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WA launches inquiry into use of Tasers
Debbie Guest | July 28, 2009
Article from: The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25844715-5006789,00.html

WESTERN Australia's Corruption and Crime Commission is investigating the use of Tasers by the state's police.

The inquiry comes as Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan told a parliamentary committee yesterday there had been 68 complaints alleging police misuse of Tasers since they were introduced in 2007.

Four complaints about alleged misuse of the stun guns have been upheld and 24 complaints are still being investigated.

The CCC was tightlipped about the investigation yesterday but confirmed it had been going for several months.

"The commission is aware of a range of concerns about the police use of Tasers and is currently inquiring into the issue," the spokesman said.

Last week a 36-year-old man from the remote desert community of Warburton, 1540km northeast of Perth, caught on fire and suffered third degree burns after being shot with a Taser.

Ronald Mitchell remains in a critical condition in Royal Perth Hospital with burns to his face, neck, arms and chest.

Police say Mr Mitchell, a petrol sniffer, was shot with a Taser after he threatened them with a bottle of fuel and a lighter.

Last week Mr O'Callaghan was quick to defend the officer who fired the Taser and stressed there was no evidence that the gun caused the flames.

Mr Mitchell is expected to be charged by police with attempted assault but has still not been interviewed by officers because of his medical condition.

An internal investigation into the officer who fired the Taser is continuing but is not expected to be finalised for months.

"It will be a while before we resolve that," Mr O'Callaghan told ABC radio yesterday. "It will very much depend on how well this man is, who's in hospital, how quickly he recovers from his injuries and at what stage we will be able to talk to him."

The incident prompted Aboriginal Legal Service WA chief executive Dennis Egginton to call for a moratorium on the use of Tasers until a review of the weapons was conducted.

But Mr O'Callaghan has dismissed such calls, arguing that without Tasers, the only other option for police facing a life-threatening situation was a firearm.

Taser victim died from heart attack
Print Michael McKenna | June 19, 2009
Article from: The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25657862-5006786,00.html

A QUEENSLAND man shocked 28 times by a police officer with a 50,000-volt Taser died of a heart attack within minutes, an autopsy has confirmed.

Pathologists made the finding in a post-mortem report into last week's death of Antonio Galeano, as Queensland police yesterday corrected the public record after earlier claiming the amphetamine addict was shocked only three times.

That first claim was contradicted by data downloaded from the unnamed senior constable's stun gun.

The data, taken from the weapon within hours of Mr Galeano's death early last Friday, was not released publicly until an exclusive report yesterday in The Australian that revealed evidence he had been shocked repeatedly, each time for a duration of five seconds.

Mr Galeano, 39, eventually collapsed and died while in handcuffs.

The two officers involved in the incident at Brandon, south of Townsville, are now under police protection because of death threats, which police sources claim come from criminal associates of Mr Galeano.

Calls mounted yesterday for a criminal investigation into the use of the Taser on the man, who had earlier allegedly assaulted a woman and was wielding a metal bar when confronted by the officer and his partner, a first-year constable, at a unit at Brandon.

It can also be revealed that the Queensland Police ethical standards command, which is investigating on behalf of acting State Coroner Christine Clements, has questioned why Mr Galeano appeared to have been repeatedly hit by a Taser after being cornered in the bathroom of the unit.

Mr Galeano was initially targeted with the Taser through a broken window of the unit, before being sprayed with capsicum spray and then hit repeatedly with the stun gun after he backed into the bathroom.

Investigators are looking at whether the officer should have allowed Mr Galeano -- who had earlier been discharged from hospital where he had undergone a phsychiatric assessment -- to calm down after the first hit from the stun gun.

The post-mortem found that Mr Galeano had an existing heart condition.

The stun gun's US manufacturers have claimed the weapon cannot cause a heart attack. But a report in the Canadian Medical Association Journal last year said studies on pigs indicated that the weapon could cause an "adverse event" in the heart.

The senior constable who used the Taser is now on leave and has told investigators he only hit Mr Galeano several times.

Deputy Police Commissioner Ian Stewart yesterday said the investigation was also looking at whether the Taser malfunctioned and if the data recorded on the gun was incorrect.

"We are yet to understand exactly what those activations were -- whether they were being fired or whether it was ... placed against an object or person," Mr Stewart said.

But George Hateley, the exclusive distributor of Tasers in Australia, this week said a malfunction was unlikely.

"It is an outside possibility," he said. "And the data taken off the weapon is very accurate."

The data on the Taser prompted Police Minister Neil Roberts and Commissioner Bob Atkinson to this week freeze the rollout of a further 1300 Tasers, and to order a Crime and Misconduct Commission review of Taser policy and training in Queensland.

Both have refused to withdraw from service at least 1200 Tasers already being used by general duties officers since January.

All frontline NSW police to get tasers
22:42 AEST Sat Jun 13 Jun 13, 2009
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=825218

Taser stun guns are to be issued to all frontline police across NSW.

In October last year the bright yellow Tasers were issued to senior officers only - the supervising sergeant and duty officer - at each of the state's 80 Local Area Commands.

The Sun Herald newspaper reports Tuesday's state budget will include $10 million to buy 1962 Tasers for frontline police.

The officers will be given just eight hours training, but will need to get at least 80 per cent in a written test and pass an annual certification before they can use the stun guns.

NSW Premier Nathan Rees said the roll out was part of a record $2.6 billion police budget.

"The (Police) Commissioner has advised that, after a successful trial period, Tasers should be deployed to all frontline officers - and the NSW Government has delivered," Mr Rees said.

© AAP 2009

Video can be found at
http://media.smh.com.au/wa-news/police-taser-geraldton-driver-493078.html

Story

Police fire Taser at fleeing driver in Geraldton
April 27, 2009
Article from: Australian Associated Press
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25393875-5006789,00.html

POLICE fired a Taser gun at the driver of a van during a pursuit through the streets of a West Australian city.

Police spokesman Sergeant Graham Clifford said a 17-year-old Port Hedland youth had led his pursuers on a wild chase through Geraldton after allegedly stealing the van and crashing into other vehicles and buildings.

As he headed for the Lester St nightclub in Geraldton's centre at about 12.30am today, police pulled up next to the driver and fired their stun gun through the window.

No one was injured when the vehicle, which was travelling between 15km/h and 20km/h, then crashed into a building near the nightclub.

Sgt Clifford said the teenager was alleged to have stolen a forklift earlier in the night to try to break into a liquor warehouse.

