Should all police have tasers?

[Gary L]

All front-line police in England and Wales should be offered Tasers in light of the increased terrorism threat, the head of the Police Federation says.
Steve White said the devices would help protect against "dangerous people" who could be preparing to attack officers.

"We've got to show our officers that we're taking the threat seriously," he told Radio 4's Today.

But Christopher Salmon, a Welsh police and crime commissioner, said the move would be a mistake.

Too many trigger happy / macho police as it is. they will use them for all sorts of reasons. even if somebody gives them a bit of lip. a drunk won't keep still. or somebody is being a bit hysterical.

they may even threaten to 'tazer' you if you're not answering their questions to their satisfaction.

so no. no tazers.
and stop using 'terrorism' as an excuse for everything. it's boring.

[denphone]

The simple answer is no end of.....

[Derek]

Good idea for a long poll, sadly let down by the initial post.

Hmmm, A PCC who spend a grand total of 5 years including training in the Army, and currently looks after a grand total of 1100 cops is absolutely the best person to decide what tool the Police need.

---------- Post added at 13:05 ---------- Previous post was at 13:04 ----------

Originally Posted by denphone

The simple answer is no end of.....

Traditionally you produce reasons and facts to backup your answer.

[heero_yuy]

You missed out the poll option: Only if we can have them as well.

[Gary L]

Originally Posted by Derek

Hmmm, A PCC who spend a grand total of 5 years including training in the Army, and currently looks after a grand total of 1100 cops is absolutely the best person to decide what tool the Police need.

I personally think it may be more to do with authority. they feel as if their authority has dropped dramatically since the introduction of mobile phones in conjunction with youtube

they are too willing to throw the terrorism word in with too many things lately.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by Derek

Good idea for a long poll, sadly let down by the initial post.

Hmmm, A PCC who spend a grand total of 5 years including training in the Army, and currently looks after a grand total of 1100 cops is absolutely the best person to decide what tool the Police need.

---------- Post added at 13:05 ---------- Previous post was at 13:04 ----------



Traditionally you produce reasons and facts to backup your answer.

Personally l think it would be a very bad move as for one l don't it would go down well with some parts of our society as relations are already strained in certain parts of the country as it is plus the image of every policeman walking down the street carrying a Taser attached to him sends totally the wrong message in my opinion but then again what do l know.

l would personally think that many in the Police would baulk at the thought of carrying a Taser as well Derek but what are your thoughts on this?.

[Gary L]

Originally Posted by heero_yuy

You missed out the poll option: Only if we can have them as well.

That happened with cameras. they don't like it when you got one too

If we are going to give all our police tazers then we may as well give them guns instead ,makes much more sense

[Gary L]

Originally Posted by martyh

If we are going to give all our police tazers then we may as well give them guns instead ,makes much more sense

But that will mean that if they shoot you Marty. the chance of you dying will be significantly higher.

and if they shot you for the wrong reason. then that will be worse.

Originally Posted by Gary L

But that will mean that if they shoot you Marty. the chance of you dying will be significantly higher.

and if they shot you for the wrong reason. then that will be worse.

The main thing though is that it will bring an end to terrorism in the UK

Ok that was just tounge in cheek but if we are going to start using terrorism as an excuse to arm the police with tazers or guns then the terrorists have won already .If the police are going to be armed ,using terrorism as a reason is a bit cynical ,there are probably as many normal crooks carry guns and are prepared to use them as there are terrorists so why the sudden change in direction to arm the police

[papa smurf]

the police seem to conjure up armed officers quite quickly around here i see no need to carry tasers or guns all the time .

[andy_m]

Pardon the interruption, I usually lurk around other parts of the forum, but I felt a few things needed saying! The problem with taser is its image. That's evident by those of you on this thread referring to Police carrying taser as "armed". Taser will sit well below guns (and probably alongside batons and pepper spray which are already routinely carried by our Police) in any organisation's use of force continuum.

As it stands, taser is carried by a significant proportion of "non-armed" Police Officers in this country already, but by no means all of them. The balance is probably currently about right, I reckon, and so I have voted "no".

---------- Post added at 18:01 ---------- Previous post was at 17:55 ----------

I think as well that, particularly in light of the way they handled things like pleb gate, and their appalling behaviour towards the Home Secretary in the wake of the Windsor report, it is worth cautioning against confusing the Police Federation with "the Police". From the article in the op, it is the Police Federation, the staff association for rank and file officers who aren't allowed to be in a union, calling for this.

So .....

All the answers were in CAPITALS - Fixed (Dont do that again).

Its a Yes/No question, with five answers - which makes no sense at all.

[Gary L]

Originally Posted by Paul M

So .....

All the answers were in capitals - Fixed (Dont do that again).

lol sorry. i didn't mean to shout.
you spelt accorance wrong.

Its a Yes/No question, with five answers - which makes no sense at all.

I was going to make it 6.
"You have the right to remain silent"

[papa smurf]

Originally Posted by Gary L

lol sorry. i didn't mean to shout.



I was going to make it 6.
"You have the right to remain silent"

i dont think you do have the right to silence any more