INUVIK - The RCMP officer who used a Taser on a handcuffed 15-year-old Inuvik girl two years ago was acting unreasonably and was not certified to use the weapon, a public interest investigation has found.

The Commission for Public Complaints has found an RCMP officer unnecessarily Tasered an Inuvik teen in 2007.

In its final report released Dec. 11, the Commission for Public Complaints against the RCMP made 14 recommendations on consequences for the RCMP officer involved, Const. Noella Cockney, and on broader changes to RCMP policies.

Constable Cockney used the conducted energy weapon "when it was unnecessary to do so," the report states.

The commission found that Cockney's certification to operate the conducted energy weapon had expired 13 months before the March 13, 2007 incident, when Cockney was called to Inuvik's Arctic Tern Young Offender Facility because staff reported the girl, who can't be identified because she was a minor at the time, was acting out.

When Cockney arrived, there were five youth officers present, three of them restraining the girl as she struggled face down on the floor with her hands handcuffed behind her back.

Cockney reportedly told the girl if she didn't co-operate, she would use the Taser. The girl told her to go ahead and use the weapon, and Cockney did – for a five-second interval jolting 50,000 volts of electricity.

Two internal RCMP investigations into the matter, launched after the girl's mother complained, concluded Cockney had done nothing criminally or ethically wrong in using the weapon in that situation.

But the public commission's recent investigation, which began in November 2008, questioned whether Cockney had acted appropriately, whether the officers conducting the initial investigations were biased, and whether the RCMP's current policies are adequate.

It slammed the RCMP's handling of the incident, the mother's complaint, and the internal investigations, finding they were biased in favour of Cockney.

It also found that while Cockney had filed a report on the incident, it was sparse and was only printed several months afterward. More details were later added, suggesting a possible attempt at a cover-up when the internal investigation began.

The commission also found the officers conducting the investigation had only selectively reported evidence. The investigation found that the Inuvik detachment had breached national RCMP policy by failing to keep logs on Taser use.

Commission chair Paul Kennedy, a former senior assistant deputy minister for the federal justice department, recommended that the RCMP should instruct Cockney, and the other three officers involved in handling the complaint, on how to take proper detailed notes and maintain logs. He also recommended the Inuvik detachment should create a policy on how to respond to future calls at the young offender facility.

RCMP G Division Sgt. Brad Kaeding told reporters in Yellowknife on Friday morning that the officers would receive "operational guidance" on note-taking but would not face any other forms of discipline.

Kaeding said the RCMP accepts the findings of the commission and police will be "making determinations from there if any follow-up actions are required."

He said it is too early to say exactly how or if the RCMP will change its policies as a result of the commission's report, adding that the RCMP has already made some changes since the March 2007 incident.

Kaeding said the "biggest change" has been that police are no longer allowed to Taser people in police custody who are actively combatant with officers.

Kaeding acknowledged Cockney was no longer certified to use the weapon, but compared it to a driver who has an expired licence. He said just because someone is not currently certified does not mean they are unqualified. Kaeding added that RCMP officers who are not certified to use certain weapons are no longer permitted to carry them.

Asked whether or not there had been an attempt at a cover-up given that there was no mention in the original report that the girl who was Tasered was in handcuffs at the time, Kaeding responded, "Additional notes were made ... I would say notes were added for the sake of thoroughness."

He added said "incidents like this" help the RCMP see possible flaws in policy.

"The RCMP does take this seriously," he said.

The full report and recommendations are available on the commission's website at www.cpc-cpp.gc.ca.

-with files from Cara Loverock