After allegedly stealing the van, the teen had driven the wrong way around a roundabout, crashing into police and other cars, he said.

With its rear tyres shredded, the van then struck a Thai restaurant before heading towards the nightclub, Sgt Clifford said.

He said the officers pursuing him had to think quickly to avoid a tragedy, as the driver had obviously not been prepared to stop.

Inspector George Macintosh said police would hold an internal review of the incident, as a matter of procedure.

Under police guidelines, any use of force is reviewed as a matter of course, he said.

The youth has been charged with stealing a motor vehicle, burglary with intent, reckless driving, driving with an alcohol level in excess of 0.08, driving without a licence and failing to stop.

Man dies after Taser deployed
By Mark Schliebs | April 17, 2009
Article from: NEWS.com.au
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25346179-5006790,00.html

A MAN has died after police used a Taser and capsicum spray on him during a domestic disturbance.

The 39-year-old Alice Springs man was involved in a confrontation with officers at a home at 10.30pm (AEST) yesterday, Northern Territory Police said.

The capsicum spray was used and a Taser deployed, but "the man continued to confront police and there was a further struggle", police said.

"After a short time police observed the person was not breathing and immediately commenced CPR.

"Ambulance officers arrived and continued to administer CPR however the man died a short time later at the Alice Springs Hospital."

Officers from the NT Police Major Crime Division are investigating the death.

The Ethical and Professional Standards Command will oversee the investigation.

______________________________________________
Death provokes challenge on Tasers
April 18, 2009
Article from: The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25349746-5006790,00.html

AN Alice Springs man has died in police custody after both capsicum spray and a Taser were used to restrain him when police were called to a domestic dispute.

The 39-year-old man confronted police in Alice Springs about 10.30pm on Thursday and continued to struggle after capsicum spray and the Taser were used, Northern Territory Police said.

"After a short time police observed the person was not breathing and immediately commenced CPR," they said.

"Ambulance officers arrived and continued to administer CPR. However, the man died a short time later at the Alice Springs Hospital."

The death is being investigated by the Major Crime Division on behalf of the Northern Territory Coroner.

The investigation will be overseen by the police Ethical and Professional Standards Command.

The death sparked renewed calls for Taser use to be stopped.

Australian Council for Civil Liberties president Terry O'Gorman called for their use to be suspended until medical and scientific tests on the dead man were concluded.

In Brisbane, criminal defence lawyer Michael Bosscher called on the Queensland Government to immediately suspend police use of Tasers pending a safety review following the death of the Northern Territory man.

In January, Queensland's police force became Australia's first to issue Tasers to general duties officers as debate raged around the world over the use of the stun guns, which have been blamed for more than 50 deaths in the US since 2001 and at least one fatality in Australia, in NSW in 2002.

"What we have feared has happened," Mr Bosscher said. "Someone has died after being hit by a police Taser.

"Although the fatality was in the Northern Territory, the Queensland Government should immediately suspend their use here and conduct thorough, and publicly accountable, safety tests on the devices," Mr Bosscher said.

AAP

Terry O'Gorman calls for new police watchdog after Taser ruling
Michael Wray
March 05, 2009 11:00pm
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,25144841-3102,00.html

CIVIL libertarians have called for parliamentary oversight of the police, saying the service's watchdog has lost its bite after 20 years.

The calls come after the Crime and Misconduct Commission rebuked an officer who applied a Taser to a 16-year-old girl and accused the police service of failing to learn from mistakes.

But CMC chairman Robert Needham dismissed the call for more oversight and defended the decision to not insist on disciplinary action against the constable in the Taser incident.

"If there is a concerning pattern, what's the CMC doing about it?" he said. "It just seems to be a lot of hand wringing at the moment."

Mr O'Gorman called for the next government to institute a standing parliamentary committee to supervise police.

He said it should not investigate individual complaints but look at policy issues and concerns, such as the misuse of Tasers.

Mr Needham said he had been forced into making his most public attack on police after frustration at their attitude towards the incident.

"I've been expressing my view for quite a while and it seems to cause no change of attitude in the Queensland Police Service," Mr Needham said.

He said it was the "harshest criticism" he had delivered in his four years at the commission.

Calling his relationship with Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson "good, amiable and friendly", Mr Needham said he disagreed with the police's internal reports on the case.

"It speaks of the officer being left with no option but to deploy the Taser and that the officer displayed sound judgment," he said.

"In my view neither of those statements is correct."

He branded the constable as "gung-ho" but did not believe he deserved dismissal or formal discipline.

"It is inevitable that mistakes will be made but my strong view is that police should learn from those mistakes," he said.

He had also accused police of displaying a "concerning pattern" towards the handling of incidents.

Mr Needham said up to 60 complaints against police "crossed his desk" every year, of which about 20 troubled him, he said.

However, he said his position had been misinterpreted as an attack on Taser usage.

"I want to make it clear that I am not saying that there is a concerning pattern of Taser usage," he said.

CMC blasts police for Tasering teen girl at South Bank
Michael Wray and Jane Chudleigh
March 04, 2009 11:00pm
Courier Mail
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,25137988-3102,00.html

THE CMC has blasted the Queensland Police Service after an officer Tasered a teenage girl at South Bank last year.

The CMC (Crime and Misconduct Commission) has accused Queensland police of failing to learn from its mistakes after an investigation into the unnecessary Taser use on a girl, 16.

CMC chairman Robert Needham said there was a "concerning pattern" in the handling of critical incidents and urged Commissioner Bob Atkinson to rein in his troops.

The CMC spoke out after overseeing an internal police investigation into the use of the Taser on the girl, who failed to obey a police order at South Bank in April last year.

The incident came months after The Courier-Mail revealed Police Minister Judy Spence had sidelined the service's top brass and brokered a deal with the police union to give Tasers to every frontline officer.

Ms Spence's intervention came barely halfway through a 12-month trial and in the middle of the union election.

Yesterday Ms Spence's office said the minister would not comment on the CMC criticism until she had read the report.

"I'm not expecting it to happen today," a spokesman said.

However Ms Spence's office reversed its stance and released a statement after The Courier-Mail sought comment from Premier Anna Bligh.

"The Commissioner of Police has advised me the Queensland Police Service will completely re-examine every aspect of this entire matter," Ms Spence said.

The South Bank incident was one of at least nine complaints against officers for using Tasers inappropriately.

The girl, 16, had defied a move-on order and was being held down by two security guards when an officer used a Taser on her thigh.

