As old as 75, as young as 12: Reports detail how Edmonton police use Tasers

On a July morning in 2024, Dwayne Cardinal was packing up his tent outside the Bissell Centre when a police cruiser pulled up and two officers got out.

What happened next is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit, but both sides agree on one thing: an Edmonton police officer deployed a Taser on Cardinal repeatedly.

"It felt like they were burning me, not electrocuting," said Cardinal. "Like I was on fire."

Cardinal is suing the Edmonton Police Service over the incident; EPS and the officers deny misconduct.

Cardinal is one of hundreds of people in Edmonton each year who are shocked with Tasers by police, a number which has steadily risen for more than a decade, according to EPS statistics.

Over a two-year period, covering 2023 and 2024, Edmonton police used a Taser on someone more than 1,000 times. 

But aside from high-level figures, the public has had little information about how EPS deploys these high-voltage weapons.

In an effort to increase public understanding of how Tasers are used in local policing, CBC News obtained through an access to information request all EPS use-of-force reports involving Tasers for 2023 and 2024.

CBC News also obtained EPS policies and procedures regarding Tasers, documents which have not previously been made public.

Key findings from the data:

Temitope Oriola, a criminologist at the University of Alberta who has published research on police use of Tasers, believes transparency is needed because of the sheer power of the weapons.

“It is capable of emitting 50,000 volts of electricity per use,” he said.

“This is not a toy. This is a tool that can do considerable damage to the human body.”

Statistics compiled by CBC News from annual reports to the Edmonton police commission show that use of Tasers by EPS has steadily grown over the past 15 years — from 30 use of force reports involving Tasers in 2010 to 574 in 2024, an increase of 1813 per cent.