Ottawa police will soon equip all officers with stun guns in a bid to keep both the public and officers themselves safe. The plan comes from a report presented at an Ottawa Police Service board meeting in late February.

The report lists several incidents in which stun gun use de-escalated a violent situation and likely reduced harm to an officer. The police service originally proposed expanding their stock of stun guns in 2014, eventually increasing training in 2015 and issuing 100 new units to officers by early 2016.

An analysis of Statistics Canada data shows that in 2016, assaults against Ottawa police dropped 14.8 per cent from the previous year.

Source: Statistics Canada, CANSIM 252-0077

It was initially a provincial decision to allow stun guns to be given to all front line officers. In 2013, the Ontario government expanded usage of the weapon from just supervisors and special units to all officers. The decision was left up to local forces — one that other police services besides Ottawa are considering. Last month, Toronto Police Services put forward a recommendation to expand the stun guns in the force’s possession by 400 units to protect the public and themselves.

An analysis of Statistics Canada data below shows the rate of assault against peace officers across Ontario’s most populated cities in 2015 and 2016. London had the highest rate of assaults — the city fired stun guns 62 times in 2016, up from 50 times in 2015.