Call For Police To Be Armed With Tasers

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Frontline police officers should be able to carry a Taser to combat attempted attacks on them by terrorists, according to the head of the organisation that represents front-line officers.

Police Federation chair Steve White said the stun guns, which can temporarily disable the target with two dart-like electrodes that carry a maximum 50,000-volt charge, should be made more widely available to uniformed officers.

He told The Guardian newspaper the move was needed because acts of terrorism could be carried out anywhere and officers needed protection.

Mr White said: "The terrorist ideal to get attention no longer relies on an attack being in a place of note.

"It could be in Cheam high street, in any town, in any part of the UK.

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Gallery: Taser Device Explained

The most common device used by police is the X26 Taser, which has a peak voltage of 50,000 volts when discharged - this drops to 1,200 volts while travelling around the body

The Taser fires two small dart-like electrodes which stay connected to the main unit as they are propelled by small compressed nitrogen charges to the body similar to air gun or paintball marker propellants

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Tasers work primarily by creating "neuromuscular incapacitation" - in short, they interrupt the ability of the brain to control the muscles

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This creates an immediate and unavoidable incapacitation that is not based on pain and cannot be overcome. Once the electricity stops flowing, the subject regains control of their body

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The Taser has a "drive stun" capability, where the Taser is held against a person's body without firing the projectiles. This is intended to cause pain without incapacitating the target

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"We know there are more dangerous people out there, preparing to attack police officers and we need to be able to respond to that threat."

Leaders at the Police Federation will vote next month on a proposal that every officer on the frontline should be offered training in how to use the weapons.

Mr White said: "Talking to them with a cup of tea and a biscuit is not going to work."

The murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby in Woolwich in 2013 showed "you don't need to have a gun to create terrorism", said Mr White, who rejected the notion the move amounted to arming officers.

"It is a defensive tool and a tactical option.

"We have a largely unarmed service and the service wants that to remain.

"The alternative is to have officers out there without anything at all. We have to do something."

But one police chief, speaking anonymously, told The Guardian the idea risked damaging public confidence in the police.

"The idea of arming every police officer with a Taser is alien to 200 years of police culture," they said.

"It is a stepping stone to arming the police; something strapped to your hip that looks like a firearm is a huge shift in what we stand for."

The latest Home Office figures show the use of Tasers has increased every year, and there have been a number of controversial deaths related to the use of them.

The stun guns were fired 826 times out of the 5,107 times they were deployed between January and June 2014.

The latter figure compares to 4,999 times during the same period in 2013 and 1,297 occasions in 2009.

Concerns over their use grew after the death of Andrew Pimlott in Plymouth in April 2013.

He suffered fatal burns after being hit by a Taser after he had poured petrol over himself and was holding a lit match at the time.

Amnesty International's Oliver Sprague said: "Who on earth thinks that if there's a real instance of terrorist activity that Tasers would ever actually be sufficient for our law-enforcement officers?

"We've always said that Tasers can have a part to play in policing operations where there's a clear risk of death or serious injury to police officers or members of the public - but Tasers should be used sparingly and only by highly trained officers.

"The real worry is that we'll actually end up with trigger-happy, under-trained police officers using Tasers wholly inappropriately against ordinary members of the public."

:: Steve White will be appearing on Sky News this morning at around 8.20. You can watch the interview on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media 602, Freesat 202 and Freeview 132.

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