Should police in Canada abandon the use of Tasers?

CEWs could save lives, if only ALL peace officers were properly trained and ALL guns were tested for voltage levels.

"Excited delirium" is not a medical term; it's code for a person experiencing a mental health crisis. These people are the ones who are most likely to die.

When the police in this country stop attacking the mentally ill, only then should they be allowed to use CEWs to stop bad guys, not disabled Canadians.

Bad question - it is not an aristotelian universe, there are times when CEWs are ideal. BUT many individual officers seem to use them as compliance tools. They are not, they are weapons. The first compliance tool should always be the officer's brain. That is what should be trained.

Tasers could be an excellent tool in law enforcement's arsenal, but they need to be treated as weapons and their use being restricted to an alternative to firearms. There's too many cases where someone "just happened to die" after being hit with multiple taser blasts on unarmed, outnumbered targets, often continuing after they're already restrained.

Tasers are lethal weapons, have been used indiscriminately, unnecessarily, inappropriately with numerous DEADLY results. When I first became aware of them - the Rodney King incident - they struck me as instruments of brutality and I thanked God we did not have them in Canada. If only...... Don't you think four trained police officers could have restrained one exhausted and confused man or one officer could not handle incarcerated sixteen year old girls or handcuffed men - all of whom have been tasered? But we paid for an RCMP trip to Poland to find out if they could label the deceased man a drunk. Now that's remorse and atonement.

These weapons are being used in almost all cases so the officers do not have to restrain anyone, which is their job and why they are highly paid. If we are going to let them taser everyone for the fun of it, why do they need to be highly trained. We must have guidelines the same as a firearm where it is the next to last option and not a plaything to be used instead of conversation or if need be simple gripping a persons arm. A person can be restrained in at least a 100 different ways, to simply gun a person down as has been done with some senior citizens and the airport incident is not why so many of us have serviced in the military to protect those at home.

Since when has it become fashionable or the norm to treat human beings like they were cattle being led to the abattoir? Tasers should be banned immediately. There have been too many deaths as a result of these dastardly weapons. What's wrong with a nightstick? Have the police become such wimps that they need all kinds of protective devices, their use warranted or perhaps not? To hear the statement of the officer who was implicated in the Dzisanski tragedy is a farce. He stated he feared for his life because a distraught man was holding a stapler!!!! What nonsense is that?

Tasers should be banned immediately, it would appear that this weapon has become the only choice of law enforcement officers regardless of the situation. What ever happened to the intensive training in self defense? They may as well start using deadly force because the results would be the same.

The incident at Vancouver airport is a prime example of an execution of an innocent confused new Canadian.

I have been strongly supportive of tasers as another tool, when used properly, that should significantly enhance public safety and effective enforcement.

That being said, it's patently obvious that most of the bad taser 'incidents' involve epic abuse of force. In the absence of a taser, would they have pulled a gun and shot the Polish fellow in the airport? If they had, would that have been Ok? I sure hope not !

Thinking of myself, if necessary, I would rather be talked to, physically restrained, hit with a night stick, tasered and finally shot - in order of increasing force required. I would have placed taser before nightstick as its effects leave no bruises or broken bones - but rationally I expect that fewer people die (as a %) as a result of being hit with a nightstick than from being tasered - but who knows... The problem seems to be an widely adopted abusive mentality by those in power and a presumption that a taser is easier and more appropriate than just talking to someone.

Does the RCMP have any clue how bad they look and how it appears that they are either willfully lying or so painfully out of touch with reality that they should all be relieved from active duty. Geez - listen to me - and I'm a supporter. Imagine how bad this all sounds to someone otherwise inclined.

hey heres an idea...... if you don't want to get taser'd--don't be a bad guy
I guess that law enforcement could just shoot them with their gun instead..

Until such a time when our police force are train properly in the necessity of the use of tasers ; it should be banned from the hands of all the trigger happy policemen. Good case and example is when the 4 RCMP police had a taser party at Vancouver airport against the polish new immigrant . It's a darn shame that they ruin the reputation of all the policemen in this country !!!!!!!!!!!!!!. It was a senseless act and abuse of power.

I voted yes but... The Taser Gun should be carried only by policemen who have had a sufficient training to use it. It should be restricted only to those who have acquired enough maturity to use it as a weapon, not a toy..., it should also not be a self psychological compensation. I am astonished that so many Taser Gun are defective ! Please test them before you use it on a human being. And don't be afraid to call it a Taser GUN !!!

The problem is when people allowed to use the weapons don't followup post restaint and stand around while someone goes into cardiac arrest and dies.
Then contrary to their training do nothing about it.
Had they rolled him on to his side (off his chest) he would probably be alive today
The RCMP Members attitude killed Robert Dziekanski not the taser and despite their strong protests to the contrary their response to his medical distress not their tools is what needs to be changed

fuckin criminals

we should teaser them and there bitch mothers

Ban them, please. The RCMP and others use them far too much because they believe they're non-lethal. They have guns, so shoot people in the legs or other non-lethal areas. Tasers are simply used incorrectly, guns make the RCMP think. We need to ensure that the RCMP think before they act. Tasers don't do that.