A magistrate later ruled the officers did not give adequate directions and threw out a charge of obstructing police against the girl.

Mr Needham labelled the actions "very poor policing".

"The commission expected the QPS to use the incident as a learning opportunity for the officer involved and for Taser training generally, but there is no evidence to show this has occurred," he said.

"My observations of QPS failure to learn from mistakes are not limited to this case."

He urged Mr Atkinson to "send a strong message to all police that they must objectively assess and learn from policing incidents".

Solicitor Margaret Brain, of Slater and Gordon, said she was preparing civil action against the police on the girl's behalf.

"It was a violent incident that has traumatised her," she said.

Mr Atkinson acknowledged the matter "could have been handled better" and said police would "carefully consider" issues raised by the CMC.

"It's probably the most severe criticism the CMC have expressed of the Queensland Police Service for many years, and that concerns me," he said.

Police Union president Cameron Pope could not be reached for comment.

Westender (Brisbane Qld)

Qld Police "playing God"
http://www.westender.com.au/news/356

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Queensland Police are playing God with lives, says former-MP and Queensland Police Service Sergeant Peter Pyke.
“Talk about denial,” Pyke said. “While other Australian police agencies and those overseas openly state their concerns that tasers can kill, the QPS website and public utterances of the QPS and the Police Union representative Cameron Pope [public statement made 10.20 AM 16 January 2009 by Cameron Pope] pretends the opposite. This is very bad news for the safety of Queenslanders.”

The Queensland Police Service last week became the first in Australia to start issuing Tasers to all General Duties' officers. The rollout is scheduled to be complete by July 2009.

Elsewhere in Australia and the rest of the world disagreement rages about the use of the stun guns, blamed for more than 50 deaths in the US since 2001 and at least one fatality in Australia, in NSW in 2002. Tasers have recently been withdrawn from some police forces in Canada after incidents which resulted in the deaths of unarmed citizens.

A recent extensive UK trial has determined that only specialist officers will be armed with the stun-gun weapon. Home Office policy stating this was just published this month, January 2009.

A Report published by Amnesty International on 16 December 2008 questioned the safety of Tasers. Amnesty claims the US death toll from Tasers has now reached 334.

Amnesty's study includes information from 98 autopsies. It "found that 90 per cent of those who died after being struck with a Taser were unarmed and many did not appear to present a serious threat.

Many were subjected to repeated or prolonged shocks - far more than the five-second 'standard' cycle - or by more than one officer at a time. Some people were even shocked for failing to comply with police commands after they had been incapacitated by a first shock.

In at least six of the cases where people died, Tasers were used on individuals suffering from medical conditions such as seizures - including a doctor who had crashed his car when he suffered an epileptic seizure. He died after being repeatedly shocked at the side of the highway when, dazed and confused, he failed to comply with an officer's commands."

Amnesty reports, "Police officers also used Tasers on schoolchildren, pregnant women and even an elderly person with dementia."

Pyke said the Victorian Police position as of late last year was that Victoria Police General Duties officers are unlikely to be issued with Taser guns because of safety concerns.

In December 2008 Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner of Police Kieran Walshe stated, "Earlier this year we had a look at the issue around tasers, we were mindful of some reports emanating from Canada (and) also a NSW Ombudsman's report and we were also mindful of trials and roll-outs that were occurring in other states.”

"We also took into consideration, clearly there's evidence coming out of the United States that a number of people have died as a result of the use of tasers and we were not satisfied at that point in time it was the right move for us.” [Source: Radio Interview Radio 3AW 15 December 2008]

Victoria Police Special Operations Group members and the Critical Incident Response Team have been armed with Tasers since 2004.

Pyke said the NSW Ombudsman in December 2008 remained unconvinced about the safety of issuing Tasers to General Duties police and had publicly expressed concern that they would be misused.

”The New South Wales Ombudsman, Bruce Barbour, recently completed an extensive report recommending a moratorium on Tasers and a further two year review into their use,” Pyke said.

Mr Barbour detailed his concerns about added risks for certain groups of people, and also what has been described as mission-creep.

”In other words, when every officer is provided with a Taser, there is increasing evidence to suggest that they will be used by officers in circumstances which are more everyday circumstances, rather than what they're intended to be used for, which are very extreme high-risk, dangerous situation,” Mr Barbour said.

Pyke said the NSW Ombudsman also noted that certain people are at higher risk of having heart-related effects following the use of a Taser.

”People who are at added risk of death from the application of a stun-gun are people of small stature, substance abusers, people who are affected by alcohol, elderly people, women who might be pregnant, also people who have mental health issues and who may be on medication,” Pyke said.

“Again,” Pyke said, “because the QPS and Police Union fail to acknowledge the potentially lethal nature of Tasers, these added risk factors are being ignored in Queensland.”

"Tasers are not the 'non-lethal' weapons the QPS and Police Union claim," Pyke said. “They can kill and should only be used with that consideration in mind, and as a last resort before shooting an armed offender.”

“Part of the problem with Tasers is that they are open to substantial abuse. They are easy to deploy and can inflict severe pain at the push of a button, apparently without leaving substantial marks,” Pyke said.

In 2008, Tasers were controversially fast-tracked into use by Queensland police by the Bligh Government, just six months into a year-long trial on the devices.

“Queenslanders should be angered that during the first six months of the trial, at least one hardly laudable incident occurred where a young female citizen under-18 was wrongly shocked with the stun-gun, against policy, yet the incident was covered-up by police. As a result of this deception, the Police Minister was able to misinform the public that the trial had gone well and there was no need to delay the rollout. The police union and the Minister then made an announcement about the Taser rollout even though senior police had yet to be told that would happen,” Pyke said.

"There are a number of problems with the way the rollout of Tasers has been conducted by the Bligh Government, but the trial itself seems to have been a complete farce,” Pyke said.

Pyke said that there exists considerable evidence world-wide that when General Duties police are issued with Tasers - as opposed to specialist police units and NCO operational advisers - the stun-gun is commonly misused by officers in circumstances which are not the very extreme high-risk, dangerous situations Queenslanders had been told police need Tasers for.

“Queenslanders were told that our police needed Tasers as a weapon option to prevent citizens from being gunned down by police in heavy-duty crisis situations where an offender is armed. The QPS and the Police Union commonly cite the example of an offender armed with a knife who will ‘run through a cloud of capsicum spray’. Yet QPS records released last week show that the majority of Taser deployments during the 2008 trial were in the close-up ‘drive stun’ mode, not fired at a distance, which,” Pyke said”, appears to confirm that Tasers are already being wrongly used – coercively or abusively - as cattle prods.”

