Police Taser 7500 London police carry them

[justasking111]

The attack yesterday in which a 14 year old boy died and two officers were badly hurt did not carry tasers. I thought all police carried them these days.

7500 out of 34000 London officers carry them. Should more police carry them?

"Met could issue more Tasers to officers after Hainault sword attack, Sir Mark Rowley says" https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/01/met-could-issue-more-tasers-hainault-sword-attack-rowley/

I think all police officers should have them, not just in London.

And I think the threshold for being able to use them should be lower too

It's up to the police to decide that, not us.

Until it's YOUR 13 year old being tasered by a trigger happy police officer.

It is the police wanting more officers to carry them when you read the article

Tasers are treated like firearms by the police, they require rigorous training to be able to carry one and if they are used there’s a fuck ton of paperwork, red tape and accountability afterwards. Not all police want to carry one .

Also they are not allowed tasers till they have been in for 2 years so maybe those officers were new?

They're a firearm so no, they shouldn't be available for every officer.

All police in big cities should have tasers.

No, I don't want the police carrying more weapons more often.

I thought that when I saw the footage of the first officers on the scene yesterday and all they could do was ask the man to drop the sword. What would they have done if he had run at them? He had already wounded two officers.

I was surprised they didn’t have tasers but I don’t know what training is involved and why all officers don’t have them. They don’t even appear to have truncheons or anything they could use in defence.

Surely it has to be reviewed now with the number of knife attacks, gang violence and random killings.

I was an officer for 14 years, I didn’t want the responsibility that came with carrying a taser, especially knowing how little support & protection is given to officers who carry firearms and are in a situation when they have to use them.

They have retractable truncheons and I think all have pava spray but only a taser or a bullet is going to stop someone with a knife that size intent on doing harm.

I think they should all be trained in their useage and then officers can opt out if they don’t want to carry one.

If the reason they don’t want to carry them is the lack of protection from above when they need to use them, that needs to be addressed too.

Honestly, the things we ask them to run towards on their own with so little protection sickens me.

As a pp says there, the offender was only going to be stopped by a taser or a firearm. He was literally on the rampage and seemingly not targeting anyone in particular so anyone in his path was at risk.

I'd say they should all have them I'm surprised they don't!

When they were introduced, I remember being told that tasers would be used as a less-lethal alternative where previously a firearm would have had to be used. We were told that only highly-trained officers would get them, and we wouldn't have to worry about people being tased willy-nilly because officers would be taking tasers as seriously as guns. This was presumably to reassure us and gain public acceptance. I was sceptical about these assurances, because even if there was no initial attempt at deception, and it really was the intention at that point for them to be used as a safer alternative to firearms, this is what happens — a gradual creep towards wider acceptability and a push for more general use. No thanks.

Well, these people are there to protect us from bigger threats, so surely it makes sense that they can actually protect us efficiently?!

Arm the police...arm the criminals... It will spiral.

If they know all police have firearms, the criminals will "need" to do so as well.

I think the bravery of those police officers yesterday was absolutely amazing. They all put their lives on the line, that was quite obvious from the videos that were released. They were all heroes.

Because there's no need...

I saw a discussion about this on TV and I actually agree a truncheon is useless as the difference in policing the streets today as opposed to the 80s/90s, and before, is back then it was very very rare that people went out carrying a sword or machete.

No, we're policed by consent in this country and I think it's better that use of weapons by the police is strictly controlled and scrutinised.

Tasers can kill and have been used inappropriately, particularly on minorities and the mentally unwell. The police have lost a lot of my trust in the last few years.

I would much prefer specialised units are called in for these sorts of rare incidents, than the police start carrying tasers routinely.

News flash... Criminals are already armed.

All the people who don’t want the police to be armed with anything other than a book of nice things to say when someone is running at them with a sword….who do you think is going to apply for these jobs in the future? Them? Their children or partners ? ( clue : virtually nobody)