BC Solicitor General Kash Heed recently ordered all of BC’s police, RCMP and municipal, to follow new rules for using Tasers.  The  rules came from the Commissioner Thomas Braidwood’s report from last year’s Taser inquiry, but still fall well short of an absolute moratorium, as called for by the BCCLA.

Last Friday Alberta’s Solicitor General Fred Lindsay followed suit, with Tasers to be deployed only when an officer believes “there is a real likelihood of injury to the officer, subject, or bystanders.”  The Taser is not to be used when a person is fleeing the police.  Surprisingly, using a Taser on persons in handcuffs was not ruled out, with the policy stating that “careful consideration must be given prior to the use of a [Taser] on a subject restrained by handcuffs or any other restraint”.

The policy does not state what considerations one would need to face in order to determine that someone in handcuffs created sufficient risk to a trained and fully armed police officer for Taser use to be justified.

Restrictions on use are also coupled with new reporting rules.  Police officers must now report the circumstances of every use of the Taser to the Solicitor General for assessment.  If deployment is deemed inappropriate, the Solicitor General’s office can issue warnings or remove Tasers from an officer or a police force.

Check out the new Taser policy for Alberta police issued by the Alberta Solicitor General.

Check out the CBC article.

Tags: Alberta, Creditable Conduct, Taser

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