Give UK officers Tasers to help fight terror threat, says Police Federation

Steve White, who chairs the Police Federation, said the availability of Tasers needs to be expanded because of evidence of terrorists’ plans to kill officers, who are traditionally unarmed.

In an interview with the Guardian, White said: “The terrorist ideal to get attention no longer relies on an attack being in a place of note. It could be in Cheam high street, in any town, in any part of the UK. We know there are more dangerous people out there, preparing to attack police officers and we need to be able to respond to that threat.”

Tasers use an electric current of up to 50,000 volts to incapacitate people and critics say the weapon is too often lethal. It has been linked to at least 10 deaths in England and Wales over the past decade. In 2013, factory worker Jordan Lee Begley, 23, died two hours after a Greater Manchester officer targeted him with a stun gun at his home after police were called to reports of an argument.

Police Federation leaders will vote next month on a proposal that every uniformed frontline officer should be offered training in the use of Tasers. Some may choose not to carry one.

A fortnight ago, the terrorist threat level for police was raised to severe. Since then, police chiefs and representatives of Britain’s 127,000 rank-and-file officers have been considering how to counter that threat. White said the threat of an attack on police, assessed by the intelligence services as being highly likely, meant that every officer was a potential target. “Talking to them with a cup of tea and a biscuit is not going to work,” he said.

If the federation decides to formally call for an expansion in Taser availability, that would present a dilemma for police chiefs. If they or the government opposed such a move and an officer was then attacked, it would damage the already fragile confidence that officers have in their professional and political leadership.

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Some senior officers are believed to support the idea in theory, but one police leader said chief constables would mostly be opposed. Speaking anonymously because of the sensitivity of the issues involved, the police chief told the Guardian that the plans risked jeopardising public confidence and changing the face of British policing.

“The idea of arming every police officer with a Taser is alien to 200 years of police culture. It is a stepping stone to arming the police; something strapped to your hip that looks like a firearm is a huge shift in what we stand for.”

Oliver Sprague, Amnesty International UK’s arms programme director, queried whether there was evidence that such a move would be worthwhile. “We’d ask the question: where’s the evidence that a terrorist will be deterred by the knowledge that police officers have Tasers at their disposal?” he said. “And who on earth thinks that, if there’s a real instance of terrorist activity, Tasers would ever actually be sufficient for our law enforcement officers?

“We’ve always said that Tasers can have a part to play in policing operations where there’s a clear risk of death or serious injury to police officers or members of the public – but Tasers should be used sparingly and only by highly trained officers.”

The threat level for police was raised by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre based within MI5 after the terrorist attacks in Paris in which three police officers were killed, followed the next week by the thwarting of a plot in Belgium where police were again the target.

British counter-terrorism officials believe they have uncovered plans to attack officers and Islamic State propaganda earlier this month renewed a call for followers to attack the police.

Tight gun control in Britain means the biggest danger comes from a terrorist with a knife or machete, similar to the fatal May 2013 attack on a soldier outside Woolwich barracks in south London. “As [the] Lee Rigby [murder] demonstrated, you don’t need to have a gun to create terrorism,” White said. The veteran firearms officer denied the idea amounted to arming officers: “It is a defensive tool and a tactical option. We have a largely unarmed service and the service wants that to remain.

“The alternative is to have officers out there without anything at all. We have to do something. The sector threat [to police] has gone up by two levels and we need to make sure everything is done to protect officers who protect the public.”

In announcing the heightened alert to police earlier this month, calling on officers to be extra vigilant and take extra precautions, the national policing lead for counter-terrorism, assistant commissioner Mark Rowley, said further measures to enhance police safety were under consideration. “Chief constables across the country are reviewing how to strengthen the protection of their officers from attacks.”

At present, about 10% of officers are trained to use Tasers. The training takes two to three days and costs £1,000 per officer.