Hamilton front line officers receive tasers

Hamilton police are putting more conducted energy weapons (CEWs) — commonly called tasers — on the streets this week. The service was the first to act after the province lifted restrictions on which officers could carry tasers. And Hamilton’s chief has made it clear he wants all officers on the streets to carry them.

November 2004 is when tasers were first issued to frontline supervisors. They’ve been using them since January 2005.

Since then supervisors, members of specialized teams like the Emergency Response Unit, the Action Team and the Bear Unit use them.

Now everyone can use them. Chief Glenn de Caire wanted to do this last year but a million dollar price tag meant that it will be a gradual implementation.

The taser victim in this video is the Sergeant who trains Hamilton police on how to use weapons.

He says he’d much rather be zapped by a taser than hit with a bullet, or a baton, or a fist, or pepper spray. He’s tried them all.

Sgt. Jon Alsbergas, Hamilton Police ‘Use of Force’ Supervisor: “Because with a CEW it is extremely painful at the time. The current, when you pull the trigger, goes for five seconds. At the end of that five seconds, it’s like it never ever happened. There’s absolutely no residual effect.”

It’s also the weapon least likely to lead to officer injury.

The conducted energy weapon, or CEW, shoots two probes that get imbedded in the target’s skin and cycle electricity for five seconds. taking over the person’s motor control.

Sgt. Jon Alsbergas: “They are what we call incapacitated for that period of time that the current is on them. We call it controlling under power. Every five second cycle is considered a window of opportunity to go get control of that individual.”

The weapon can also be used as a stun gun, but that just makes the person want to pull away and run.

Hamilton’s goal is to have enough CEWs for every front line officer, and to get them as soon as possible. 30 of these are being added to the service this week, but only 30 because this model is being discontinued and the new version hasn’t been approved for use yet. But they hope that by the end of the year, they’ll have another 45 of the new version.

Every officer has already gone through 12 hours of training to qualify to use CEWs. They have to requalify every year. A big part of the training is learning when to use a taser. At a minimum, the subject has to be a serious risk to others. Sgt. Alsbergas says the weapon has been extremely useful: “We’ve resolved many, many situations, many of them involving weapons, resolved peacefully with a CEW without having to resort to other more lethal weapons.”

According to Hamilton police statistics, almost 75 per cent of the time, the taser is deployed in display mode — they just show the weapon. It’s enough to diffuse the situation and make an aggressive person back down.

They wanted to purchase 75 devices this year, another 45 next year and 30 in 2016. So 150 devices available to all the officers.