Staffordshire Police Federation chair Phil Jones has criticised an Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) report into the use of Taser saying it is potentially misleading as it is based on a very small percentage of the times when the devices have been used.
The IPOC report made 17 recommendations to the College of Policing, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, and the Home Office seeking improvements to national guidance and training; scrutiny and monitoring of Taser use, and data and research.
It was published yesterday after the IOPC examined 101 of its investigations involving Taser use between 2015 and 2020, a period during which devices were deployed almost 100,000 times.
Phil commented: “We welcome investigations into Taser use, it is right and proper that forces are scrutinised in this way. But these reviews need to be thorough and wide-ranging for them to be relevant. By focussing on just 0.1 per cent of all Taser uses, this review does not give a clear picture of forces’ use of these devices.
“But what I find particularly disappointing, and even annoying, is that the IOPC chose not to consult the Police Federation and therefore there has been very little, if any, input from those officers who are on the frontline and therefore have real-life experience of using Taser.
“The IOPC has made 17 recommendations aimed at improving training and guidance, but I am just not sure how useful these are going to be.
“Taser has become an essential part of modern day policing, serving to protect both officers and the communities they serve. Day in, day out, officers are dealing with unpredictable and often violent situations, making split-second decisions and, in so many cases, they can defuse a potentially dangerous incident just by drawing a Taser from a holster.”
The Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) national vice-chair, Ché Donald, was critical of the Federation being left out of the consultation process.
He said: “For many years, PFEW has fully supported the IOPC’s desire to seek improvements to national Taser guidance and training. Police officers are the practitioners of Taser and would ultimately be affected by these recommendations if implemented. We are naturally disappointed our 130,000 members were not consulted.”
Chief Constable Lucy D’Orsi, the NPCC lead for less lethal weapons, has also criticised the review.
She said: “Unfortunately, this report by the IOPC is vague, lacks detail, does not have a substantive evidence base and regrettably ignores extensive pieces of work that are already well underway and, indeed, other areas where improvement could be made.
“I advised the IOPC of my concerns and am extremely disappointed that it did not engage with policing, attend a Taser training course or consult the national independent experts who we work with whilst undertaking its initial research.”
In terms of the 101 Taser uses considered, she added: “Focusing on these smaller number of cases missed an opportunity to consider Taser use more broadly and unfortunately has resulted in recommendations which are mostly out of date and not based on the realities of policing. The focus on such a small data set ignores good practice and learning elsewhere.”