“So, even though is just the first twelve-months of Taser use in Queensland, the QPS’s own records suggest the stun-guns were misused in a majority of cases.”

Former-sergeant Pyke predicted that because the QPS was ignoring the potential for tasers to kill, and arming all General Duties police with the potentially lethal weapon, a Queenslander would die during 2009 from a Taser incident.

“While the QPS and Police Union ignore the potential for tasers to kill,” Pyke said, “they will risk Queenslanders lives every time a taser is deployed.”

“Over time, I also predict the QPS will face monumental payouts in successful civil actions as Queenslanders wrongly Tasered by police ignore ineffectual complaints processes and take the wiser option of hiring a lawyer and instigating civil action,” Pyke said.

Pyke said the undue haste and lack of transparency over the introduction of Tasers, and the actions of both the Bligh Government and the QPS were causing Queenslanders to lose confidence in their police service, and the State Government had failed Queenslanders by wrongly deploying stun-guns widely to police General Duties officers, some of whom are certain to misuse them.

“It is not to late to stop this unwise action,” Pyke said. “Premier Bligh, you have made a decision which will risk the lives of some Queenslanders. Please urgently review the Taser decision. There is a place for Tasers, but it is not in the hands of every police-officer, regardless of their lack of experience.”

Queenslanders who were harmed by police wrongly or abusively using a Taser, or the relatives of a citizen seeking redress for a death caused by a police Taser incident should not waste their time making a complaint or attempting to have criminal charges laid against Queensland police, former-MP and former-Queensland Police Service sergeant Peter Pyke said today. “Go straight for civil action,“ Pyke said, “Police themselves tell me it is the only remedy they and the Queensland Police Service fear.”

The families of a Queenslander whose death is caused by a Taser, or citizens who were improperly or wrongly Tasered by Police can expect no sympathy or redress from the Bligh Government, QPS Ethical Standards Command, CMC, or even the LNP, Pyke said.

“Suffer Taser-abuse at the hands of an undisciplined member of the Queensland police Service,” Pyke said, “and you can expect that the Police Service will firstly attempt to cover up the incident, if the matter does become public the Ethical Standards Command will pat the officer on the head and use the line about ‘sending them for more training’, and the CMC will turn its usual blind eye.”

Pyke said that is what exactly happened last year when an officer who used the stun gun as a cattle prod on an unarmed teenage girl escaped disciplinary action. “This is a member of the QPS who Tasered an unarmed 16 year-old girl - who weighed all of 50kg - who was at the time being held down by two security officers. This policeman deployed a stun-gun blast to her thigh, for what?”

Pyke said the incident might be regarded as a form of torture and was a clear breach of QPS guidelines banning the use of a Taser on a juvenile unless there is imminent risk of injury.

The 16-year-old girl had defied an order to move on because she was waiting for an ambulance to arrive to treat her sick friend.

Although the incident drew a stern rebuke of police by a Magistrate and police charges against the teenager were dismissed, while the case was before the court the police prosecutor attempted unsuccessfully to have the matter suppressed and the officer’s name is yet to be made public.

The victim is understood to be preparing to take civil action.

The QPS last week confirmed the officer who used the stun gun last year on the unarmed teenage girl had escaped any form of disciplinary action whatsoever.

“This is an ominous warning of what is to come,” Pyke said.

Michael McKenna | January 13, 2009
Article from: The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24903748-28737,00.html

TWO teenagers out at night. A year apart in age, and living in separate cities, they were hardly angels. Street-wise and loaded with a youthful contempt for authority, each of them crossed police after dark, with dramatically different ends.

Tyler Cassidy, 15, later described by his mum as a "scared little boy", died in a hail of bullets after threatening police with knives at a Melbourne skate park in December.

The other, a slightly built, 16-year-old Brisbane girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was held down and tasered by police last April in an inner-city park after she defied an order to move on because she was waiting for an ambulance to treat her sick friend.

Both have since become the focus on each side of a heated debate as Australia's police forces rush to arm their front-line officers with the 50,000-volt electro-muscular disruption devices, popularly known by the market-leading American brand name, Taser.

A civil liberties stoush is erupting across the Western world as law enforcement agencies increasingly turn to stun guns as an alternative to lethal force, while evidence mounts that tasers, in fact, can kill.

A recent Amnesty International report claims the organisation's research revealed more than 300 people had died after being tasered in the US since the weapon was introduced in 2001. Over a similar period in Canada, tasers are said to be responsible for 20 deaths.

The findings have been dismissed by Taser.

However, even when not lethal, the devices have been contentious. The UN last year described them as an instrument of torture.

In Australia tasers have thus far mostly been restricted to the highly trained police tactical response units, but they are now set to become part of the everyday arsenal of general duties police in every state and territory.

Yet their proliferation has largely occurred by stealth, with little public or parliamentary scrutiny.

Last week, Queensland joined Western Australia - which in 2007 issued 1500 tasers to its front-line police - and began issuing the weapon to more general duties officers, more than 5000 of whom are expected to be equipped with one by the end of the year.

Controversially, the decision to extend their use beyond Queensland's tactical response units was made by the Bligh Government last January, halfway through a year-long trial at select city stations.

The results of the truncated trial are a closely guarded secret, but Queensland's Crime and Misconduct Commission, which is assessing the report, is understood to have sent it back to police brass for more work because of a perceived bias towards supporting the widespread rollout.

Despite the NSW Ombudsman recommending a two-year freeze on the rollout of tasers to general duty officers, the state's Police Minister Tony Kelly last month moved down the same path as Queensland, ordering a report on a similar trial to be handed over by the end of this month, nine months before it was due.

And in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania the pressure is building on governments to extend the use of tasers beyond specialist units.

Victoria Police - after the shooting death of Tyler Cassidy - are committed to making a decision by the end of the year.

The taser uses a high-voltage, low-power charge of electricity to immobilise or inflict pain on people. It can be used in two ways.

In probe mode, it shoots two metal darts on wires at the target, which can be farther than 10m. The darts, which can penetrate clothing 2.5cm thick, deliver a painful 50,000-volt shock that causes involuntary muscular contractions, which incapacitates a person until the charge is turned off.

In drive stun mode, the taser can be used much like a cattle prod: it inflicts acute pain on the body area with which it comes into contact.

