Canadian Law Enforcement

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“Taser Changes go Ahead”, an article published in the Alberta News in February, indicates that the RCMP is moving forward and will be instituting some previously described changes into its 2011 Police Manual framework. The framework is currently being reviewed and will later be reviewed and approved by the Albertan Solicitor General. The 16 recommendations made by the Braidwood inquiry, including yearly re-trainings, monthly quality and adherence audits, as well as updated procedures based on the minimization of any potentially adverse health effects to the subject, should be reflected in the final version of the manual for 2011. This establishment of the project by the Alberta Solicitor General demonstrates a significant attempt towards improvement over previous perspectives on the dangers of Conductive Energy Weapons, commonly known as Tasers. As a result, it is clear that improvements to the issues of adverse health effects, design flaws within the device itself and police policies must be instituted within the Canadian society.

The issue of Conductive Energy Devices (CED), synonymously known as Conductive Energy Weapons (CEW), has been at the forefront since the introduction of the devices to the Canadian Market in 2001. The device most popularly known as a Taser has been allegedly responsible for numerous deaths caused by excessive use, flaws in the design, and lack of police training. Moreover, since the increased media coverage of the issue by non profit organizations such as Amnesty International, which began in late 2007, and the Canadian Civil Liberities Association in 2010 the use of such weapons has undergone significant change within the implementation of the device by police, codes of conduct governing CED equipp...

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... number of Taser reported issues in the past decade.

In conclusion, it is clear that albeit the Taser technology in its infant stage encountered many problems the fact that such a technology has not been taken off the market stands as a testament to its utility to law enforcement agencies worldwide. Furthermore, albeit the problem is complicated, time sensitive and requires significant mobilization of state resources and public participation as well as deaths of innocent civilians the issue is resolvable. As occurred in the past history of Taser failures the technology can and will be revamped whilst the society must catch up to fully optimize its utilization of the technology to achieve its goal. In the case of Tasers it is to provide a non lethal alternative to apprehend suspects, saving lives every step of the way, suspect and innocent alike.

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