UK Accidental TASER Discharges Published
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.
