ESSEX Police\u2019s use of Taser is \u201cproportionate\u201d and officers use the weapon responsibly, the force has said.<\/p>\n
Officers draw their Tasers nearly three times a week but fire them on fewer than one in five occasions.<\/p>\n
About 70 officers in Essex are trained to use the less-lethal weapon. They drew their weapons 152 times between 1 January and 31 December last year, according to the latest figures.<\/p>\n
However, Essex Police only fired the devices on 18% of occasions. The sight of the red laser dot on suspects\u2019 bodies was enough to make them comply 58% of the time, while simply drawing or aiming accounted for another 24% of incidents.<\/p>\n
The devices were fired 28 times in the period.<\/p>\n
An Essex Police spokesman said the force trained officers and monitored Taser use to a high level, as recognised by Her Majesty\u2019s Inspectorate of Constabulary.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThe small increase in police use of Tasers over the last year when compared to a national increase in violent crime demonstrates that, in a safe county, Essex Police continues to use force proportionately and responsibly.<\/p>\n
\u201cTaser is just one piece of equipment that specially-trained officers can use to deal with potentially violent situations, while at the same time minimising harm to members of the public, police officers and offenders.<\/p>\n
\u201cTaser allows the restraint of violent individuals safely and efficiently and is often less harmful to offenders than striking them with a baton or using CS spray.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the force\u2019s use of Tasers is higher than other services in the East of England, according to the Home Office figures.<\/p>\n
Police in Norfolk and Suffolk both drew their Tasers 146 and 137 times respectively during the same period, according to the Echo newspaper.<\/p>\n
Nationally, 10,329 incidents were recorded, with the Metropolitan Police using their Tasers the most \u2013 1,954 times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ESSEX Police\u2019s use of Taser is \u201cproportionate\u201d and officers use the weapon responsibly, the force has said. Officers draw their Tasers nearly three times a week but fire them on\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2822,"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\/2981"}],"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=2981"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2982,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2981\/revisions\/2982"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}