The use of Taser guns by British police has more than doubled since 2009, sparking concerns among rights groups and the wider public about the device’s potentially lethal outcome and its frequently improper use by under-trained police personnel.
According to numbers by the Office for National Statistic
released on Tuesday, officers fired the weapon 3,500 in 2009,
against more than 7,000 times in subsequent years.
Some critics see the device as a coercion tool abused by the
police force, especially when used as a stun gun and thrust into
a person’s body with the intention of inflicting pain – the
so-called ‘drive-stun’ tactic.
This adds to fears that the weapon’s massive proliferation is not
keeping up with specialized training and supervision.
Taser-carrying officers only get a three-day training course with
a one-day annual brush-up. That is compared to the many months of
firearm training officers get before being allowed to carry a
gun.
The 2008 decision to allow everyday officers to carry Tasers has
coincided with the issuing of 5,500 new units on the Home
Office’s orders, the Guardian found.
Taser use on vulnerable individuals (old, underage or weak
individuals) is a persistent issue with numerous rights groups,
including Amnesty International, which sees the increase in its
use as a matter of ‘grave concern’. It looks especially bad for
police when it turns out that firing the weapon was not necessary
in the first place. Recent Taser victims involving gross police
misconduct in Britain range from 12- to 63 year-old persons.
Amnesty’s Kate Allen is concerned with the fact that “a Taser
doesn’t just give a little tingle – it’s a potentially-lethal
50,000-volt weapon and should not be spoken of as some sort of
‘natural progression’ of the standard policing kit.”
She went on to recommend that “Tasers should only be kept in
the hands of a small number of specially-trained officers and
used only in a limited set of circumstances.”
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is soon
publishing a review of Taser use in the drive-stun mode,
deployment in closed spaces and the weapon’s use on vulnerable
individuals.
IPCC deputy chair Deborah Glass explained that the commission has
“specific concerns about some of the ways and circumstances in
which [Taser] is used. We have expressed concerns to the
Association of Chief Police Officers [ACPO] about the use of
Taser in the drive-stun method."
The main argument used by the police to defend the tactic is that
it is a less lethal alternative to live ammunition, while often
reducing tensions that may lead to a lethal outcome in particular
situations.
Further to that argument is the idea that increased use is not a
behavioral problem, but a natural result of an increase in the
roll-out, according to armed-police spokesman for ACPO, Simon
Chesterman.
"These figures show the use of Taser has increased in line
with the rollout of more weapons. There will be concerns raised
by individuals that don't necessarily understand the underlying
causes of the increase and there will be people raising concerns
over this who don't agree with the police having Taser," he
said, adding that instances of use mentioned in the report
concern each time a weapon is drawn – which obviously does not
mean ‘discharged’.
No deaths have yet been attributed to Taser use – at least in the
UK – but it does not change the fact that certain organizations
and the public increasingly fear its use as a basic method of
restraining an individual, rather than the 50,000-volt nearly
lethal force.
In the United States, the recent death of an 18-year-old street
artist following the use of a Taser was only one of a staggering
number of cases in which the public was outraged by how little
thought is given by officers before deciding to deploy the
weapon. Another recent case included a policeman in New Mexico
using the weapon on a 10-year-old boy because he would not clean
the officer’s car.