Taser International, the Arizona-based company that manufactures the devices, has a simple message in selling its wares: "Protect life".

It argues tasers save lives because police use them instead of guns.

It is a message that has been embraced across the world, including by the Police Association of Victoria in the wake of the Cassidy shooting.

Association spokesman Senior Sergeant Greg Davies says he can't speculate as to what would have happened if police at the scene had been equipped with tasers.

"It is dangerous to second-guess what could have happened," he says. "But those boys should have had the option (of) being equipped with a taser as an alternative."

While Cassidy's death is being investigated by the Victoria coroner, there is little doubt the teenager was a danger to himself and police when he was confronted at the Northcote skate park.

According to reports at the time, police were called to the park after Cassidy was seen acting erratically.

Four officers arrived and tried to negotiate with the teenager, who was brandishing two knives. He was hit with two doses of capsicum spray as he repeatedly approached police.

The boy reportedly urged police to kill him or he would kill them, and again he moved towards police. A warning shot was fired.

But police reportedly ignored his demands to back off. Cassidy was then shot to death by three of the four officers.

Davies says studies across the world show that displaying a taser sometimes suffices to resolve a dangerous situation.

"Late last year, Britain's Home Office, which just authorised the purchase of 10,000 more tasers, released statistics that in 80per cent of cases, just pulling the weapon out of the holster was enough to bring a situation under control," he says. "The mere fact they knew they were going to be tasered was enough to make people comply."

Davies says Victoria Police brass have "dragged their feet" in taking the decision to extend taser use despite two recommendations to do so by the Victorian coroner in the past few years.

In Queensland, state coroner Michael Barnes last year ruled the lives of four young mental health patients shot dead by police in armed sieges could have been saved if officers had been armed with tasers. Police Minister Judy Spence had already ordered the rollout months before Barnes issued his findings and unsuccessfully called for the trial to continue.

But for Queensland Police deputy commissioner Kathy Rynders, the findings are still valid in defending the decision to have 5000 officers equipped with tasers by the end of the year. "The taser minimises the risk of injury to police and the individuals they are dealing with," she says.

"We have been looking at these devices for a long time, since 2003, and clearly this gives us another option to drawing a weapon."

Rynders says when tasers are pulled out of their holster, 41percent of the time the situation is readily resolved.

"We are finding that showing a person that we will use the weapon is enough to defuse the situation and they comply."

During the Queensland trial, the weapon was mostly used in the drive stun mode. It is this capability - where the gun is pressed against a person to inflict localised pain - that has angered many civil liberties lawyers.

Queensland Civil Liberties president Michael Cope says the drive stun mode of tasers should be removed. "Probe mode is used to incapacitate a person from a distance, who may be holding a knife, whereas the other capability basically delivers localised pain from close quarters," he says. "If they police are that close, why do they need a taser? There is no mark left and it is open to misuse."

Cope and other Queensland lawyers cite the case of the 16-year-old girl, whom police tasered in drive stun mode when she defied an order to move on.

The Crime and Misconduct Commission and the police ethical standards unit launched an investigation into the April incident, which drew a strong rebuke from a magistrate in the Brisbane Children's Court.

The unarmed teenager, who weighed 50kg, was being held down by two security officers when a policeman deployed a drive stun blast to her thigh, in an apparent breach of guidelines banning the use of a taser on a juvenile unless there is imminent risk of injury.

Magistrate Pam Dowse slammed the police officer for overreacting to the teenager's refusal to leave her unconscious friend, a girl, before the ambulance arrived.

"It didn't seem to be a crisis requiring such a stern response," she said.

Last week, Queensland Police announced the officers involved in the incident would escape disciplinary action because no formal complaint had been made.

The teenager's family is preparing legal action against the police but has faced obstacles, such as the authorities' refusal to release CCTV footage of the incident. Leading Brisbane lawyer Scott McDougall says the incident is an example of "taser creep", a phenomenon that US and Canadian civil liberties groups claim has led to misuse of the device in those countries.

"There has been found to be a creep in the tendency for tasers to be used in circumstances (for which) they are not intended," he says.

"So, at the moment, under the Queensland Police guidelines, officers are able to justify using a taser against anyone offering anything other than passive resistance. It lends itself to misuse by undisciplined officers."

Queensland lawyers briefed last week by police say the drive stun mode is, in effect, represents an elevation in the force's "pain policy" to garner compliance.

But Rynders dismisses the claim. "It is not elevation, it is just another tool in the use of force model we use," she says. "In training, we emphasise that the use of the drive stun mode is not the first option, that they have to make an assessment of the situation.

"But it doesn't have to be the last option, because sometimes there is not enough time to move through the options."

She says Queensland Police have introduced rigorous accountability measures, including mandatory reporting and an independent review of each incident in which a taser is removed from a holster.

"We are comfortable that we now have the right policies, a multi-layered framework, to enable us to give our officers another option."

McDougall says the drive stun mode runs the risk of escalating an incident, leading to greater physical restraint and then injury or death. "It is these subsequent restraints that are behind so many of the deaths overseas," he says.

Taser's sole distributor in Australia, George Hateley, says reports of deaths blamed on the device are wildly exaggerated.

"If you look closely at the coroner's findings in these cases, you will find that tasers are not found to have contributed to the actual death," he says.

"While a taser was used in the incident, the deaths are drug-related or through the stress on the body through excited delirium."

But Hateley says that in the wrong hands, a taser can be dangerous.

"If police are given a new high-performance car they still have to abide by their internal standard operational procedures, and if they don't, they can kill," he says.

"These devices cannot kill, but they can be misused in the wrong hands."

Teen death prompts calls for taser roll out
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
ABC Television 7.30 Report
Broadcast: 07/01/2009
Reporter: Tracee Hutchison
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2008/s2460988.htm

The fatal shooting by Victorian Police of 15-year-old Tyler Cassidy just before Christmas has prompted the Victorian Police Association to call for a total roll out of tasers as an alternative to firearms.

Transcript
SCOTT BEVAN, PRESENTER: The fatal shooting by Victorian Police of 15-year-old Tyler Cassidy just before Christmas has reignited the debate over the use of taser stun-guns.

The Tyler Cassidy case is now the subject of a coronial inquiry but the Victorian Police Association is calling for a total roll-out of tasers to fall in line with other States.

But a recent Amnesty International report says the misuse and overuse of tasers in United States has been linked to over 300 deaths since 2001.

