Taser electronic stun guns are to be issued to more police officers under plans revealed by John Reid, the Home Secretary, yesterday.

The use of the weapons will be extended to officers such as the tactical support units, used by Scotland Yard and other forces to back large operations and raids, who may face violent and dangerous suspects.

The Home Office is also changing the rules for the use of Tasers. At the moment they can be used only in situations where officers would be authorised to use their guns, that is, where the suspect is armed and the officer believes that he or other people are in danger. The change would mean that a Taser could be used to face violent attackers even if they were not armed.

A Home Office spokeswoman said that the weapons would be tested during a 12-month trial for specially trained units who are not authorised firearms officers.

She said that the plans “would also extend the use of Tasers by authorised firearms officers where the criteria to use firearms does not apply.

“In both cases, officers will be facing violence or threats of violence, and they would need to use force to protect the public or themselves or the subject.” Mr Reid announced the move during his speech to the Police Federation’s annual conference in Blackpool. Proposals to extend use of the weapon have been sent by the Home Office to a special committee for medical assessment.

The Defence Scientific Advisory Council subcommittee on the medical evaluation of less lethal weapons is expected to report back next month, the spokeswoman said. If they agree, ten forces including a mix of large, urban and rural forces, will test the changes.

A Police Federation spokesman said: “We support the roll-out. We think it is a vital piece of equipment for front-line officers to have.”

More than 3,000 of the devices, whose name is an acro-nym for “Thomas A. Swift’s Electric Rifle”, and which deliver a shock, have been distributed to firearms officers since their introduction in 2003. Officers say that often the sight of the weapons, which have been fired more than 100 times, or switching them on, is enough to stop a suspect.

Amnesty International has opposed use of the US-manu-factured weapons, claiming that they can be lethal. The organisation’s UK director, Kate Allen, said: “We are worried that this may be the start of a slippery slope towards a situation like that in the US, where officers are routinely armed with Tasers and use them in a wide range of situations.

“Amnesty has studied the use of Tasers in the US and Canada, where more than 220 people have died since 2001 after being ‘Tasered’.

“Our message is simple — Tasers are potentially lethal and should be treated as such,” she said.

Shock tactics

The Taser is a “nonlethal” weapon that delivers a debilitating electrical charge, knocking the target to the ground. The target recovers quickly, the manufacturers claim

Widely used in the US, the Taser fires two darts up to a distance of 4.5m. Thin wires between the darts and the gun deliver 50,000-volt electric pulses. The gun is designed not to affect the heart

Tasers are used in more than 50 countries. Its makers say that it has been used successfully in 50,000 operations

Data from the US from more than 2,000 field applications showed that in 80 per cent of cases the suspects were unarmed

Source: Taser; Amnesty International

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