Braidwood Inquiry Cew free essay sample

After having consulted with numerous medical, scientific and legal experts, he recommended 19 changes be made regarding officers training and deployment of conducted energy weapons. These recommendations ranged from salivate changes and province wide standards to higher thresholds for weapons use and periodic testing of Sews. For the purposes of this report, we will focus on the subject behavior threshold recommendations, and their Impact on the criminal Justice system.Recommendation two and three of the Broadsword Commission (2009) states that: Officers of provincially regulated law enforcement agencies be prohibited from deploying a conducted energy weapon unless the subjects behavior meets one of the following thresholds: the subject is causing bodily harm; or the officer is testified, on reasonable grounds, that the subjects behavior will imminently cause bodily harm. (p. 9) Broadsword also adds: Even if the threshold set out in Recommendation 2 is met, an officer be prohibited from deploying a conducted energy weapon unless the officer is satisfied, on reasonable grounds, that: no lesser force option has been, or will be, effective in eliminating the risk of bodily harm; and De-escalation and/or crisis intervention techniques have not been or will not be effective in eliminating the risk of bodily harm. (p. 19)Prior to the above recommendations, there was no provincial regulation regarding when a CHEW may be used and each police force was free to develop its own use-of- force model, without any guidelines to follow (Broadsword, 2009, 8, Para. 2). Broadsword further states that the existing definition of active resistance, the current threshold, is not set high enough to warrant the deployment of Sews. As such, a person who simply runs away from police, without causing injury, could be tastier (Broadsword, 2009, 16, Para. ). Ultimately, the recommendations were implemented and outlined In the Special Committee to Inquire into the Use of Conducted Energy Weapons and to Audit Selected Police Complaints. The updated report illustrates efforts have been made In training officers to improve their crisis Intervention communication techniques to effectively De-escalate crises, especially when dealing with emotionally disturbed people.The purpose of crawls Intervention trailing Is to minimize the use of Sews. However, as the updated crawls Intervention and De-escalation trailing Is still In Its Infancy, It Is recommended there Is an ongoing evaluation process for ACID Special Committee to Inquire Into the use of Conducted Energy Weapons and to Audit Selected Police Complaints, 2013).Commissioner Broadsword described subject behavior threshold as perhaps the most Important of his recommendations because it significantly raises the threshold for use of the weapon and adopts According to him, use of conducted ener gy weapons in BC is now more disciplined and that De-escalation techniques are being accepted by the policing community and routinely applied (SC, 2013). Reaction to the higher behavior threshold and other recommendations has varied considerably.David Ebb, Executive Director of the BC Civil Liberties Association, stated, I would Just like to say congratulations to the Province on implementing in good faith and as comprehensively as possible the recommendations of the Broadsword committee. We say this because we have seen a significant reduction in Taster use in BC. (SC, 2013, p. 19). He added that the significant reduction in CHEW use in BC has not placed the police or the public at risk (SC, 2013). It is the view of the ABACA that Takers do more harm than good in society.Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General, Sash Heed, and the BC Police Association offer a different perspective. According to them, a decline in CHEW use may not necessarily be positive; unnecessary force may be used in some cases when it would be preferable to use a CHEW, and those other response options may go unreported. Officers are finding themselves using other De-escalation techniques more and more as to avoid using Sews mostly physical control tactics such as grappling, stuns, strikes, Joint locks and wrestling.Additionally, they claim that Takers ultimately save and prevent injuries for both citizens and police officers (SC, 2013). So why then are officers so reluctant to carry such weapons? Tom Astigmatism of the BC Police Association states, Accountability is both necessary and appropriate. But when it comes to the CHEW, I think we have gone beyond the tolerance both for police services and for police officers who prefer to avoid what seems to be inevitable criticism, regardless of the circumstances that led to any deployment. (SC, 2013, p. 0). He continues that because of the increased scrutiny regarding Sews, officers are choosing not to use the weapon and are even letting their certification expire. Other reasons officers are reluctant to carry Takers include varying levels of understanding CHEW policies, deployment threshold considerations and a lack of trust (SC, 2013). Since 2007, Taster use has dropped a whopping 87%. BC police officers used their Taster 640 times that year compared to 85 deployments in 2011, due to stricter regulations and higher behavior thresholds.For the RACE, the frequency of CHEW discharges decreased by 83 percent from 2007 (390) to 2011 (65). Independent municipal agencies discharges decreased by 92 percent over the same time period (from 250 to 20). In fact, CHEW use has decreased across all major law enforcement agencies including the RACE E Division, Police Services Division, BC Sheriff Service Division and the Adult Custody Division (SC, 2013). It is important to note that the huge reduction in CHEW use does not mean police are turning to their guns- a tool of last resort and deadly force. An issue of particular concern is the use of Sews on those who are in a state of excited delirium which may be the result of severe drug use (often cocaine or crystal meet), mental illness, or other causes and results in the person being incoherent, violent, and non-compliant. The issue is that the use of electric shocks on these people can cause a heart attack (Griffith, 2011). Director of criminology at Simon Fraser University, Dry. Robert M.Gordon, says that there is considerable confusion and debate over what exactly excited delirium is because it is not a valid delirium is seen as a cause or an effect -? in other words, whether it explains a death or the application of a Taster (SC, 2013). Dry. Joshua Lu, who testified at the Broadsword Commission, explains that the term is only used in law enforcement to scribe delirium with agitation. He advises officers to use extreme caution when deploying Sews in the context of excited delirium; the added stress from Sews can lead to cardiac arrest, heart arrhythmia, and even sudden death.However, it should be noted there is no systemic research on the use of Sews on people with severe deleted (SC, 2013). Dry. John C. Butt, who also testified at the Broadsword Commission, explains that excited delirium has four main components: hyperthermia (sweating, may remove clothing); delirium with agitation (feats of strength, high pain threshold, aggressive to hinging object (glass)); respiratory arrest; and death. Regarding risk factors following DE, Dry. Butt stressed that it was important to avoid what is known to add to the chance of death in restraining a subject which includes a neck hold, pepper spray, hog tie and prone position. He also notes that statistical data reveal that very few deaths are directly associated with the use of a Taster (SC, 2013). Despite the vast amount of knowledge and expertise available to police officers, the underlying issue remains. That is, officers are not adequately trained, nor is it seasonable to expect them to diagnose the mental state of an agitated suspect in the midst of a crime scene; it places too much responsibility on those who are not trained psychiatrists or doctors.Certainly, one would expect officers to have some degree of difficulty in communicating with those who are out of it- those with severe psychiatric disorders, drug-induced psychoses, or those who are extremely agitated and do not understand the commands. It would also be difficult to recognize if a person had cardiac problems and therefore be at high risk for serious injury or death from a CHEW (SC, 2013). On a final note, all recommendations from the Broadsword Commission have successfully been implemen ted with updated guidelines and protocols for using Sews.