More police armed with taser guns in Medway
POLICE officers armed with tasers are to become a more familiar sight in Medway.
Bobbies on the beat are to carry the handheld device which can produce a 50,000 volt electric shock to apprehend violent criminals.
Previously, if a taser was jusdged to be needed, a firearms specialists had to be sent from police headquarters in Maidstone.
Now a small number of officers have been trained to use them despite having no firearms experience.
Chief Insp for operations Peter de Lozey said: "This is a really important training development at Medway. The use of taser gives us another option in dealing with violent people and can greatly reduce the risk of injury to both them and officers and enable us to deal with situations very quickly."
The device's electrical current interrupts control of the major muscular groups, leaving a violent person unable to co-ordinate body movements.
Between December 2008 and December 2009, police in Kent produced tasers 142 times and fired eight times.
3 Comments
by anon, Kent
Wednesday, March 10 2010, 4:30PM
“If its only a psychological tool why cant we all have one?
Why is it that if I own one its an offensive weapon but give it to a PC and it turns into a lovely fluffy harmless tool.”
by Boggy on The Marsh, The Marsh
Wednesday, March 10 2010, 10:55AM
“The deployment of taser is proven to be more of psycological tool than one of direct force. Most people have now heard about taser and seen the effects of its use. It is a proven fact that once the "red dot" is on the aggressor or non compliant individual will normal stop, knowing full well that one pull of the trigger will discharge the gun, fire a barb at them and shock them! Also bear in mind that a baton strike will leave a bloody great bruise even if it doesn't break a bone! Let's face it, the stun of a taser is no worse than that caused by cattle fencing of which mile of it can be found around the countryside and we don't see many farmers or horse owners dying from touching one of these wires do we? The taser is an effective tool for officers to have and after all why should our officers not be given these tools to do their job and protect themselves and others from harm?”
by anon, Kent
Tuesday, March 09 2010, 1:28PM
“"can greatly reduce the risk of injury to both them and officers"
So frying someones nervous system with 50,000 volts is for their own good.Where do these
desk jockey Chief Inspectors get these gems from.”