Here's what it's like to be shocked by a Taser

Hamilton police armourer Sgt. Darren Murphy knows exactly what a Taser's electrical current ripping through your nervous system feels like – and he doesn't recommend you try it.

"It's the most painful experience that I've ever had in my life," Murphy said. "All your muscles contract and lock up."

Murphy is one of the officers responsible for training hundreds of Hamilton police officers to use the conductive energy weapons as they're rolled out en masse this year.

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He volunteered to be shocked by a Taser himself, so he'd know how it feels firsthand – but that's not mandatory for every cop carrying one.

Hamilton is one of the first police services in the province to outfit all front line officers with the "less lethal" option on their belts, after the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services eased restrictions on who could use them back in 2013.

So how does it work?

The X26P model Taser that Hamilton's officers are being outfitted with fires two probes, which stick into a person's skin like needles.

If fired properly, they create a 1,300-volt circuit that travels between the person's body and the weapon. And if that happens, you're not moving – because it causes extreme pain and muscle contractions that locks people in place or causes them to collapse.

And in some cases, the person who has been shocked will urinate or defecate, too. "That's usually enough to change behaviours," Murphy said.

According to the service's just-released year-end use-of-force report, Hamilton police officers used conducted energy weapons (commonly known by the Taser brand name) 64 times in 2014, which is an increase of 56 per cent from the year before.

But of those 64 times, 48 were just in "display mode" – in other words, an effort to subdue a person without physically shocking them.

In essence, it's the less lethal equivalent of pointing a gun at a person and warning them. Murphy says that's often enough to get a person to stop any dangerous behaviour.

According to the report, Tasers were most often used to "apprehend/control emotionally disturbed/mentally ill persons," at 24 times, compared to just seven times where a person either had or was thought to have had a weapon.

Tasers were also used 20 times in "general arrests involving assaultive suspects," the report reads.

Hamilton officers will receive more yearly training on the new weapons than any other tool at their disposal. After an initial 12-hour training session, officers have to undergo a four-hour training session each year to keep using them.

Here's the training breakdown each year by weapon:

• Two hours of physical control/empty hand combat.
• An hour and a half of "judgment scenarios."
• An hour and a half of firearms training.
• One hour using the expandable baton.
• One hour using aerosol weapons.
• Four hours using conductive energy weapons.