Testing has begun on 100 Tasers that may be delivering jolts at too high a voltage.
Solicitor General Fred Lindsay said Tuesday that the testing is a response to test results that confirmed some Tasers built before January 2006 were emitting zaps higher than 50,000 V.
Currently 400 x-26 Tasers are in use by police around the province. Rather than pull all units off the streets, and risk officers resorting to “lethal force,” the remaining devices will be tested over time.
Lindsay has been zapped in the past, and agrees that the jolt is immobilizing, even at 50,000 V.
“It was probably the most painful five seconds of my life,” he said Tuesday.
The units have been sent to Ontario, where an impartial testing protocol is in practice.
Testing should take less than a week to complete and will cost $15,000.
In October, 38-year-old Trevor Grimolfson died after an alleged rampage and confrontation with police, who used a pre-January 2006 stun gun on him.
Lindsay said the province isn’t facing any lawsuits in relation to any suspected Taser-related injuries.
“As far as I’m concerned, the Taser is a very effective tool to subdue somebody that doesn’t want to obey the order and direction of a police officer,” Lindsay said.
