Police Increase Taser Use On Children

“The people committing a criminal act by carrying these items are the same people who can make communities less safe, and police must have appropriate powers at their disposal to find and deal with them”.

There has also been an increase in the use of the weapon against those under 18.

In 80 per cent of cases the weapon was not discharged.

The ethnicity of the person against whom the Taser was used was recorded in 36,038 cases.

Responding to questions about Taser use, Deputy Commissioner Neil Basu said: “Every use of Taser is reported and scrutinised by a supervisor and officers are personally accountable to the law each time their Taser is drawn”.

In February the Police Federation voted for all uniformed officers to be issued with Tasers.

Tasers were used – meaning they were drawn, aimed or fired – by police 38,135 times between 2010 and 2015, a freedom of information request showed.

In 4,582 of those cases they involved a black person of African-Caribbean origin or of mixed white and African-Caribbean origin – representing 12.7%.

Superintendent Jon Dodman, of Suffolk Constabulary, said: “Our officers have a number of options available to diffuse high risk situations including Taser and the priority will always be the safety of the public and the offender”.

In Hampshire a police officer took his Taser out of his holster, but did not use it, in an incident with a nine-year-old boy in an attempt to calm a situation down after there was an allegation of a knife being used, the force said.

A total of 11 boys aged 14 were targeted by Taser.

A policeman demonstrates a new US-style stun gun, at the firearms range of Northamptonshire Police.

The ethnic discrepancy also occurs across the various levels of Taser deployment, from being drawn to fired. 3/8/03: The device, which deliver a 50,000-volt electric shock, was used in the United Kingdom on a suspect for the first time when officers in London encountered a man armed with two handguns.

There were 158 cases previous year in England and Wales involving children under 16, Home Office statistics revealed.

Experts call the report deeply disturbing show human rights violations across the country.

A Filipino trooper, left, reacts as a U.S. Marine uses a taser gun on him during a non-lethal weapons capabilities demonstration with the Philippine military and police at Philippine Marine Corps Headquarters in suburban Taguig, Philippines on Thursday August. 14, 2014.