At incidents like domestic violence, which by the way is on the increase, things can turn from bad to worse extremely quickly.
It only takes seconds for someone to grab a knife and threaten or stab somebody and a can of CS spray or a baton would be unsuitable.

Currently our front line officers have nothing to protect themselves or members of the public from a dangerous person armed with a knife or other weapon.
The only defence we have is firearms officers who could take up to 20 minutes to arrive in rural areas, and when they do arrive they might use lethal force!
It’s also been announced that single patrols are going to become the norm, so officers will be on their own with even less back up.

When CS Gas was first introduced many people were against it, but it’s now become a vital piece of police equipment.

The taser has already been used over 1,000 times in the UK with no reported injuries or death.

http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogs?author=463

http://www.fwweekly.com/content.asp?article=3743

http://www.ire.org/extraextra/car/taser-use-on-the-rise-in-ind/

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3720/is_200501/ai_n9474407

On Monday the 24th of November 2008 a Home Office press release accompanying the announcement to issue all front line response police in the UK with TASER weapons was published. The press release states: “The ACPO trial evaluation report can be found on the ACPO website”. (http://press.homeoffice.gov.uk/press-releases/Funding-for-more-police-tasers)

The ACPO trial evaluation report is not on the ACPO website.

In response to my attempts to get the document released I received the below apparent refusal to release the document from Inspector Robert Blackburn of the Metropolitan Police.

I would like to request an internal review into what I regard as the Metropolitan Police’s decision not to release this document.

Many thanks,

FAO: Richard Taylor

The ACPO Taser Trial is not being released to the public at this time (I have no indication as to when or if it will).

The only information relaesed is that published by the Home Office.

I hope this helps.

Robert Blackburn
Inspector - Metropolitan Police
CO11 Public Order
New Scotland Yard
Tel: 020 7230 4203
Metphone: 64203
e-mail: [removed]@met.police.uk

This is a document referred to by the Home Secretary in a statement, and which a press release from the Home Offices states is available online at the ACPO website.

“The ACPO Evaluation is available via Commander Robert Broadhurst, ACPO Lead Self Defence and Restraint, Metropolitan Police, New Scotland Yard, Broadway, London SW1.”

I have written to Mr Broadhurst requesting a copy of, or a link to, the document and suggesting it be made available online.

I noted the report is not on the ACPO website, either at http://www.acpo.police.uk/ or http://www.westmercia.police.uk/publications/acpopoliceuseoffirearms.htm

• Request for the ACPO Guidance on the Operational Use of TASER
• Request for the ACPO Taser Trial Evaluation Report

There were lots and lots of responses, the producer told me the piece gained “one of the best listener responses we’ve had a long time”, so there is a lot of interest in this. Opinions were split. One anonymous individual saying they were a serving police officer called in to say I was “talking out of my elbow”, he said when he patrolled in Peterborough sometimes the nearest armed response was in Cambridge so he felt he should be armed with a TASER. He said: “It’s not nice being surrounded by a load of anti-police thugs”. It sounded to me as if he was making a case for better support and backup in Peterborough rather than a case for all response officers to be armed with TASER. I believe a massive expansion of the use of TASERs will engender “anti-police” feelings in a much broader spectrum of the population than that officer is currently experiencing and his job will become a lot harder.

A number of contributors said something along the lines of: “if you keep your nose clean you’ve got nothing to worry about”. People who have died or been injured following TASER use have not always done anything wrong. Many are mentally ill, exercising their right to free speech or simply didn’t understand the language in which they were being challenged by the police.

The presenter appeared to think there was a serious knife crime problem in Cambridge, this does not appear to be backed up by the statistics, or the recent exercise by the police who took metal detectors to pubs and nightclubs in the region and scanned patrons and found no-knives during the many weeks of the project.

It will be specialist officers who will be using them, and individual Chief Constables will monitor how they are actually being used.

And

I don’t think we should run away with the idea they are going to be widely available on a kind of neighborhood level. They’re going to be used by specialist officers using very very clear guidelines, and what has been demonstrated in the pilot is just how useful they have been in protecting not just police officers but the public.

I felt this was very misleading, and the minister repeated the statement that TASERs would continue to be used only by specialist officers. The announcement he was being interviewed in response to was that TASER deployment will be expanded from a small group of “specialist” officers and given to all the UKs thirty thousand response police.

The minister was asked about deaths following TASER useage which have been reported in the USA, the minister replied that he had did not recognise the figures. This is because UK policy makers appear not to be taking the experience of widespread TASER useage in the USA into account when deciding what to do in the UK.

The minister was asked if he would be prepared to be TASERed himself, he refused:

No I don’t. No I don’t. It certainly might be popular with some of my constituents but I’m not going to be volunteering I can assure you.

Fuller coverage of the interview with the minister is available on the Taser.org.uk website.

Could I please urge you not to let the pre-budget statement completely eclipse the announcement from the Home Secretary stating that all the UK’s 30,000 front-line response officers will soon be carrying TASER weapons?

As for the Home Secretary’s announcement, she justified the decision by saying she was providing the police with the tools they had asked for. She appears to have missed the point that her 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. Where were the views of the public taken into account in making this decision?

I hope Monday’s statement announces a consultation not a fait-accompli.