Children tasered by police as use of the weapons increases

County force has lowest discharge rate of any in the country

TASERS were drawn on children dozens of times by Leicestershire Police last year.

The news emerged in new figures that showed overall taser use was soaring across the area.

The data, released by the Home Office, revealed the police force used tasers on 615 occasions in 2018/19.

That’s up from 242 in 2017/18 - more than doubling in a single year.

The rise is partly to do with improvements in reporting practices, but is also due to the fact that more and more officers are actually carrying the weapon.

Ché Donald, national vice chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: “With the government, and an increased number of chief constables, backing a wider rollout of taser, it is unsurprising there were more incidents where this tactical option was selected.”

Tasers were used on children under the age of 18 a total of 59 times in Leicestershire in 2018/19.

It is unclear whether the tasers were actually fired on any of the children, however, as the figures include cases where they were simply drawn and used as a potential threat.

Louise King, Director of the Children’s Rights Alliance for England, part of Just for Kids Law, said:

“The latest government figures on the use of taser on children is alarming.

“In recent years, the number of police officers with these devices has increased significantly yet the more tasers we have on our streets, the more they are used on children.

“Tasers inflict intolerable pain and children have told us how frightening and traumatising even the threat of use can be.

“Children who come into contact with the police are some of the most vulnerable in society often having experienced abuse or neglect, have special educational needs or are being criminally exploited.

“There should be no further increase of the number of officers carrying tasers and training and guidance must be reviewed with urgency to ensure their use on children is avoided unless absolutely.

“The police say tasers can help them to protect the public and officers, but that mustn’t come at the cost of children’s safety and human rights.”

Pensioners have also been targeted, with people aged 65 and over targeted by tasers on one occasion in the last year.

An age breakdown is not available, but out of the 615 occasions where tasers were used by Leicestershire Police in 2018/19, only 21 involved a taser being discharged - 3% of the total.

It’s the lowest discharge rate of any force in the country.

In most of those cases the taser was fired with a live cartridge, where the probes are fired towards the subject with the intention of incapacitating them.

There were two cases of an officer using angled drive stun - where the probes are involved but the taser itself is held against the subject’s body in a different area. Again this is incapacitating.

On 17 occasions a taser was arced - the sparking of the taser without aiming or firing - and on 349 occasions they were used to “red-dot” people (where the taser is partially activated and aimed in order to put a red dot on the subject).

There were also 52 cases of an officer aiming a taser at someone but not discharging it, and a further 176 cases was a taser was drawn, but not aimed.

Tasers are not the only type of force that Leicestershire Police are using against children.

The force also drew firearms on children under the age of 18 on two occasions last year, deployed dogs four times (one of which resulted in a bite), drew irritant spray on 24 occasions (although they only actually sprayed it on six), and drew batons nine times (using them on three).

Spit and bite guards - which are controversial and have been deemed “cruel” by civil liberties groups - were also used on children on six occations.

The force also used various forms of restraint on children hundreds of times, including ground restraint, body restraints and handcuffing.