Chairman: Essex needs more Taser trained officers

THE Chairman of Essex Police Federation will be approaching Chief Constable Steve Kavanagh to request that more officers are trained in using Taser.

Mark Smith said that while the force might not need more Tasers, having more officers trained in the less-lethal weapon’s use would mean the option is available to officers more often.

He believes the force currently has around 87 Taser trained officers.

“I would like to see within our local policing areas, a doubling of the amount of officers trained,” said Mr Smith. “I’d also like to see Taser issued to response officers rather than just mutual aid trained officers and firearms.

“The first officers on the scene of an incident will be response officers – those responding to 999 calls. And we don’t know what we’re going to find when we get to a scene.

“Taser is just another tool to be considered. It’s a deterrent – it is not always fired – and as far as I’m concerned, is a less lethal option to hit someone with a metal ASP. As far as I’m concerned a Taser is part of personal, protective equipment.”

At a meeting of Chief Officers on 20 January, Chief Constables across England and Wales announced they have no plans to issue Taser to all the country’s police officers at this time.

However the National Police Chiefs’ Council said that “chief constables make the operational decisions in their force areas and can increase the number of Taser-trained officers if their strategic threat and risk assessments show there is a need.”

Mr Smith added: “I’m starting to collate from around the region over how many Taser officers each force has and then also the size of those forces. And then I’ll sit down with the force and try and put something together.

“I know that within Essex we’ve got very few female Taser-trained officers, and I believe that is because of where we draw them from. We’ve got very few firearms officers that are female, and very few public order officers that are female.

“I think if we were to give them to response and patrol that would automatically knock onto us getting more female officers, and I also think that’s only right.”