A9

By JESSICA MURPHY
The Canadian Press

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MONTREAL - A report on electronic stun gun safety that was expected this week at a police chiefs convention has been delayed until next year.

The report on the weapons, commonly known as tasers, will be subjected to an independent peer review and will only be released in 2009 with a longer-term study due in 2010, said Steve Palmer, the executive director of the Canadian Police Research Centre.

Palmer said until then, police should follow the recommendations of the 2005 report released by the research centre that suggests tasers are "an acceptable intermediate force option."

"It's important that this (report) is done well and that this is done in a way that brings value to a broad group of stakeholders: public, police, and policy makers," Palmer said at a news conference Tuesday at the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police convention.

The police chiefs' association commissioned the review into stun guns last fall after Robert Dziekanski died at Vancouver International Airport after being hit with the device by RCMP.

The five-part, federally-funded report will compare stun guns to other weapons used by police and will look at medical research surrounding the use of tasers and research pertaining to so-called excited delirium.

Excited delirium is a state of extreme mental and physiological excitement characterized by extreme agitation, hyperthermia, hostility and exceptional strength.

It's commonly seen in cases of drug abuse and mental illness, most notably schizophrenia.

The problem became linked to police activity in the 1980s, paralleling increasing use of cocaine by drug users.

Unexpected deaths during police activity relating to people suffering from excited delirium have been linked to pepper spray, certain police restraint methods, and most recently, stun guns.

Stephen Tuttle, vice-president of communications for taser International, said he's confident the peer-reviewed study will give credibility to the use of Tasers in public policing.

"We stand behind the safety of our technology," Tuttle said, although he noted that the company is unable to test the device in certain situations faced by police such as people high on drugs or suffering from mental illness.

"It's not risk-free, but you have to compare it to other types of force."

Taser International is one of the top sponsors of the police chiefs' conference.

Ontario's provincial police commissioner said there is nothing wrong with taser International sponsoring a police chiefs' conference.

Julian Fantino said the weapons have saved many lives and are a tool like any other used in policing.

"The issue is not so much the tool as the rhetoric that revolves around it," he said. "I think the debate has gone off the rails.

"In my experience that particular device has saved many lives."

A report released in British Columbia recommended increased training and limiting the use of stun guns to cases where police are faced with extremely violent individuals who could harm police or the public.