THE Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has \u201coverstepped the mark\u201d with its latest report that calls for greater scrutiny on Taser, Essex Police Federation has said.<\/p>\n
The IOPC report claims that stakeholders have raised concerns over the \u201cdisproportionate use of Taser against black people and those with mental ill health\u201d. It doesn\u2019t say who has raised these concerns.<\/p>\n
It has called for more transparency around how and when Taser is used and \u201cmore research to understand issues of disproportionality\u201d.<\/p>\n
Essex Federation Chairman Steve Taylor said: \u201cUnfortunately, with alarming frequency, at the hands of the IOPC [officers are] scapegoated and pilloried for doing their best in really tough, difficult situations. I\u2019m not surprised to see they\u2019ve again overstepped the mark in terms of their view.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThe IOPC time and time and time again get it wrong and inflame situations, inflame public tensions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve said that it was \u201cabsolutely fair\u201d that policing was held to account. He said: \u201cThe legitimacy of the force that police officers are called on to use is vitally important. That legitimacy is built up through training, through experience and through justification when called on to use the force. It\u2019s right and proper that that\u2019s the community that we live in. We\u2019re not a police state. We\u2019re not above the law.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut is it too much to ask that the body responsible for investigating the police has the confidence of the police? Because the IOPC does not have the confidence of my members in Essex. And that\u2019s not fair on society in general. Confidence in the wider police service suffers when they get it wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Police Federation of England and Wales\u2019 Conduct and Performance Lead Phill Matthews said: \u201cWe do not recognise and disagree there is a disproportionate use of Taser against BAME communities or people with mental ill health \u2013 and we are certainly not aware of any concluded cases where an officer has been criticised on their use of Taser by the IOPC.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut of course, we will wait and see if any recommendations or findings come out of its investigations, and if so, we will work with the IOPC to change policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cWe remain convinced that Taser is an essential piece of equipment which saves the lives of both officers and members of the public. We are very much still a country that polices by consent. And given the huge number of incidents police officers attend, the number of times Taser is used remains very small. The mere presence of the equipment is often enough to de-escalate situations, making it extremely effective.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has \u201coverstepped the mark\u201d with its latest report that calls for greater scrutiny on Taser, Essex Police Federation has said. The IOPC report\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":107635,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130776"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=130776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130917,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130776\/revisions\/130917"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/107635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=130776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=130776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=130776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}