'Tasers make officers safer', eh?

As a follow-up to a previous post entitled 'The dangerous world of law enforcement...' [LINK]

Here is a graph of the same data.

(Click on graph for a larger and clearer image. Click on back to return here.)

Clearly, in Canada, having more tasers (starting around 2003 with the introduction of the X26) is coincident with a step function increase in the annual rate of police officers being killed in the line-of-duty (excluding accidents).

And the sharp drop-off to zero in 2008 is strangely coincident with the increased public scrutiny subsequent to the killing of Mr. Dziekanski and several others in late-2007.

So do tasers really help to make Canadian police officers safer?