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Inkwell Montessoris PRE-SCHOOL & ART CAMP Now Taking Registration for September 08 533 Main Street, GLEN WILLIAMS (St. Johns United Church) Glen Williams, Ontario Phone 905-702-1203 www.inkwellmontessori.com Please join us for our OPEN HOUSE Saturday, March 29th 9:30 - Noon The coffees hot! FIN GE T un G life qu An suit Sui 75 SO AL ORGETOW he Gallery der constr eorgetown style comm ickly taking exciting se es offering living are availab tes from th % LD! OPP NS PR is well uction. s new unity is shape. lection of carefree still le. e $200s OR EMIUM 6 S PRES APRI HALTO CENTRE G PLAN CALL VISIT b TUN 0 PLUS L PECIA ENTAT L 7, 2008 N HILLS CUL 9 CHURCH EORGETOW TO ATT 905.702 ennettvil ITY IVING L ION 2 PM TURAL STREET N END! .1247 lage.ca Drinking and Driving Can Distort Life. Drink and drive, and your life may never be the same again. You not only risk your life when you drink and drive, you also risk losing your license, incurring expensive fines, doing time in jail or even causing injury or death to an inno- cent bystander. With all these conse- quences facing you, driving under the influence is the worst decision you can make. Dont take chances with drinking and driving; theres always a bet- ter alternative. 10 Independent & Free Press, Wednesday, March 26, 2008 Halton Police have shown a preference for the Taser over the baton, while pepper spray is also being used effectively to control combative suspects. These were some of the conclu- sions reported in the Halton Regional Police Service 2007 Use of Force Analysis, The report looks at the actions taken by Halton Police against suspects over the year in an effort to determine what tech- niques are working and where training improvements are needed. The report noted that during 2007 Halton police filed reports on 207 use of force incidents, which must be filed whenever an officer draws a firearm in the presence of a member of the public, discharges a firearm, uses a weapon other than a firearm on another person, or uses physical force on another person that results in an injury requiring medical attention. The 207 reports in 2007 repre- sented a slight increase from the 201 reports in 2006, but were still below the 225 incidents in 2005. For 2007, Halton Police report- ed 130 incidents where an officer drew and/or pointed a service handgun or shotgun in the pres- ence of a member of the public. Police indicated this would often occur when they were responding to a call in which some- one had reported a weapon pre- sent. Another 34 per cent of firearms drawing incidents occurred during domestic distur- bance calls, break and enters, rob- beries and high-risk traffic stops. Police reported 35 incidents in which an officer discharged a ser- vice handgun or shotgun. Although this represented a 40 per cent increase from 2006, all but one of these was to destroy an ani- mal for humanitarian reasons. A deer will get hit by a car and it will be so badly hurt that the only decent thing we can do is put it down, said Deputy Chief Andrew Fletcher, during a recen meeting of the Halton Regional Police Services Board. Other data from the report, revealed only one incident of using an expandable baton blocking and striking, while pepper spray was used 26 times in 2007. Fletcher told board members a baton can be awkward to use in close quarter situations. Police chalked up pepper sprays 85 per cent success rate in subdu- ing a suspect to regular refresher courses in the weapons use. The Taser also saw action in 2007 with officers drawing a Taser in 32 incidents and actually firing it in 17. In all other cases the mere threat of the Tasers use was enough to gain the suspects coop- eration. Police reported complications in three of the Taser firing incidents. Twice the Taser failed due to mechanical problems, while in one incident the Taser did not work because the suspect was wearing a sweater. None of the suspects stunned with a Taser in 2007 received any lasting effects. Hand-to-hand techniques were also used by police in 2007 with 47 incidents reported in which police used soft empty hand techniques including joint locks, defensive blocking and other compliance techniques. Another 17 incidents involving hard empty hand techniques including punches, kicks and elbow strikes were also reported. For 2007, police reported one fatal injury sustained by a subject in a police encounter and 29 inci- dents in which a subject required medical attention of these 26 were classified as minor. There were nine incidents in which Halton police officers required medical attention only one injury was serious. Police noted that during 2008 high-risk traffic stops would be a focus of training along with edged weapon awareness as knives are becoming prevalent in society. Tasers, pepper spray prove effective, police Use of Force study shows DAVID LEA Special to The IFP