8:10am Thursday 18th March 2010
By Peter Law
THE number of people shot with 50,000- volt Taser guns by Hampshire police has increased ten-fold in the past year.
Official police figures showed Taser use reached record levels after the force were given 50 additional guns in 2009.
Ten people were tasered and officers threatened to pull the trigger on another 37 occasions.
Hampshire police last night insisted the device had saved lives and stopped officers from being assaulted.
In half of the cases, those tasered had been physically violent with a knife. Other cases involved people armed with metal spikes, bars and sticks.
The statistics, released under the Freedom of Information Act, showed that in the previous two years just one person was fired at.
Amnesty International described Tasers as dangerous weapons that caused excruciating pain.
Spokesman Oliver Sprague said they must only be fired when there is a serious threat of loss of life or injury.
“It is clear that Hampshire is using these dangerous and painful weapons much more frequently, but it’s good to see that in the majority of cases these appear to be in response to dangerous individuals armed with some sort of weapon. This is precisely the sorts of circumstances where a Taser weapon is an appropriate response.
“However, in about a quarter of all cases, Tasers were deployed against individuals who are described as physically violent without further elaboration as to the severity of the threat faced.
“In our view, Tasers should only be used when there is a serious threat to loss of life or a risk of very serious injury and remain concerned that Taser use in Hampshire and elsewhere is not widened and used for much more minor incidents.”
Inspector Gerry Kiernan, Hampshire’s head of firearms training, said he was confident the use of Taser in each of the cases had been justified.
He said the number of incidents had increased because officers were now required to log every time they pull out their weapon.
“It’s not a small increase because its gone up ten times, but if you look at how we stand nationally, we are one of the lowest forces for us of Taser,” Insp Kiernan said.
“I have not seen one incident that has caused me any concern about the use of Taser and we have not had any complaints from people who have been tasered.”
Insp Kiernan said there were no plans to introduce more Tasers in Hampshire or to train more officers in how to use them.
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