Scott Prasser | Police Taser use was supposed to be safer. Safer to whom?

The police officer involved has now been charged on several counts including causing bodily harm. Tasers or conducted energy weapons (CEWs), send an electric current to their target and temporarily immobilise them. Tasers were meant to be a safer alternative to using a firearm or more direct physical handling to neutralise a potentially dangerous person.

So, the first issue to be addressed is safety for whom - the police, the targeted person or the wider community? Public confidence in the use of Tasers needs to be restored - and quickly. Otherwise, a major tool of law enforcement, previously seen as effective, will become redundant necessitating resort to less satisfactory mechanisms.

We also need to know the facts about what happened. Why were the police called to the nursing home in the first place and what was the sequence of events that led to the Tasering of a 95-year-old woman? The pictures from the police constable's bodycam, though apparently not so far viewed by the police commissioner or minister, will be important in assessing this.

Further, what are NSW's policies governing the use of Tasers? For instance, is it correct that Tasers are not to be used on persons weighing 60 kilograms or less, and if so, why was the person in the case - reported to be only 43kg - Tasered?

Then there is the issue of whether NSW front-line police are properly trained in the use of Tasers and where was the police chain of command concerning this incident.

Already, a number of inquiries are under way.

There will, in due course, be the usual Coroner's inquest to ascertain the cause of death of the person concerned.

In addition, the NSW government has quickly referred the matter to the NSW Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) to report on the whole incident. The LECC, formed in 2017, is an independent statutory body with royal commission investigative powers, for oversight of the NSW police. It replaced the Police Integrity Commission and the Police Division of the Office of the Ombudsman that reviewed earlier Taser episodes.

As the prime funder of nursing homes, the Commonwealth government is involved and asked its Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission to review the aged care provider concerning its standards of care and professional competency.

Most importantly, the public wants to know where does responsibility lie and how might it be apportioned - the now charged individual constable, police practices and culture, the police commissioner or minister, or the nursing home management?

Events like this are rarely the outcome of a single cause or one person's actions. All this reminds us of a somewhat similar event in Canada in 2007 when a Polish migrant arriving at Vancouver airport, disoriented and unable to speak English became agitated, was tackled by four Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) who Tasered him multiple times. He died almost immediately. Two commissions of inquiry, chaired by a former Supreme Court judge of high repute, followed.

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One sought to restore public faith in the use of Tasers, by assessing their safety, the standards for their use and proposed improved training for police others in law enforcement.

The other sought to provide the "family and the public with a complete record of the circumstances" that led to the migrant's death. Its report was scathing of the RCMP officers, the lack of adherence to police procedures, and the inaccuracies of internal police review processes. The border services agency was also criticised. Many policy and administrative changes followed while the RCMP officers were subject to strong disciplinary action.

No doubt the LECC faces a major challenge. Its review must be open, rigorous, unwavering in getting to the truth and proposing real reforms. It is also a challenge for the recently elected NSW government to ensure reforms happen. This must not happen again.

Similarly, the Albanese government must demonstrate that the new federal regulatory regime for nursing homes (introduced by the previous government following the 2021 royal commission into aged care), which it has supported and strengthened, is now working.