West Midlands chief superintendent praises use of Tasers

Oct 17 2009 by William Oliphant, Birmingham Mail

A TOP Midland policeman has praised officers’ use of tasers only days after a programme to widen their use in the force went live.

Until the start of this month, tasers were only allowed to be used by firearms officers.

But from October 1, their use was widened to a select group of regular officers who have had special training.

The West Midlands Police force has been using the electro-shock weapons, which fire electrodes at their subject and incapacitate them using 50,000-volt electrical pulses, since 2004 in which time they have been deployed a total of 93 times.

Since their use was widened at the start of this month the weapons have been drawn twice, but not fired.

Chief Superintendent Peter Sear from West Midlands Police said they had proved extremely effective.

“They have been extremely successful. Just the production of a taser has been enough on both occasions to stop a situation that was about to get very seriously out of hand.”

Chief Supt Sear said the force hoped to widen the use of tasers by non specialist firearms officers even further over the next year as more officers were trained in their use. Some human rights groups have criticised the use of the “less-lethal” weapons and have produced evidence of a number of cases where people have died after their use.

However the company that produces them, Taser International, has claimed they are safe.