Police use of tasers doubles as assaults on officers rise

POLICE use of tasers against suspects has doubled in two years amid a surge in violence against officers.

The weapons were used at a rate of nearly 90 a day in the year ending March 2020, double the 45 a day in 2017/18. That represents 32,100 times that tasers were drawn in the last year compared to 16,900 two years ago. It represents a 37 per cent rise on the previous year’s figure of 23,500.

Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, has backed a big expansion in tasers with a ring-fenced £10 million fund to enable up to 60 per cent of the 100,000-plus frontline officers to be equipped with tasers. It would treble the number of police with the weapons.

The move comes amid a 30 per cent rise in assaults on police since 2015 to a record 30,679 in the year to March 2020, a third of which left officers with injuries.

Ms Patel said at the time: “I’ve been completely appalled by the recent spate of serious assaults on police officers, which is why I’m giving chief constables the resources to dramatically increase the number of their officers who carry tasers.”

It comes as police chiefs have launched a review into whether the weapons are being disproportionately used against black and ethnic minority suspects. The figures show that more than one in five (21 per cent) of the deployments (6,608) was against black suspects. Seven per cent or 2,232 were against Asian suspects and three per cent against mixed race people.

That represents a total of nearly a third of deployments being against black and ethnic minority people, with 63 per cent against white suspects.

The figures were contained in a Home Office report on incidents in which police used force, which rose by 64,000, from 428,000 to 492,000. In 68 per cent of the incidents (335,000), the reason given for an officer using force was in a bid to protect themselves, the report said. Restraint tactics, like using handcuffs, were the most common type of force used, accounting for 385,000 incidents or 78 per cent of the total.

‘I’m giving chief constables resources to dramatically increase the number of officers who carry tasers’