MP to question police over taser use increase (From The Northern Echo)

MP to question Durham Police over taser use increase

8:00am Monday 20th February 2012 in Newton Aycliffe News By Stuart Arnold

Durham Police are under pressure after a near seven-fold increase by officers in Taser weapon use

A POLICE force was under pressure last night to explain a near seven-fold increase in Taser weapon use by officers.

Durham Police said officers discharged the weapons – which deliver a high voltage disabling shock when fired – 30 times in 2010-11.

This was up from only four in 2008-9, two years earlier, according to a Freedom of Information inquiry by The Northern Echo.

Tasers were first authorised for use by British firearms officers in 2004 by then Home Secretary David Blunkett, but have come more widely into use in recent years.

Although deaths from Taser are rare, there continues to be concern over the risk of adverse effects on people who suffer from a heart condition or whose systems are compromised due to drug intoxication or after a struggle.

A spokesman for Durham Police said its use of Tasers had been extended in 2010 from authorised firearms officers to include road policing officers and, “naturally, there was a tendency to use the weapons more”.

The force also said that eight of the Taser discharges in 2010-11 related to a single incident in March last year, when a man living in Sherburn Village, near Durham City, threatened officers with a samurai sword in a siege which lasted several hours.

However, the Echo’s inquiry also revealed unexplained differences in the use of Tasers between Durham and neighbouring Cleveland Police.

Between 2007-8 and December 14, last year, Cleveland Police said its officers had discharged Tasers to subdue individuals only three times.

Last night, Darlington MP Jenny Chapman said she was to question police chiefs in Durham over officers’ use of Tasers, in light of the figures.

She said: “I will be asking Durham Police to explain their policy so I can understand the difference in [Taser] use between forces.

“I would expect officers to be well trained and be able to use their judgement on the appropriate use of Tasers.”

In a statement, Assistant Chief Constable Michael Banks, of Durham Police, said: “Our officers are given specific training in the use of Tasers to ensure that deployment is appropriate and proportionate under the circumstances and that it complies with national policy.

“The use of Tasers and pepper sprays is strictly governed by nationally-agreed training and deployment protocols and officers are fully-trained and assessed both initially and then on a ‘refresher’ basis.

“They are an absolutely vital option which helps officers deal with potentially dangerous situations where they or members of the public are at risk. On several occasions, they have also been used to prevent someone causing a serious injury to themselves.”

Assistant Chief Constable Sean White, of Cleveland Police, said: “On all occasions the use of such equipment is fully recorded and reviewed by a supervisory officer with a debrief of each individual event taking place.

“The number of actual discharges of Taser by Cleveland Police officers against individuals in recent years has been thankfully low.”

􀁧 Northumbria police was unable to respond in full to the survey, while North Yorkshire police directed the Echo to previously published Home Office figures on taser use.