A police commissioner has come under fire a second time after a 95-year-old great grandmother was tasered by a senior constable at an aged care home.
Clare Nowland, a dementia sufferer who is 157cm tall and weighs just 43kg, was tasered by a senior constable at Yallambee Lodge at Cooma, in NSW, on Wednesday.
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb first sparked outrage on Saturday after she claimed it was ‘not necessary’ to view body cam footage of the incident.
Her response came after questions were raised about the use of force by police on an elderly woman who required the assistance of a walking frame to move around.
Ms Nowland was ‘armed’ with a steak knife and had been moving at a ‘slow pace’ before she was tasered and left in a critical condition.
Commissioner Webb has come under fire for a second time over her comments made about police responding to incidents at aged care homes.
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb (pictured) said it was ‘rare’ for police to be called to a nursing home after 95-year-old dementia suffered Clare Nowland was tasered on Wednesday
But aged care expert and consultant Paul Sadler (pictured) cast doubt over Commissioner Webb’s comments, claiming it was ‘more common than perhaps the police commissioner was aware of’
At a press conference on Saturday, Commissioner Webb said it was not common practice for police to attend a nursing home to help staff with their residents.
‘In my experience, it’s quite rare that we would be called to a nursing home,’ Commissioner Webb said.
‘It’s not something we come across regularly.’
Her claims have been savaged by an aged care expert and consultant, who said calling police was ‘standard protocol’ for staff when there was a reported assault.
Paul Sadler, former chief executive of the Aged and Community Care Providers Association, appeared to cast doubt on the commissioner’s claims.
‘It’s more common than perhaps the police commissioner was aware of,’ Mr Sadler told the ABC.
‘That’s usual protocol where there’s an instance of a reported assault.’
Police are reviewing body-worn camera footage of the ‘confronting’ incident.
Officers claim Mrs Nowland was approaching police ‘at a slow pace’ when she was blasted with the Taser by a senior constable with 12 years’ experience.
The taser jolt caused her to fall and hit her head, with the great-grandmother now receiving end-of-life care in Cooma District Hospital while surrounded by her family.
Commissioner Webb provoked fury when she said she had no intentions of viewing the body-worn camera footage of the incident.
‘I don’t really intend to, no,’ she told reporters on Saturday.
‘I have heard what is in the body worn, and I don’t see it necessary that I actually view it.’ she said.
Andrew Thaler, a spokesperson for Ms Nowland’s family, told Daily Mail Australia that Commissioner Webb has an ‘obligation’ to see the footage.
‘I don’t accept that she doesn’t have to, the buck stops with her,’ Mr Thaler said.
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 and on a walker at the Yallambee Lodge aged care facility near Cooma, in the NSW Snowy Mountains
‘She can’t hide, she has to stand up and take responsibility and ensure that the community and family get answers.
‘The whole situation is so egregious.’
Speaking on behalf of the family, he said they wanted the Commissioner to view the bodycam footage of the incident with Mrs Nowland’s family.
Mr Thayer said seeing the footage would be difficult but better in the company of Commissioner Webb.
On Saturday afternoon Mr Thaler revealed that Mrs Nowland’s condition had not changed but that her breathing had become ‘shallower’.
The incident has made headlines around the world and has thrust Cooma, a town an hour south of Canberra with a population of 6,800, in the spotlight.
Mr Thaler added that he was in Cooma on Friday and said none of the media he spoke to knew Commissioner Webb had traveled there to speak to the family.
‘The top cop thinks she can sneak in and out but we need more,’ he said.
‘The family wants answers, the friends want answers, the community and world wants answers. I called on the commissioner to come down and she did but she also has an obligation to the community as well as the family.’
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
Greens justice spokesman David Shoebridge has 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.’
The officer in question remains off-duty while an investigation is underway.
Asked why the officer had been stood down, Commissioner Webb would not divulge any further details.
‘He is not in the workplace but I can’t articulate the reasons why he is not in the workplace,’ she told reporters.
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