Cheshire police to be armed with stun guns under government plans

Dec 2 2008 by Laurie Stocks-Moore, Chester Chronicle

ALL Chester based police officers could be armed with stun guns.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has announced £8 million plans for frontline officers in the UK to be given 10,000 more Tasers.

Cheshire Police had been one of ten forces given permission to start training response officers in the use of the guns during a year-long trial.

Although the 50,000 volt electric guns have been used by Cheshire Police since 2004, only a limited number of specially trained authorised firearms officers were allowed to carry the weapon.

But the new proposal could now see all officers in Cheshire – of which there are more than 2,200 – armed with Tasers, which temporarily paralyse suspects. It puts police one step closer to being fully armed.

Spokeswoman for Cheshire Police Shelley Williams said: “Taser has been routinely carried by armed response officers as part of a range of less than lethal options available to ensure public safety in dealing with incidents where extreme violence is offered or threatened.

“In all this time, Taser has been deployed on only 36 occasions, and has only actually been discharged on 14 of these occasions.

“Each incident has been safely and successfully resolved and the use of Taser has been of significant benefit to public and officer safety in incidents where, had this option not been available, serious injury or a loss of life might have occurred. “We are now consulting and considering how best to bring this extended use of Taser into the remit of our own specially trained frontline staff.”

Jacqui Smith MP said she was proud that UK police do not regularly carry firearms and that she wanted to keep it that way, but insisted police need the tools to confront dangerous people.

Before the new stun guns are issued, all officers who use them will have to undergo 18 hours of training and attend yearly refresher courses to keep them up to date with developments.