Police forces can expand use of Tasers: minister

Toronto police services could soon be carrying stun guns after the province allowed all Ontario police forces to make their own deployment decisions on conducted energy weapons (CEWs).

“Equipping front-line officers with CEWs could increase community safety and save lives,” Madeleine Meilleur, the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services, said at a news conference at Coroners Courts in Toronto on Tuesday.

It will be up to those forces to pay for the weapons, she said. Each stun gun, including three cartridges, costs about $1,500.

Chair of the Toronto police services board, Alok Mukherjee, admitted that the cost of arming each of the 5,600 members of the Toronto force with stun guns would be staggering.

“It is a big cost, it will be anywhere in excess of $7 million, (it) could be up to $10 million,” he told CityNews, adding that costs would include mandatory training.

“There’s no a lot of room, the budget is already very tight,” he added. “If (Chief Blair) wants Tasers he’ll have to give something else up from the capital budget.”

Mike McCormack, the president of the Toronto Police Association, welcomed the decision.

“We’ve been advocating for well over five years to have front-line officers have conducted energy weapons,” he told CityNews.

“It just gives us an extra option…it’s not a thing that will eliminate when we have to use lethal force, unfortunately,” he said.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association urged police forces to invest in de-escalation training and mental health crisis response teams, rather than additional weapons. It said it has “long-standing” concerns about the use of Tasers.

“Ontario’s use of force standard for CEW deployment is already more permissive than the standard recommended by the Braidwood Commission which investigated the death of Robert Dziekański,” the association said in a release. “The Commission greenlighted the use of CEWs only in cases of imminent risk of serious harm or injury, and only when de-escalation or crisis intervention techniques would not be effective.”

The minister’s announcement comes exactly a month after Sammy Yatim, 18, was shot dead by police in Toronto.

“I can’t say for certain whether or not [CEWs] would have had an impact,” in that case, McCormack said.

“What I can tell you is that [Const. James] Forcillo, one of the first things he did, was to call for a Taser. It would have had some impact. What, I don’t know.”

Forcillo, 30, was charged with second-degree murder last week in Yatim’s death.

When Tasers were first authorized for use in 2002, only supervisors and members of tactical teams could use the weapons.

The new use-of-force guidelines will also include data collection, enhanced training, community engagement and post-implementation reviews by the ministry.

“These enhancements, with specific training for people with mental health issues, will help ensure the safe, appropriate and effective use of CEWs.”

The OPP said it would be implementing the new CEW policy in the next two years.

Police practices were called into question after the death of Yatim, who died July 27 after being shot multiple times by police on an empty streetcar in the city’s west end. His death was captured on surveillance and cellphone videos in which nine shots can be heard. The videos sparked public outrage and massive protests in Toronto, and prompted action from local police.

Earlier this month, Toronto police chief Bill Blair appointed retired justice Dennis O’Connor to assist the force in its review of all police practices, including the use of force.

Ontario’s ombudsman André Marin has also launched an investigation, probing what kind of direction the provincial government provides to police for defusing conflict situations. The province’s police watchdog is also investigating.

With files from The Canadian Press

 

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