Videos of two female Peel Regional Police officers confronting and taking down a potentially violent man demonstrates the need for stun guns among front-line officers and shows the dangers police face while arresting people, according to one use-of-force expert.

The officers used stun guns to subdue the man who was unarmed, but appeared to be emotionally disturbed and was advancing on the two women.

In an interview with CBC News, Ross McLean, a security expert and former Toronto police officer, commented on the incident that was filmed and uploaded to Twitter by a witness.

"The problem that many people don't understand is when you're arresting someone who doesn't want to be arrested, it's not pretty," he said. "It's not like the UFC where they're taken down in a second. It can become quite messy as this one did."

Police arrest 'emotionally distressed' man

Peel police confirmed that an "emotionally distressed" 49-year-old man was arrested Sunday for dangerously operating a vehicle in the area of Erin Mills and Burnhamthorpe Road in Mississauga.

Police received numerous calls about a man driving erratically, getting in and out of his car and disrupting traffic around 11 a.m.

He was pepper sprayed and Tasered by the responding Peel police officers. He was later taken to the hospital to be mentally assessed and remains in custody.

In the short videos, the man appears to be in great distress as he yells incoherently at the female officers, who are both smaller than he is. Several times he advances suddenly and threateningly towards them but never hurts them.

McLean says the man was obviously emotionally disturbed or perhaps under the influence of drugs.

"Where it got really a bit potentially dangerous is ...when he went at the officer who had her gun out in one hand and pepper spray in the other. He was so close to her, he could have grabbed her gun when she was pepper spraying him in the face and which seemed to have no effect on him."

Controversial use of stun guns

The use of conducted energy weapons or stun guns in Ontario has been a topic of controversy for years, with some arguing that police officers are too liberal with their use of the weapon when dealing with emotionally distressed people.

Incidents like the one involving the Peel police officers, according to McLean, demonstrate the need for front-line police officers to carry them.

"I think we're at the point now where they all need to have them," said McLean. "We're getting so many confrontations with people and the police don't have any other tool between their guns and their hands really to help them deal with these things in a less lethal way."

In 2013, after the streetcar shooting of Sammy Yatim, the Ontario government moved to allow more front-line officers to carry stun guns. Prior to that, the province had restricted the use of stun guns to a select few supervising and tactical officers.

Size and physicality matters

McLean says it is clear that the officers in the video relied on "less-than-lethal" force to de-escalate the situation rather than relying immediately on their guns, noting that the man was not armed himself.

"Ideally if you're big enough, and strong enough, you take physical control of the person — that's what an arrest is," he said. "The difficulty is when you are a smaller officer and you have to take on someone bigger and stronger than you, that's going to be tough."

McLean said it's important to remember that police officers are all hired for different reasons and for different skill sets.

"Part of the issue is people expect every police officer to be brave at every aspect of the job and it's difficult because every police officer has got different skill sets," he said.