Regional Police react to decision on stun guns
Posted Aug 27, 2013 01:41:18 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Ontario government is allowing all of the province’s front-line police officers to be equipped with stun guns.
It’s something the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police has been calling for — and puts Ontario’s police officers in line with counterparts in other provinces and the RCMP.
Waterloo Regional Police Inspector Kevin Thaler tells 570 News it’s a less lethal way to subdue a subject.
“When confronted with a situation where there’s an escalation by the subject, and lethal force becomes a consideration, at all times . . . ideally . . . there’s a less lethal option there,” he says.
Equipping all of Waterloo Region’s front-line police officers would cost approximately 155-thousand dollars.
Inspector Thaler says that’s if the board approves the move.
“This is new information to us that this is going forward provincially,” he says, “so it still has to be determined if we’ll be doing that in Waterloo Region.”
As for training, Thaler says each officer would have an initial 8-hour training course, with a four hour re-certification course every year.
Currently, only supervising and specialized officers are allowed to carry stun guns.
Last year, Regional Police officers presented a stun gun 56 times, but only deployed 27 times. Thaler says some subjects calmed down when they realized police were holding a Taser.