Civil libertarians are urging a cautionary approach in Australia. Tracee Hutchison reports.

SNR. SGT GREG DAVIES, VICTORIA POLICE ASSOCIATION: He was irrational, he was yelling and screaming and armed with two knives at that stage.

YOUNG BOY 1: He was a good bloke and he didn't deserve what happened.

YOUNG BOY 2: It's not fair.

YOUNG BOY 3: I am sure there were many scenarios they could have thought up before doing that.

KIERAN WALSHE, DEPUTY COMMISSIONER VICTORIA POLICE: We don't go about intentionally killing anybody. You know, our job is the protection of life and property and that's what we do.

But unfortunately from time to time we have situations where our members are placed in a position where the last resort is the only resort they have.

GREG DAVIES: Nobody goes to work wanting to shoot someone, of that you can be assured.

And any police officer who has been involved in a shooting operation is never exactly the same person ever again. Those events stay with them for the rest of their lives.

TRACEE HUTCHISON, REPORTER: It's a story that's become uncomfortably familiar - police involved in a fatal shooting.

This time a 15-year-old boy armed with a couple of knives and the Police Union calling for an alternative to bullets.

GREG DAVIES: Our members are telling us that there is a great void in between either a baton or a pepper spray and then stepping straight up to the potential use of a firearm.

So our members are saying there needs to be an alternative - another option - somewhere between OC pepper stray and a firearm.

TRACEE HUTCHISON: When teenager Tyler Cassidy was shot dead by Victorian Police just before Christmas, the question was why?

Why did the officers have no other option and why was Victoria lagging behind other States in the issue of tasers?

GREG DAVIES: The question as to why the Victoria Police force command haven't issued tasers across the board is quite a vexing one.

There hasn't been any particular reason given by the chief commissioner as to why they won't be immediately issued across the board.

KIERAN WALSHE: We had a consideration for an expanded use of tasers in Victoria Police in early 2008.

We weren't satisfied that we had sufficient information to hand at that point in time which would enable us to make a balanced and well judged decision in the best interest, not only of our members, but also of the community.

TRACEE HUTCHISON: Twelve months on, Victorian Police are once again under pressure to follow the national trend to issue tasers to all operational officers.

GREG DAVIES: In Victoria at the moment, tasers are restricted to the Special Operations Group and Critical Incident Response Teams.

Unless it's a planned operation where one or the other of those groups are predetermined to attend, the issues arise very quickly and there usually isn't the time to call out someone from one of those teams.

POLICE OFFICER: Taser, taser.

TRACEE HUTCHISON: In 2007, Western Australia became the first State to make tasers, or stun-guns, available to all operational police. There have been no fatal shootings by West Australian police since.

INSPECTOR STEVE BRADLEY, WESTERN AUSTRALIAN POLICE: The West Australian experience is that the taser does save lives. Officers have the opportunity to use a further force option which is less than lethal to prevent injury to the assailant, to the police officer or any other person.

TRACEE HUTCHISON: The apparent success of tasers in the west has highlighted delays with the roll-out in other States.

In NSW, two fatal shootings by police late last year involving officers still waiting to be issued with tasers sparked calls from the NSW Police Association to deploy tasers to all operational police as a matter of urgency.

But not everyone believes tasers are the panacea they're being described as.

TERRY O'GORMAN, AUSTRALIA COUNCIL FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES: In Queensland alone there was one well televised incident where a 50-year-old woman who was engaged in some form of political protest; who was standing on a raised platform, not engaged in any sort of violent behaviour, was simply tasered down from the platform because that was the easiest way for the police to do it.

So our concern is about overuse.

(Sound of man shouting from being tasered)

TRACEE HUTCHISON: Echoing civil liberty concerns in Australia is a recent report from Amnesty International on the misuse and overuse of tasers in the United States where tasers have been linked to over 300 deaths since 2001.

KATIE WOOD, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: Tasers are not the non-lethal alternative that they're hailed out to be.

We have evidence where people have died in connection with taser use.

(Sound of man shouting and being tasered)

The other problem with tasers as they're open to abuse. Poorly trained officers have been known to use them, not in the way that they are required to be used.

They're tasering people on several occasions or the shocks are lasting for more than the standard five seconds.

TRACEE HUTCHISON: It's precisely the reason Victorian Police cite for delaying their decision.

KIERAN WALSHE: There's a lot of issues that have come out of the reports around training, issues around human rights and issues around accountability, recording of activities, etc.

Now, we need to take all of that into consideration in our overall assessment and review about where we are in Victoria Police relative to the use of tasers.

GREG DAVIES: A lot of the reports in relation to tasers have been wildly exaggerated and I think if we set the statistics aside and just deal in facts we will find that there are, according to some sources, no recorded deaths directly attributed to tasers anywhere in the world.

TRACEE HUTCHISON: While Victorian Police Command and the Police Association remain at odds over the taser issue, it is surely cold comfort for the families left grieving.

When will Victoria Police make a decision about mandatory issue of tasers?

KIERAN WALSHE: We will make a decision this year as to what we're going to do. You know, we've got documentation now that we didn't have before.

We've got advice on roll-outs in other States that we didn't have before. So we're better informed now to go forward and have a further evaluation and assessment and make a decision.

GREG DAVIES: I don't know how much evaluation something as important as this needs, when it clearly has a long standing record nationally and internationally that's readily available for them.

(Sound of taser gun)

SCOTT BEVAN: Tracee Hutchison with that report. Search the 7.30 Report
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Too much expected of young police
Dylan Welch Police Reporter
Sydney Morning Herald
January 3, 2009
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/too-much-expected-of-young-police/20...

CONCERNS have been raised that young and inexperienced police are being forced to make life-and-death decisions without adequate training and have less support than they did a decade ago as senior officers desert the force.

Questions have been asked after Parramatta mother-of-two Susan Bandera, 48, was shot twice by a constable while allegedly brandishing a 10-centimetre cocktail fork.

"Police are being required to do a lot more now, at a younger level, with less training," said the director of the University of Sydney's Institute of Criminology, Professor Mark Findlay.

"If you look at [the Goulburn Police Academy] 10 or 15 years ago there was more time, more diversity and more depth in the way training was carried out."

Yesterday police cleared the officer, a 35-year-old female constable with two years' experience, of any wrongdoing.

But Ms Bandera said she intends to sue the police force.

She claims she had dropped her fork and had her hands behind her head when she was shot. She remains in a stable condition, with a bullet lodged in her spine after it passed through her liver. Another bullet passed through her chest.

