Graphic images of an unarmed man dying after being tasered by Canadian police has reopened the debate on use of the weapon in New Zealand.
But local police say a decision on the introduction of the tasers won't be affected by the disturbing footage.
The 10 minute film shows a man being tasered at least twice by police at Vancouver Airport, before convulsing and then dying.
Robert Dzeikanski had recently arrived at the airport from Poland after emigrating to join his mother. She had told him to wait for her at the luggage belt so he never went through Customs. After 10 hours he was still there and appeared confused, threatened and exhausted.
A bystander tried to calm him down but he didn't understand and picked up a computer and threw it. The police arrived and tried to talk to Dzeikanski but he appeared to shrug and move away. It is unclear whether he then took out a weapon but he was tasered and 50,000 volts of electricity were shot into him.
Dzeikanski fell and was tasered again before police moved in to restrain him and that is apparently when he stopped breathing and dies.
"That is just horrific. He posed no threat whatsoever to the police officers or to the public," Marie Dhyrberg said.
The Auckland lawyer is campaigning against the taser being introduced in New Zealand.
"The footage graphically displays the very grave concern we've always had, that a taser will be used merely for compliance," she said.
But the police commissioner's office told ONE News that New Zealand's operating procedure is far more stringent than most others using the device.
In January we'll learn whether the commissioner will sanction its introduction following a year-long trial.
"The police staff who used it felt a lot safer...the position of the Police Association remains the same, that we're calling for the introduction of the taser," Stuart Mills, vice-president of the New Zealand Police Association, says.
The NZ trial ended in August and a report on the pilot is
expected to be presented to the police commissioner before
Christmas.
Statistics reveal there were 120 incidents where tasers were
presented during the trial, but they were only discharged 19
times.
The trial has stirred up much controversy with critics arguing
tasers are too dangerous.
But New Zealand First's police spokesman is calling for police to
be issued with tasers now.
And the Police Association say tasers are essential in the increasingly violent police atmosphere.
The company which makes the weapon, Taser International, is on record as saying they are not risk-free but are among the safest use-of-force options for police. It says taser technology is now used by 5,500 law enforcement agencies.
But Amnesty International says in the last six years they have recorded more than 290 deaths of individuals struck by police tasers.
The latest of these, Robert Dzeikanski, never got to set foot in his new country.
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