TASER.ORG.UK

I made a request using the Freedom of Information website WhatDoTheyKnow.com to ask how the Home Office had distributed the 7000 TASERs intended for non-firearms police which it has managed to get forces to take.

It should be noted that just because forces have taken these weapons it does not mean they are in use. My local force in Cambridgeshire has put all of those it took “in a cupboard”, partly as they don’t have the funds for training officers to use them. Others are already on the streets, as we saw in Nottingham earlier today.

New TASER Distribution Since March 2009

March 2009 figures

While we do not know what preceded events in Nottingham it does appear that there were four officers and present, backup was seconds away. As such the force used looks excessive.

I do not want to see TASER used in situations like this in the UK. I am concerned that we will see this kind of thing on a regular basis as the 10,000 TASERs for non-firearms officers begin to be deployed on Britain’s streets. While these weapons have been distributed to forces many are not in use yet as officers await training. If people don’t act we will see more and more police armed with these weapons and scenes like this will become common place. People will be injured and die as a result of such excessive use of force.

It appears to me that the second use of the TASER on the video has been simply to encourage the man to comply. With four officers present there was no need at all for that second shock in my view.

It is worth noting that there is currently no requirement for the use of a TASER, such as that shown in the video, to be automatically referred to the IPCC. We only know about this one because it was videoed and put on YouTube. Anyone can make a complaint though, and all TASER related complaints are now referred to the IPCC, that doesn’t mean the IPCC will necessarily investigate the complaint though.

Nottinghamshire Police have voluntarily referred this event to the IPCC.

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.