‘Force should treble Taser-trained officers’

ESSEX Police Federation will be looking for the force to treble the number of Taser trained officers.

Mark Smith, Federation Chairman, said Chief Constable Steve Kavanagh “is in agreement that we can train more officers” with using the less-lethal weapon – with the final number still to be confirmed. The Federation is hoping that the current 70 plus officers trained to use Taser can increase to more than 200.

The plan would be that – as well as firearms officers and mutual-aid trained officers – response and patrol officers will also be able to use the less-lethal weapon.

“I haven’t been pushing for the purchase of more equipment,” said Mr Smith. “It’s just the training of more officers because we have enough equipment to be able to put some more Tasers out there. We’ve got an agreement that it can roll out outside of our current policy – the full scope will need to be negotiated.

“I would like to see a trebling of officer numbers carrying Taser increase from 70 to more than 200 – I don’t know if that’s achievable but I would like maybe three times the amount of the non-firearms officers and also trebling the amount we deploy per LPA each shift.”

Mr Smith said the push for more officers to have Taser is not a reaction to a spate of recent high profile attacks on officers.

“I was already working on it and pushing for it, so I can’t say it’s as a result” said Mr Smith. “But obviously I think that this is good evidence towards having a greater number.

“We’ve been working on it for some time and been talking to the Chief. We know budgets are tight and now isn’t the time to buy more equipment, but certainly to train more officers up and to deploy and make full use of the Tasers we already have in force.”