TASER.ORG.UK

Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker spoke in Parliament on the 18th of May 2009 on TASER he said:

I have said to the Joint Committee on Human Rights that Tasers should not be used in public order control situations

I am happy that the minister has made clear that his view is TASER ought not be used in these situations. This is interesting as it comes at the same time as TASER International is promoting its “Shockwave” system for use in public order situations.

TASER’s promotional material states:

Multiple TASER Shockwave units can be stacked together either horizontally in order to extend area coverage, or vertically to allow multiple salvo engagements; or daisy chained together to maximize either area coverage or cartridge pattern density. These features provide the capability to project Area Denial from a secure location. … The TASER Shockwave unit deploys its cartridges up to 25-feet, to instantaneously incapacitate multiple personnel within the field of deployment coverage. … The TASER Shockwave device has the ability to de-escalate/defuse violent crowd/riot situations with the only safer response to resistance Area Denial incapacitating device, by deploying multiple TASER cartridges that are oriented across a wide area arc.

I don’t think arrays of TASER weapons ought ever be deployed on the streets of the UK.

The Home Office has released figures on the use of TASERs by non-firearms police in the UK.

The first sentence of the accompanying press release entitled “Increase in taser use following rollout to more officers” is:

New figures published today show Tasers were used 187 times and discharged 35 times by specially trained units in the period 1 September 2008 to the 31 December 2008.

This is being misinterpreted by the some elements of the media who are not aware that “specially trained units” means non-firearms officers. These 35 discharges are only a small fraction of the total UK police use of TASER, not the total as is being implied. It doesn’t help that the definitions of terms, and one of the main reports of the trial deployment to non-firearms trained officers are only available via the Association of Chief Police Officers, a private limited company not subject to the Freedom of Information Act which is refusing to release such information.

Clarity is not helped by the figures quoted in the press release not actually being available in the linked statistics document. None of the tables is for the period September - December 2008, the period for which the “headline” figures are provided.

This latest report adds extra information to the “TASER Trial Evaluation 2008” report previously published by the the Home Office Scientific Development Branch (HOSDB) which claimed to have provided the “final figures on Taser use in the trial”; it appears the Home Office have just realised that not all the data was included in that report.

The press release also states 7000 TASERs for non-firearms police have been taken up by UK police forces. Private Eye a couple of weeks ago said the Home Secretary had only been able to give 2000 away.

I support firearms officers having access to TASER to use as an alternative to a gun. I oppose the deployment of TASER to all UK response police. I am concerned such a deployment will change the nature of policing in the UK. If we will move away from an unarmed force and the relationship between the police and public will be seriously damaged.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) have announced that all TASER related complaints are to be automatically referred to them from June 2009.

From the introduction of TASER to the UK in 2003 the Police Complaints Authority and later the IPCC reviewed all incidents during which a TASER was discharged. That’s not all complaints, that’s all discharges. In May 2005 this was dropped as the volume was becoming to great for the IPCC to handle, from then only those incidents causing death or serious injury, or those revealing command issues or exposing the public to unacceptable risk were referred.

In late 2007 the trial deployment of TASER to non-firearms police began, and the IPCC asked again for all public complaints relating to that trial to be referred to them. Following the completion of this trial this requirement was dropped. The expansion of TASER use to all front-line response police in the UK was announced in November 2008.

I welcome this step by the IPCC as it will ensure that there is greater oversight of the use of TASER by UK police.

At Cambridgeshire Police Authority’s April 2009 meeting I asked about the deployment of TASER weapons to non-firearms police. My question started:

Why has the expanded deployment of TASER to all response police officers announced by the Home Secretary in November 2008 still not been discussed at a full meeting of Cambridgeshire Police Authority? Within hours of the ministerial announcement the Metropolitan Police Authority decided not to extend TASER use to all front line response officers in London on the grounds that they may cause fear and damage public confidence. Why was Cambridgeshire Police Authority not in a position to respond as rapidly and effectively?

I also asked about the meaning of “Specially Trained Unit” querying how much training non-firearms officers get before they are issued with TASER.

Both questions were dodged, the force said they have no non-firearms officers using TASER; this might be true at the moment but they have just taken 150 TASERs specifically for non-firearms officers. No explanation for the authority’s inaction was forthcoming, though I was berated by the acting-chair of the authority for being critical of the authority’s inaction, she said she was happy it was working well.

The full question and answer are available here.