The threshold for when officers can deploy Tasers is way too low in British Columbia, according to the head of a public inquiry into the conducted energy weapons.
In a scathing report issued Thursday afternoon, former justice Thomas Braidwood also criticized the province for not having standardized training for the use of Tasers.
Braidwood spent months studying the controversial police weapon. His recommendations come almost two years after the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski at the Vancouver International Airport.
Dziekanski died of cardiac arrest after being shocked five times by RCMP officers in October 2007.
Summarizing key elements from his report, titled "Restoring Public Confidence," Braidwood said our society is better off with Tasers, but there must be tighter restrictions on when and how they're used.
Someone who demonstrates "active resistance" is too low of a threshold, he said. He recommended that an officer should only deploy a Taser if a subject is causing bodily harm or if his behavior suggests he will imminently cause bodily harm.
An officer must try de-escalation techniques and be satisfied that no other option is available before deploying a Taser, he said.
Braidwood said there is currently a "patchwork quilt of inconsistent policy" among the province's law enforcement agencies related to when and how Tasers are used, as well as an "inappropriate reliance" on manufacturers' training materials.
Braidwood also said there needs to be better standards for reporting Taser use. He said agencies reported 1,400 instances of Taser use between 1999 through 2007, but the actual number is probably double that.
Related: Read the entire Braidwood report
B.C.'s new Solicitor General, Kash Heed, issued a press release saying that the province will take immediate action and accepts all 199 of Braidwood's recommendations.
RCMP spokesman Sgt. Tim Shields said Thursday the agency needs time to review the recommendations.
Walter Kosteckyj, the lawyer acting for Dziekanski's mother, Zofia Cisowski, told CTV News Wednesday that he favours a moratorium on the use of Tasers until "the cops can get their act together.''
Last year, Paul Kennedy, head of the Commission for Public Complaints against the RCMP, recommended a number of restrictions on Taser use. Mounties say they adopted them, but critics say the force hasn't lived up to Kennedy's key recommendations.
Earlier this year, the RCMP cautioned officers to use Tasers only in situations that pose a safety risk, and not for purposes of restraining suspects.
Kennedy's report also called for annual training of officers using Tasers.
Braidwood's work isn't over.
Phase two of his inquiry deals specifically with Dziekanski's death. But it has been delayed until September while Braidwood considers how to handle an email that appears to suggest four officers involved in Dziekanski's death discussed their response on the way to the airport and decided to use a Taser if he didn't comply.
With files from The Canadian Press
