The Independent Police Complaints Commission is today recommending that Police and Crime Commissioners take a more active role in overseeing their force’s use of TASER weapons. One of the recommendations in the IPCC report titled “IPCC review of Taser complaints and incidents” states: The frequency and type of Taser use, and its justification on each [...]
On the 27th of March 2014 the UK Home Office released police TASER use statistics for England and Wales in 2013. I have made the statistics available in a spreadsheet 2013 saw four forces issue TASERs to non-firearms officers for the first time. These forces were Cambridgeshire, Essex, Sussex and Thames Valley. All UK police [...]
TASER armed officer in the UK An inquest is currently underway in relation to the death of Mark Duggan who was shot and killed by police in London on the 4th of August 2011. The transcript of the inquest hearing on the 8th of October 2013 revealed how the Met Police’s elite firearms units use, [...]
On the morning of Wednesday the 1st of May I went on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire with Paul Stainton to discuss Cambridgeshire Police’s roll out of TASER weapons to non-firearms officers including neighbourhood, traffic and response officers. Presenter Paul Stainton reported Cambridgeshire’s Chief Constable Simon Parr had been invited on the show but had declined saying [...]
UK Police Officer Carrying a TASER Chief Inspector Neil Sloan of Cambridgeshire Police told a meeting of Cambridge’s Community Safety Partnership held on the 30th of April 2013 that a police announcement of the date from which neighbourhood officers will begin to be routinely armed with TASER weapons was “imminent”. Chief Inspector Sloan told the [...]
On the 27th of April 2013 I went on BBC News to talk about UK police TASER use. The interview followed the death of Andrew Pimlott in Plymouth following an incident where a TASER was used. The IPCC have published background information and have stated: Our investigation will be looking at what information was known [...]
TASER armed officer in the UK Cambridge’s Community Safety Partnership on the 14th of December 2012 received a presentation on TASER use in Cambridge by Chief Inspector Neil Sloan of Cambridgeshire Police. To-date in Cambridge only specialist firearms officers have carried and used TASER weapons, no officers have routinely patrolled with the weapons, or carried [...]
When Cambridge’s newly elected Police and Crime Commissioner Graham Bright was asked to comment on Cambridgeshire Police Force’s use of TASER weapons by the Cambridge-News he responded: Tasers are an operational matter and I cannot interfere in operational matters. My view is that TASER policies; such as if they ought be routinely carried by front-line [...]
On the 24th of September 2012 I went on BBC Radio Wales to argue against the arming of all front-line police in the UK with TASER weapons. The decision on arming the police with TASER on a routine basis is one for society as a whole, and not just for the police. It’s a decision [...]
One of the major stories on BBC South East Today on the 26th of June 2012 was on the call by the Police Federation (which represents police officers) for all front-line police officers to be armed with TASER weapons. On the 25th of June 2012 the Police Federation released a letter they had written to [...]