TASER.ORG.UK

It is being reported that South Wales Police is to be investigated after a man alleged its officers assaulted him and fired a Taser stun gun at his head as he was arrested.

The IPCC currently require all complaints about TASER discharges to be referred to them and they have indicated they are likely to investigate instances where the TASER has been applied to the head or neck.

Current guidance from ACPO Limited (the unaccountable private company which effectively sets policing policy in the UK) states:

the Taser should not be aimed so as to strike the head or neck of a subject unless this is wholly unavoidable.

See also: Police accused of firing Taser into head of innocent man - December 2007

On the day of the Home Secretary’s announcement that the government wanted to see all the UKs response police armed with TASERs the Metropolitan Police authority rejected the concept. It is today being reported that Sussex Police are joining the Met in rebuffing the government’s plans to roll out TASER to more officers.

The force has accepted new weapons from the Home Office but has made a statement saying it has no plans to use them.

Cambridgeshire Police have also taken delivery of the new TASERs intended for use by non-firearms officers; but it was reported to a recent police authority meeting that they have to all intents and purposes simply been “put in a cupboard”.

Many forces, and their police authorities have not yet considered the question of arming non-firearms officers, even though they have accepted the weapons from the Home Office.

One shocking aspect of the reports today, which arise following freedom of information requests conducted by the Liberal Democrats, is that ten of the UK’s forty or so police forces reportedly did not reply to the freedom of information request made.

Sources:

• The Argus - Sussex Police leaves extra Tasers on the shelf
• Telegraph - Taser roll-out snubbed by police

An article in the Mirror today headlined Police reveal stun gun blunders revealed UK police have accidently discharged their weapons eight times.

These incidents had occurred while the weapons have been largely restricted to highly trained firearms officers, the number of such incidents will surely increase as TASERs are rolled out to more non-firearms officers. One thing this report does is draw attention to the fact that a massive increase in TASER use is imminent and the intention is to arm all response police officers in the country with the weapons.

As the weapons record every discharge electronically the reason we know about these accidents is due to officers being required to explain the circumstances surrounding every time they use the weapons. We do not know if these were accidental firings, or simply discharges, or if they occurred during incidents, in training or elsewhere.

I am concerned that an increased use of TASER will inevitably lead to excessive force being used on a greater number of occasions.

More officers carrying and using TASER will create a bigger barrier between the police and public, change the nature of the country and make it harder to police.

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