Late yesterday her lawyer, former police officer Ben Archbold, sent a letter to the acting Deputy Commissioner for Operations, Dennis Clifford, alleging that the investigation into the shooting was a "cover-up".

"It beggars belief that the training of NSW police officers has reached a point where the appropriate action to be taken by half-a-dozen police officers when confronted by a small middle-aged woman holding a cocktail fork is to shoot her twice, including once in the back," the letter read.

Both the State Opposition and the NSW Police Association have been campaigning for extra police, saying the present crop of about 7000 general duties police - uniformed officers who patrol and respond to emergencies - was not nearly enough.

The NSW Police Force provided figures in 2006 which showed 36 per cent of police had less than five years' experience - far higher than Victoria with 15 per cent and Britain with 20 per cent.

The NSW figure jumped 13 percentage points in eight years, police annual reports showed. Yesterday police were unable to provide newer data to show if the figure had changed, but the Opposition police spokesman, Mike Gallacher, said it would have almost certainly risen. "What that means … is you end up with police who are far less experienced making split-second decisions that … are ones of life or death."

Acting Deputy Commissioner Clifford acknowledged that the police workforce was young, but said that was in line with many other industries.

The police association said the shooting could have been more safely dealt with if all general duties police had access to stun guns.

Amnesty report damns stun weapons
Dylan Welch Police Reporter
December 30, 2008
Sydney Morning Herald
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/amnesty-report-damns-stun-weapons/20...

THE newest weapon in the NSW Police Force's arsenal has been identified in a new report by Amnesty International as contributing to the deaths of at least 50 people across the US in the past seven years.

The new data comes after the controversial Taser weapons have been fired 18 times in the first three months of a year-long trial of the weapons in NSW and only a month after the NSW Ombudsman issued a scathing report into their use.

The Ombudsman's report called for a two-year moratorium on issuing any more of the weapons pending an independent review of their safety.

But last week the Police Minister, Tony Kelly, said he would be asking for a report on the recent roll-out by the end of January, nine months ahead of schedule.

That could lead to a further roll-out of the weapons quicker than was previously expected, a move strongly supported by the NSW Police Association, which wants a Taser in every first-response vehicle in the state.

But the report by Amnesty International, published earlier this month and entitled Less than lethal? The use of stun weapons in US law enforcement, suggests NSW police should be cautious in their use of the weapon. "Amnesty International believes that Tasers and similar conducted energy weapons are inherently open to abuse," the authors state in their introduction.

The report identified 50 cases in the United States since 2001 in which medical examiners had reported a link between stun gun use and death.

The report's authors also suggest the weapons may have been used in a manner that may contravene international standards. "In many instances, police actions appear to have violated the international prohibition against torture or other ill-treatment," they write.

The report described the shocking of an 11-year-old Florida schoolgirl with a learning disability in March.

The girl had become disturbed and was pushing furniture and spitting at staff and had punched a police officer before a weapon was used to stun her.

In another case a doctor who crashed his car during an epileptic seizure died after being repeatedly stunned when he failed to comply with an officer's commands.

Tasers have been discharged by NSW police officers 18 times since they were rolled-out to all local commands on October 2, according to evidence gathered by the Herald. Police yesterday refused to release statistics on use, citing lack of data.

Yet access to data was not a problem on two other occasions since the roll-out when police wanted to show the weapons' effectiveness.

Two weeks after they announced the roll-out, police released a triumphal media announcement, stating officers had drawn the weapons from holsters 21 times and they were an "extremely effective deterrent".

Five uses had involved the discharge of the weapon, four times in "drive-stun mode" - where the user pushes the front of the weapon into a person instead of firing the two charged probes from a distance - and one was a firing from a distance.

In November, in response to the critical Ombudsman's report, the figures were updated to seven drive-stuns and six firings. Since then there have been a further five uses.

Article: Queensland teenager recalls pain inflicted by police Taser
Michael McKenna | November 21, 2008
Article from: The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24683682-5006786,00.html

THE shock of 50,000 volts hit her 50kg frame without warning.

Struggling under the weight of a policeman and two burly security guards, the Taser's "drive stun" blast on the 16-year-old's thigh felt like a knife was being driven up and into her stomach.

"It was so painful; it was excruciating and horrible and painful," the now 17-year-old, who cannot be named, told The Australian.

"It stopped my whole body from moving. I didn't expect it. I didn't know what a Taser was and then there was 'zap'. I was screaming and crying and I can sort of remember this police officer telling me that he had used a Taser."

The girl was hardly an innocent. The stream of profanities and threats that had poured out of her mouth at the two Queensland police officers minutes before had raised the heat of what should have been a routine confrontation with a pack of unruly teenagers.

All that changed when one of the officers -- armed on the first night of an extended trial of the Tasers to general-duties police -- appeared to breach operating guidelines that ban the weapon being used on a juvenile "except in circumstances where there is no other reasonable option to avoid the imminent risk of injury".

The April incident, which was captured on closed-circuit television, is the subject of an investigation by the police ethical standards unit and the state's anti-corruption watchdog, the Crime and Misconduct Commission.

The girl's mother told The Australian yesterday she would sue the police after charges of obstructing the officers were dropped against her daughter in the Children's Court last Friday.

"She was no threat to those police," the mother said. "What they did to my daughter was disgusting. I was horrified when I saw the tape."

Queensland police have so far refused to release the CCTV footage to the girl's family and last week police prosecutors unsuccessfully opposed The Australian's covering the case in the Children's Court.

The incident has given weight to criticisms by lawyers and civil libertarians about the Bligh Government's announcement in January that it was going to arm more than 5000 frontline officers with Tasers, despite being barely six months into the trial.

It also follows NSW Ombudsman Bruce Barbour this week calling for a two-year freeze on further rollouts of Taser guns, saying police standards for their use were inadequate and the health risks unknown.

In Queensland, the CMC, which is helping to draft the final guidelines for the Taser rollout, last week wrote a letter accusing police of delivering a biased evaluation of the trial, which formally ended in June.

Speaking for the first time, the teenager said yesterday she was still stunned by how a Friday night out with friends had ended in court and a controversy that had attracted coverage around the world.

The trouble began, according to the girl, when a French tourist talking to the group tried to grope a friend and a fight broke out.

Security guards stopped the fight and then called an ambulance because one of her friends became dizzy.

