Met issues 1,900 extra Tasers to officers

BRITAIN’S largest police force will give hundreds more officers Tasers after a surge in violence and knife crime.

Scotland Yard said the devices will be issued to 1,867 extra front-line personnel, bringing the total trained and able to carry the equipment to more than 6,400.

Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, took the decision after an increase in violent crime in London, as well as a rise in assaults against officers. In a trend replicated around the country, figures show knife crime rose by almost a quarter in the capital in 2016-17.

Assaults against Met officers increased from 2,211 in 2014 to 2,676 last year. Ms Dick said: “Keeping the public safe from harm is at the heart of our job.

“With this uplift, my officers will be better equipped to protect the public and themselves.”

It emerged last night that the Government is considering changing plans to alter the police funding formula so that large forces like the Met do not suffer cutbacks as they attempt to tackle the threat of terrorism.

Ms Dick said she had made clear to ministers that the Met could not take large cutbacks to its budget.

A spokesman for the Home Office said: “The Government is undertaking a period of detailed engagement with policing partners and independent experts on the police funding formula.”