RCMP get Taser stun gun

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/10/2002 (8520 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s Mounties are getting a new crime-fighting tool to help them overcome violent criminals without gunfire.

Several RCMP officers have spent two days training on the M26 Taser, a hand-held device that uses “conducted energy” to incapacitate bad guys.

RCMP spokesman Sgt. Steve Saunders said all Mounties in Manitoba will get Tasers starting in March. RCMP in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Alberta already have Tasers and RCMP in New Brunswick are being trained in their use.

“It’s another method of controlling violent offenders rather than resorting to lethal force,” Saunders said. “It demands submission immediately.”

Mounties trained last week in using the Taser — some volunteered to get shocked as part of that instruction — are the first police officers in the province to learn how to use the advanced “stun gun.”

Police throughout North America are adopting the Taser as standard equipment, as it has far less potential for causing death or serious injury than a gun. They cost about $600 each.

According to a New Brunswick RCMP release, the Taser does not rely on the explosive ammunition of guns.

“Instead, it employs a pulsating electrical current to induce involuntary muscle spasms,” the release said.

“The result is a loss of motor control. Our human nervous system communicates by means of simple electrical impulses. The M26 Taser uses electrical impulses that simply override the normal electrical signals within the nerve fibres of the human body.”

When hit by a Taser, an offender’s muscular control ends within a second and the person essentially drops to the ground in a harmless fetal position.

There are no long-term health effects.

The police officer, standing up to six metres away from a subject, fires the Taser much like a handgun.

Instead of a bullet, compressed nitrogen shoots two small probes, which are connected to the weapon by high-voltage insulated wire.

When the probes make contact with the target, the Taser transmits powerful electrical pulses along the wires and into the body of the target through up to five centimetres of clothing.

Police feel they need Tasers because mace and pepper spray have limited value, especially if an offender is delusional because of a drug overdose or mental illness.

Last Nov. 5, Winnipeg police confronted an agitated Donald Lorne Miles, 34, outside a gas station at Mountain Avenue and Salter Street. Miles was armed with a large knife and even though he was repeatedly pepper-sprayed, he refused to drop his weapon.

He was fatally shot when he lunged at one of the officers.

A provincial inquest will be held into his death.

A police spokesperson said use-of-force experts with the Winnipeg Police Service are currently looking at giving city officers Tasers, but no decision has been made.

Winnipeg police currently use a shotgun that fires a bean bag to stop offenders without seriously injuring them.

Municipal police in Edmonton, Ottawa, Vancouver and Toronto have either armed officers with Tasers or are studying their use.

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca