The report states:

The Constabulary also fully recognises the differing views about the use of Taser both inside and outside of the organisation, and as a consequence will not further deploy any Tasers to Officers beyond those with existing training undertaken in parallel to their firearms training, until a full policy review has been completed including internal and external consultation.

The report also reveals the Cambridgeshire Police don’t yet have a definition of which officers are to be issued with these weapons. ie. their definition of “Specially Trained Unit” has not been devised yet. The report states:

The Constabulary needs to undertake further consideration in relation to the Officers to be identified and the exact training required.

The report also states:

The training associated with the use of Taser has been restricted to authorised Firearms Officers, although the Taser training is completely separate to the training necessary for the accreditation for the use of firearms.

I do not agree with the implication which could be drawn that the desirable skill set for safe TASER use is completely separate to that required for using firearms. I would suggest experience of use of firearms, both of the decision making processes and experience of handling potentially violent situations would be directly applicable to TASER use.

It would be interesting to know how many of the TASER weapons the Home Secretary has managed to get police forces to take are actually available for use by non-firearms police. The headline figure of the number TASERs issued could be significantly misleading if those forces which have taken them have not actually decided to use them.

The problem regarding the “Specially Trained Unit” terminology is clearly shown by an article in today’s telegraph responding to the IPCC announcement which states:

The guns can now be used by specially trained firearms officers rather than just firearms officers.

This implies TASERs are being limited to a smaller group within the police. In fact the weapons have been deployed to a wider group of officers, they can now be used by non-firearms officers who have been trained in their use. There is clearly confusion, arising from unclear evasive statements by the Police and Home Office