Clare Nowland tasered at Cooma: NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb says bodycam won’t be released

Police have shut down calls to release bodycam vision of the Tasering of 95-year great grandmother Clare Nowland as NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb told reporters it was ‘not necessary’ she view the disturbing vision.

Mrs Nowland, a dementia sufferer, was Tasered by the senior constable at 4am on Wednesday as she slowly approached a team of officers ‘armed’ with a steak knife at the Yallambee Lodge aged care facility near Cooma, in the NSW Snowy Mountains. 

At a press conference on Saturday Commissioner Karen Webb said she has no intention to release the vision or even see it herself.

‘I don’t really intend to, no. I have heard what is in the body worn, and I don’t see it necessary that I actually view it.’ she said.

‘Firstly I am not sure why they (the public) would want to see it, but also body worn video is subject to legislative requirements around surveillance devices act and other things, so it is not routine and we don’t intend to release it, unless there is a process at the end of this that would allow it to be released.’ 

Ms Nowland (pictured), a dementia sufferer, was Tasered by the senior constable at 4am on Wednesday as she slowly approached a team of officers ‘armed’ with a steak knife at the Yallambee Lodge aged care facility near Cooma, in the NSW Snowy Mountains

Greens justice spokesman David Shoebridge had criticised the handling of the incident and said the bodycam vision should be released if Ms Nowland’s family consented to it.

‘There needs to be an urgent and public review of this incident by the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) that includes, after consultation with the family, the release of the video from the Taser,’ he said. 

‘Tasers are a potentially deadly weapon and need to be treated as such, but when the system sends in police that’s too often what they reach for.

‘The structural failing here is dispatching police to the incident when an emergency mental health team should have been available to de-escalate and treat an older woman in distress.’

Cops were called to the nursing home (pictured) after being told she had a kitchen knife. Ms Nowland was tasered while standing next to her walking frame

Mrs Nowland’s family is gathered around her with the expectation that she does not have long to live.

Commissioner Webb spent time with the family on Friday and said she prioritised their wellbeing over fronting the media. She had been criticised for sending out her deputy, Peter Cotter, to deal with media interest on Friday.

‘Well, firstly, there is an immediate need that the family were notified first, and that was respect for the family,’ she said.

‘They’ve got a big family that is dispersed around New South Wales and other places, and that took some time, and then we had to wait for the investigators to get onto the ground in Cooma, and those investigators have come from Sydney, and we’ve had to wait for those facts to become clear to us.

‘As I said, assistant commission Peter Cotter is in charge of this investigation and he is the designated officer, so it is important for him to talk to the fact that we know so far, and as I said, I sat with the family yesterday in Cooma so it is appropriate I talk to you today about what we are now dealing with and that is really the question of why we all want to know why, that will take time.’

When asked by reporters about if she is concerned of how the incident reflects on the police force she said like everyone else she just wants to know what happened.

‘Of course I understand the community’s concern, and I am concerned, I want answers like everyone else does and I look forward to getting those answers, in time,’ she said.

The officer in question has been stood down while an investigation is underway.

A family friend of Mrs Nowland says her condition continues to worsen.

The great-grandmother is now receiving end-of-life care in Cooma District Hospital surrounded by her distraught family.

‘Her breathing has been getting shallower, but she’s still with us,’ family friend and community advocate Andrew Thaler told AAP on Saturday.