Two years ago, 50 000 volt taser guns were issued to firearms officers in the West Midlands, with the slippery slope proviso that:Q. Will all police officers be issued with Taser?
A. No, the Taser will only be used by highly-trained, authorised firearms officers.
Now, from today, onwards, police officers in 10 forces (not including West Midlands) who are not firearms specialists will be able to use the 50,000-volt guns.
Amnesty International has found that, since 2001, more than 220 people have died after being shot with tasers in the US. In many of these cases, the coroner listed the use of the taser as contributory factor or indeed a direct link to the death. Amnesty has also found that many US police agencies are "deploying tasers as a routine force option to subdue non-compliant or disturbed individuals who do not pose a serious danger to themselves or others."
Since 2005, the Police Federation has called for tasers to be issued to every police officer in the country. With the every-two-years-we'll-introduce-tasers-a-bit-more policy of New Labour, that's exactly what's going to happen.
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