Police arrived and ordered the group to leave, saying only one of the teenagers could remain to accompany her to hospital. They refused.

The CCTV footage shows a relatively calm standoff between the group and the two police officers and three security guards. After about 10 minutes, the male officer is seen reaching out towards the girl, who was sitting on the wall of a garden bed.

The policeman told the Children's Court the teenager had screamed "I'm gonna kill the bitch" to his female colleague, a claim denied by the girl.

"I had been yelling and swearing, but I didn't say that," she said.

"We just didn't want to leave because we wanted to make sure my friend got into the ambulance and got to the hospital. When he reached at me, I pushed his hand away and then I pushed down on the garden bed."

The footage shows another teenager lashing out at the male officer, and the 16-year-old girl kicking out as she lay in the garden bed, knocking the Taser off the policeman's belt.

The policeman then drove his forearm into the girl's neck to push her down on the garden bed. She sat back up and he pushed her down again.

"Then everybody started jumping on me: the policeman and the security guard and another guard who held my legs," the teenager said. "Then I felt the electric shock."

In the hearing, the police officer -- who said he believed at the time that the girl was between 16 and 20 -- conceded he might have breached guidelines.

"In hindsight, I can say yes, but at the time I didn't know she was a juvenile," he said.

Article : NSW Ombudsman calls for freeze on Taser guns
Belinda Merhab | November 20, 2008
Article from: The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24678451-5006784,00.html

THE NSW Ombudsman has recommended a two-year freeze on further roll-outs of Taser guns, saying police standards for their use are inadequate, and the health risks are unknown.

Bruce Barbour told state parliament yesterday that general-duties police, who were issued the stun guns last month, were using Tasers at a higher rate than special operations police, who began using them in 2002.

"It is clear the number of incidents where Tasers will be used in the future will increase significantly," Mr Barbour said.

"There is already evidence of this. Tasers have been used on people on five occasions in the first two weeks of general-duties use. This compares with only 48 incidents over a five-year period" by special unit officers.

The Ombudsman's investigation found officers from special units had predominantly used Tasers from a distance, but in the first two weeks of use by general-duties officers, in four out of the five incidents the Tasers were used in drive-stun mode, where the gun is applied directly to skin or clothing.

The use of Tasers, which stun a victim by emitting a 50,000-volt electric shock, have been linked to heart complications and death.

Queensland police last week Tasered a 16-year-old girl who had ignored police instructions to move on, because she was waiting with a sick friend for an ambulance to arrive.

In another case, a 56-year-old NSW man who had threatened police with a frying pan died 12days after receiving three Taser shocks.

According to his death certificate, the man, who had heart disease, hepatitis C and schizophrenia, died of a heart attack.

Mr Barbour was unable to say whether the Taser played a role in the man's death.

NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said he was only made aware of the man's death through the Ombudsman's report on the case.

Mr Scipione said there was a training manual for the use of Tasers, and officers had to get an 80 per cent pass rate in a written exam before they were accredited to use the weapon.

Mr Scipione said Tasers had been drawn, but not necessarily used, 70 times since last month's roll-out of the weapons. He said there had not been related injuries to police or citizens.

Every Taser use was recorded by an inbuilt camera and was then downloaded and reviewed by Deputy Police Commissioner Dave Owens, he said.

But Mr Barbour said general-duties police were inadequately trained and informed on Tasers and the associated dangers.

"They do not give adequate guidance about situations where they shouldn't be used," the Ombudsman said. "It must be remembered that Tasers are not a non-lethal weapon, they are just a less lethal weapon."

Mr Barbour recommended a two-year review into Taser use, and said the standards that deemed Tasers safe applied only to healthy people.

CMC hits police report on taser trial
Michael McKenna | November 17, 2008

Article from: The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24660334-5006786,00.html

A SECRET Queensland Police report on a year-long trial of tasers has been rejected by the Crime and Misconduct Commission as a whitewash designed to ensure minimum controls on the approved full-scale arming of more than 5000 frontline officers early next year.

The corruption watchdog - helping to draft guidelines for the use of the 50,000-volt stun guns - wrote a letter last week accusing police of delivering a biased evaluation on the controversial trial, which ended in June.

A spokeswoman for the Queensland Police Service said last night consideration was now being given to the CMC criticisms, but that the force's evaluation report of the trial was still in its draft stages.

The Bligh Government has been widely criticised after earlier this year announcing the widespread arming of police with tasers without waiting for the completion or findings of the secretive trial.

Across Australia, the weapons - which Amnesty International claims have killed 300 people in the US alone - are being introduced without parliamentary scrutiny and with little public debate.

The stoush between the two Queensland law-enforcement bodies comes amid a CMC investigation into police officers who in April held down and tasered a 16-year-old girl who had defied a move-on order because she was waiting for an ambulance to treat her sick friend.

The girl, who cannot be named, had a charge of obstructing police dismissed after the Children's Court last Friday ruled one of the two officers involved did not give adequate directions, under police move-on powers, before he and two private security guards held down the slightly built teenager, shot her in the thigh with the taser and then arrested her, initially on a charge of assaulting police.

The incident occurred on April 11, the first night of an extension of the police taser trial to general duty officers.

Closed circuit television footage of the incident, seen by The Australian, shows an apparent breach of the guidelines in tasering the slightly built juvenile - who was sitting down in a garden bed the time - where there was no risk of injury to police.

The incident involving the girl was one of the only "taser deployments" not publicly revealed during the trial by police.

One of the officers involved in the incident told the Brisbane Children's Court last week he had not been trained in using the weapon at close quarters or within a group situation.

The officer, who cannot be named, told the court that a safety bolt, needed to ensure the taser remained fastened to his belt, was not available when he armed himself with the weapon for his patrol that night.

The taser and its holster was kicked off during the skirmish with one of the 16-year-old's friends and fell to the ground among a group of teenagers he had ordered to move on.

The two officers now face disciplinary action.

The police ethical standards unit is investigating the incident and is considering the findings of the Children's Court.

"This review process identified issues with the deployment, and steps were taken to address these issues by providing additional training to the officers involved, and to review procedures to ensure such issues were addressed," the police said in a statement.

Police in every state and territory are using the devices - deemed by the UN to be instruments of torture - although Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and the ACT restrict them to specialist squads.

SBS Television story with links to draft guidelines "Concern over taser usage" Thursday 16/10/08 , Stefan Armbruster http://news.sbs.com.au/worldnewsaustralia/concern_over_taser_usage__560054