Amanda Vaughan
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, November 28, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - Despite the controversy brewing over the use of Tasers by police elsewhere in the country, they're seldom used here in Yellowknife, according to the RCMP.

According to Sgt. Victor Steinhammer, in the last three-and-a-half months there has only been one reported discharge of a Taser in the city.

Sgt. Victor Steinhammer from the Yellowknife RCMP holds up a Taser M26 conductive energy device and the cartridge containing the projectiles it fires. - Amanda Vaughan/NNSL photo

He said a report must be filed any time an officer draws a Taser, whether it is fired or not.

Steinhammer said the 42-member Yellowknife detachment has eight of the units, which are more expensive than the officers' firearms.

"Any trained member can carry one," he said, adding, however, that with the $1,500 price tag, there aren't enough to go around, and therefore they are not one of the mandatory pieces of equipment that they carry.

Contrary to popular opinion, the devices are not used as an alternative to guns, he said.

"They are used for different sets of behaviour," he said.

The Taser is used in situations when a person is exhibiting "highly resistant" or "combative" behaviour.

The device operates in two modes, the "probe" mode, where it fires two prongs attached to thin wires, which connect and deliver the charge.

The other mode, called "touch stun" or "push stun" requires the RCMP officer to put the unit right up to a person's skin.

The use of Tasers, known to police as CEWs (conductive energy weapons), has recently come under intense scrutiny in Canada after two recent deaths have been linked to the weapons in the public eye.

Steinhammer trains other RCMP members in the use of them, and has been on the business end of one on more than a few occasions.

"It's not fun," he said, but added that before adopting the use of them in Canada, the RCMP conducted extensive field testing of the units, mostly on, well, each other.

"Literally thousands and thousands of members ended up getting exposed to them," he said. According to Steinhammer, the amount of internal research is what fuels the RCMP's confidence in the Tasers.

"If there was any doubt (as to their safety) we never would have chanced it," he said.

Steinhammer said the RCMP tested them by trying them out on subjects with pacemakers and other heart conditions, under the supervision of cardiologists.

"They got two members who had triple bypass surgery, right across the chest with it," he said.

The Taser that the RCMP carry is a Taser brand M26, or the newer, more battery efficient X26.

Steinhammer said the device immobilizes subjects by creating a muscle contraction between the probes.

This effect renders the touch stun mode only effective as a pain compliance tool, for use only in close quarters altercations.

In situations where the RCMP are dealing with someone who is high on drugs and feeling no pain, he said they would rather shoot the probes out, as they can get up to two feet apart on a person's body.

"It's essentially a two-foot muscle cramp," he explained, saying that the involuntary contraction goes a lot further to stop someone who is being combative.

Steinhammer said if the RCMP were to find conclusive evidence that the devices were deadly, they would definitely reconsider its stance, but he also pointed out that the recent deaths were only speculatively linked to the Taser.

To underline his point, he mentioned that the Taser company has fought several lawsuits in the U.S., and "none of the challenges has been successful."