RCMP Watchdog Says Taser Use Against Dziekanski ‘Inappropriate’

The four RCMP officers who fatally confronted Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver’s airport “fell short” of expectations and their repeated used of a Taser was “inappropriate,” says the force’s independent watchdog.

The Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP released a harshly critical report Tuesday into what happened the night Dziekanski died in October 2007, criticizing nearly every aspect of the officers’ response to the agitated man.

The report makes 16 recommendations, including tighter regulations for Taser use.

The officers were called to the airport after Dziekanski, who didn’t speak English and had arrived from Poland nearly 10 hours earlier, started throwing furniture in the international arrivals area.

Within seconds, one of them stunned the Polish immigrant with a Taser, and then fired the weapon four more times.

“I found the conduct of the responding members fell short of that expected of members of the RCMP,” says the report.

“Deployment of the CEW (Taser) by Const. (Kwesi) Millington was premature and was not appropriate in the circumstances.”

Kennedy’s report says the officers made no meaningful attempt to de-escalate the situation or approach Dziekanski with a measured or appropriate response, and the officer in charge should have taken control of the situation.

The officers told a public inquiry in B.C. that they fired because they felt threatened by Dziekanski, who was holding a stapler, but Kennedy says he doesn’t find any of the officers’ statements credible.

The report includes 16 recommendations, mostly related to Taser use, RCMP investigations and training.

Kennedy repeats his earlier recommendations that the force tighten its Taser policies and create an independent body to investigate officers in serious cases, such as those involving a death.

Kennedy’s recommendations aren’t binding on the RCMP or the federal government.

The commission’s reports often include a response from the RCMP, but in this case Kennedy’s findings were released without including the force’s input.

That prompted RCMP Commissioner William Elliot to write the commission objecting to the report’s release.

Elliot said the RCMP is waiting for the report from a sweeping B.C. public inquiry, due out early next year.

“It has not been the practice for interim reports to be made public and we do not believe that it is appropriate for you to do so in this case or more broadly,” wrote Elliot.

Kennedy’s investigation, as well as several others including the public inquiry, were launched after amateur video of the confrontation was made public.

Crown prosecutors in B.C. decided not to charge any of the four officers, concluding their actions were justified under the circumstances. But their conduct has still been under intense scrutiny, particularly after their testimony at the public inquiry.

They were accused at the public inquiry of using too much force and then lying about what happened to justify their actions, particularly as apparent discrepancies emerged between the officers’ initial accounts of what happened and the video.

The investigation into Dziekanski’s death, by an integrated homicide unit that includes members of the RCMP, has also been criticized and the lawyer for Dziekanski’s mother has suggested police didn’t take the case seriously.

Kennedy said had concerns with the investigation, but found no evidence of bias.

The report’s release is one of Kennedy’s final acts as the head of the commission, since the federal government isn’t renewing his appointment when it expires at the end of this month.

Kennedy has already release reports critical of the RCMP’s use of Tasers, and released a report in August that concluded the RCMP shouldn’t investigate itself in the most serious cases.

He has also argued his office doesn’t have enough powers to properly oversee the RCMP.