Federation backs student officers having access to Taser

ALL officers should have access to Taser and the training required to use it, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.

Plans have been announced to place Taser in the hands of all student officers as part of their training programme.

It’s a move backed by Federation Chairman Steve Kent, although he would like the non-lethal weapon to be rolled out to all officers, especially those who might be deployed on single-crewed duties.

“It’s good news I think because, ultimately, I want all officers to be Taser trained,” he said.

“But the caveat is that I would like all the officers already out there to be prioritised to get Tasers,

“Frontline officers across the board, students and substantive officers, all need Taser and it wouldn’t be right to exclude student officers.

“There’s even more need in terms of single-crewed officers getting Taser before anyone else who’s likely to be double-crewed.

“Student officers do tend to be double-crewed, so they’ll have that backup. There’s a lot of officers out there at the minute who are single-crewed, who don’t.”

The public should feel reassured that Taser is available as part of officers’ PPE kit, Steve added, especially as it’s a useful resource against the surge in knife crime.

“It’s a great tool that officers can use to tackle people with knives in their possession. It just provides a better overall protection for officers and the public.

“It’s clearly going to be better for people to have suffered the effects of Taser for five seconds, to get them under control, rather than having to be struck with a baton, for example, or a police dog being used on them.

“It’s a proportionate deterrent to those who are wanting to be aggressive to police officers or aggressive to other members of the public and the I think most of the public support its use.

“I’ve had a Taser on me, and I’ve only had cause to use it once in eight years because people see it and their reaction to you and the way they are to you changes when you’ve got your Taser.

“It definitely needs to be out there more.”