Police-Encounters-With-People-In-Crisis

24. The TPS requires supervisors to have the electronic data stored in their CEW
downloaded any time it is used. The officer in charge must download this information by
the end of the officer’s shift, save the data electronically, and attach a hard copy to the
mandatory CEW and Use of Force reports. The data must be forwarded to the Service’s
Use of Force Analyst within 72 hours of use. 34 Additionally, the Armament Officer of the
Toronto Police College conducts regular audits of CEWs issued to members, and
downloads information from the audited CEWs even if there have been no reports of
use.
25. As of December 2013, 509 CEWs were issued to members of the TPS. In 2013,
CEWs were used 202 times in 192 incidents, primarily by front line supervisors. 35 CEWs
are used in situations involving people in crisis more frequently than for any other type
of incident. Over 40% of the incidents in which CEWs were used in 2013 involved
persons perceived to be suffering from an emotional or mental crisis or from the
combined effects of crisis and drugs or alcohol. Officers used CEWs most frequently in
response to assaultive behaviour or threats of serious bodily harm or death. However,
CEWs were used in situations involving subjects who were passively resistant 13.5% of
the time, and against actively resistant subjects in approximately 15% of cases. The
officer reported a belief that the subject was armed in more than half of the incidents in
which a CEW was used in 2013. 36
26. The ETF has been equipped with CEWs for approximately 14 years. Statistically,
the ETF accounted for approximately 18% of CEW uses in 2013. 37
27. As CEWs cost approximately $1,500 each, it would be a large financial
undertaking for the Service to equip all officers with the devices.
3. Evidence regarding health effects of CEWs
28. A number of scientific reviews and other reports regarding the use and health
effects of CEWs have been prepared in Canada and abroad. 38 This section summarizes
the principal findings of two studies—the Goudge Report 39 and the Braidwood
34
Id. at 6.
35
Chief William Blair, “#P47Annual Report: 2013 Use of Conducted Energy Weapons” (Report presented to the Toronto Police
Services Board, 13 March 2014) at 33.
36
Id. at 34-37.
37
Id. at 33.
38
Examples of recent reports include those prepared by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National
Security, the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner for British
Columbia, the Advisory Panel to the Nova Scotia Minister of Justice, the Saskatchewan Ombudsman, the Ontario Association of
Chiefs of Police, and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, among others.
39
Health Effects, supra note 18.
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