Could increased Tasers help reduce police officer assaults?

ANY increase in the use of Taser should be coupled with greater support for officers when it comes to deployment, the Chair Elect of South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.

The Police Federation of England and Wales has said that all frontline police officers should be given a Taser if they want one, a move that it says would be vital in tackling the high number of assaults against officers.

There were more than 23,000 assaults on police officers in the past financial year.

“Nationally we have looked at this requirement for an uplift in Taser and certainly within my own force as well,” said South Yorkshire’s Chair Elect Zuleika Payne. “At the moment it’s voluntary for officers to take part in the training and carry Taser – but coupled with that we also need to support officers when it comes to deployment as well.”

She said that officers are often criticised “all too easily and all too quickly” following a death or serious injury after police contact by people who were not there at the time.

“Officers are faced with a situation where they have to make an on-the-spot decision, so it’s important that we support officers,” she said. “At the end of the day they are out there trying to do their bit for society, so an attack on an officer is like an attack on society.”

Zuleika’s comments came after Holly Lynch, MP for Halifax, called for an increase in resources such as spit hoods and Tasers to help protect officers. She led an adjournment debate in the House of Commons on 11 October after seeing first-hand police officers being attacked while on patrol with Essex Police.