in a cavalier way.

"Without question there are situations in which these things are abused."

Walter Kosteckyj, the lawyer for Dziekanski's mother, said it was clear even from Reilly's presentation that there was a lack of information from police services about how often and who they use the weapon on.

"So when we don't have that it's hard to really judge how safe the Taser is, what the effects are, who's died, who's been hurt, what's happened during the course of training. We don't have that information; (police) have been withholding it," he said outside the inquiry room.

Penny Priddy, a New Democrat member of a House of Commons public safety committee looking into Taser use, said the problem is that none of the dozen studies or inquiries looking at Taser use will mesh.

After travelling across the country speaking to police and the public she said coming together with some national rules seems paramount.

"The deeper I got into this, the more I worried about the system," she said. "We can study this from coast to coast to coast, but somebody has to have the power to make something happen." Braidwood has already asked B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal for an extension to his final report from the first phase, which he hopes to have ready by October.

The second phase of the inquiry - the one dealing specifically with Dziekanski's death - will only begin after the Crown has made a decision on whether charges will be laid in connection to his death.

Public inquiry into taser use [in British Columbia] begins on Monday

May 4, 2008
Lora Grindlay, Vancouver Province, with Canwest News Service

A public inquiry into the use of the controversial Taser in B.C. begins Monday.

Headed by retired B.C. Supreme Court judge Thomas Braidwood, the first of two phases of the inquiry is a study into the use of the conducted energy weapons.

After reviewing written submissions and public forums to be held until May 23, Braidwood will make recommendations on the appropriate use of the weapons by B.C. police forces (other than the RCMP, who operate under federal regulations), sheriffs and corrections officers.

Braidwood has said he will also review Taser use by the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority Police. Input will focus on rules of use and training for officers, and the safety and effectiveness of the stun guns. Tasers are used to physically incapacitate a person by discharging controlled electric energy into the body.

Vancouver lawyer Cameron Ward, who has conducted extensive legal research into Taser use, and represents the family of Robert Bagnall who died after being Tasered by Vancouver Police in 2004, will speak at the inquiry on May 22.

Ward told The Province Sunday that until studies independent of the manufacturer and of law enforcement are conducted, there should be a moratorium on their use.

"Given the number of deaths that have occurred consequential to Taser use - well in excess of 300 in North America to date - I'm concerned that there has not been sufficient independent, rigorous, scientific and medical testing of the weapon to determine whether or not they are safe or whether they may cause death," Ward said.

He is hopeful Braidwood will recommend a moratorium. "If the Braidwood inquiry carefully considers the range of views offered by the presenters that certainly would be a possibility. It is certainly the approach I would advocate."

Ward will also speak of his concerns about "useage creep" of Tasers by police and others. "The weapon is being used often to get people to comply with direction and perhaps even as punishment," said Ward. "The use has gone way beyond that which originally the proponents were advocating which is as an alternative to lethal force."

It was recently revealed that members of the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority Police Service used their Tasers 10 times since January 2007, twice against fare-evaders.

Braidwood is set to hear from electrical engineer J. Patrick Reilly Monday morning and biomedical engineer John Webster Monday afternoon.

He will also hear from a prison warden, doctors, the Canadian Mental Health Association, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, police forces and the manufacturer of the guns, Arizona-based Taser International Inc.

The second phase of the inquiry - for which a date has not been set - will probe and report on the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski at the Vancouver Airport in October.

Dziekanski died moments after being Tasered by airport Mounties.

Video shot by a passerby horrified people all over the world who watched an erratic, frustrated and confused Dziekanski die on the airport floor.

Braidwood is expected to report back on the first phase to the B.C. government by June 30. Victoria ordered the inquiry following Dziekanski's death.

Walter Kosteckyj, lawyer for Dziekanski's mom Zophia Cisowski, will speak to the inquiry on May 15.