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Policing; UK New "lethal weapon" for police

01 March 2003

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Despite widespread safety concerns, five police forces - Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, Thames Valley, North Wales and the Metropolitan police - have been equipped with Tasers, a "less-lethal" hand-held weapon that incapacitates individuals with an electric charge. The stun-gun is shaped like a pistol and fires a barb-tipped dart for up to 7 m. to deliver a high-voltage shock (50,000 volts in the US version of the gun). The charge induces a loss of some voluntary muscle control and its effect was described as "extremely painful" by one firearms trainer who had tested it. At the launch of the weapon in Northampton Paul Acres, the Hertfordshire chief constable, said that it was safe to use:

There is no evidence of any direct link between the use of Tasers and deaths but there have been occasions when people who have been "Tasered" have died. But there have been extenuating circumstances

However, Robert Parker of Amnesty International UK said:

The medical effects of Tasers have not been independently tested. Until they are proven safe, they must be treated as lethal weapons.

In the United States, where over 1,700 law enforcement agencies are armed with Tasers, Amnesty International USA has recorded 16 deaths of people after they were hit by darts from the stun guns in Los Angeles; three Florida men died in 2002 after being subdued with the devices. The organisation warns that "certain medical conditions, including drug use and heart disease, may increase the risk that they will be lethal." William Schultz, executive director of Amnesty USA said:
Electro-shock weapons are promoted as legitimate tools for law enforcement, when in fact they are weapons of terror used to torture men, women and children... Corporations cannot disguise these weapons as reasonable police equipment for crime control when the design is intended to inflict severe pain.

Police Review 7.2.03; Times 18.4.03; Independent 18.4.03; http://amnestyusa.org; Amnesty International UK website, http://amnesty.org

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