The Taser used in mass by the police

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Despite the electrical voltage 35 000 volts, there has been no fatalities in Québec, for the 317 uses of the Taser in 2016.

Axel Marchand-Lamothe

Thursday, 8 march, 2018 01:00

UPDATE
Thursday, 8 march, 2018 01:00

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At a time when the City of Montreal wishes to hold a public consultation on the use of intermediate weapons, the police of the province deploy massively the guns with the electric pulses, according to the data obtained by The Newspaper.

Since January, each of the 32 positions of district on the island of Montreal now has at least a Taser. By the end of the spring, the number of weapons in circulation for the patrol boats will only be 63, 19 of which targeted the city centre.

Photo courtesy

Marc-André Dorion
Commander

“What we want is to give different options of strength to our police officers and the weapon’s electrical discharge is part of it,” said the commander Marc-André Dorion of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM).

This deployment follows the recommendations of the coroner Luc Malouin in 2016, who had been investigating the death of Alain Magloire, who was shot dead by police in downtown Montreal two years earlier.

He had then lamented the absence of intermediate weapons, including the Taser, in the equipment of the agents who had intervened.

“What is taught to our police officers, it is to work in the de-escalation [in an intervention],” says the commander-Dorion. If I can use the weapon to electrical impulses, it is obviously a more attractive option than the firearm. “

Pilot project

On the side of the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), a pilot project, launched in 2016 in three regions, will lead to the introduction of the pistol in almost all positions by the end of the year.

Thus, 151 weapons have been deployed within 75 units of the SQ in the last year, while there were only 32 in 2016, according to data from the department of public Safety.

“The weapon to the electrical impulses does not replace the firearm, or other intermediate weapons for the police, pointed out, however, sergeant Daniel Thibodeau of the Sûreté du Québec. This fits into the continuum of the use of force. “

A net increase in

More weapons in circulation also means greater use by the police. In 2016, 112 interventions with the Taser had been listed by the SPVM. Last year, there were more than 220.

“What is increasing is the number of uses in demo mode. The number of projections, has remained stable, ” says the commander Marc-André Dorion.

Nearly 90 % of the uses in the service of police in montreal were in mode ” demonstration “, that is to say, when the police officer shows the electric arc to the suspect without that it makes contact with him.

At SQ, we are talking about approximately 80 % of the interventions are limited to the demonstration on 94 uses in 2017, up from 16 the previous year.

A few figures

• 206 the number of times the Taser has been used without contact with the suspect in 2017 in Montreal

• 22 number of uses in projection mode the last year to the SPVM

• 302 number of electric discharge weapons in 2016 in all the Québec police force

• 317 number of uses by police officers in Quebec in 2016

• 0,0012 intensity of the electrical discharge of the device

• 35 000 voltage of the discharge

• 0 number of deaths in Quebec since 10 years linked to the weapon to electrical impulses

Source : SPVM-École nationale de police du Québec and department of public Safety