Home Secretary’s Statement on Arming all UK Response Police with TASER
The Home Secretary’s statement on arming all UK front line response police with TASERs has finally been released having been trailed in the Sunday Papers.
The announcement can be read here, on the Home Office Site.
The Minister on the Today programme this morning referred to “medical advice on the pilot so far”, however the medical advice linked from the Home Secretary’s statement is from July 2007 and predates the trials (1). This is the research I have critisied for giving too much weight to computer modelling and animal testing and not enough to the real life experiences of TASER us in other countries such as the USA.
There is no report yet on the results of the Trial, some statistics have been release and a link given to the “ACPO position on the extended use of taser” which refers to “conclusions” from the trial. The ACPO trial evaluation report is not yet available.
The Home Secretary states:
Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, said, ‘I am proud that we have one of the few police services around the world that do not regularly carry firearms and I want to keep it that way.
‘But everyday the police put themselves in danger to protect us, the public. They deserve our support, so I want to give the police the tools they tell me they need to confront dangerous people. That is why I am giving the police 10,000 Tasers to ensure that officers across the country benefit from this form of defence.’
The Home Secretary’s role is not simply to accede to requests from the police but to make a wider judgement based on the views of everyone in the UK on how we want to be policed, there is no evidence the views of the public have been taken into account in making this decision. MPs in Parliament have also not been asked to approve the move.
1. DSAC sub-committee on the medical implications of less-lethal weapons (DOMILL)
