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?

This is an extremely difficult situation. Off the cuff, yes, it makes sense for all police officers to have them but I listened to LBC this morning and the amount of horrifying stop and search stories that suggest there is gross potential for misuse and police should not be given them.

They seem to have managed OK all these years without being armed so maybe not. Although if a lunatic was running at me or my children with a sword, I'd want an armed officer so.....hard to know. I wonder how many of the injured were hurt yesterday AFTER the unarmed police came on the scene? Because, realistically, they couldn't do much (and I know they tried and were amazingly brave, I would never do that job, totally thankless). But until officers with tasers/guns got there, there wasn't much police could do other than act as human shields. They are not paid enough or treated well enough to be expected to do that.

back then it was very very rare that people went out carrying a sword or machete.

It's still incredibly rare.

If that was my daughter whose hand nearly got cut off I would be apoplectic that she wasn't given an adequate defence. Tasers don't kill so they should be included in the kit of police officers,give them a fighting chance.

Tasers can kill. They are classed as less-lethal not non-lethal weapons. There are very good reasons outlined by other posters as to why it's not a good idea for every officer to have them.

That argument no longer holds water I am afraid.

How do you expect the police to protect the public from these nut jobs I go they aren't armed?

The 2 injured officer injuries sound horrific.... trying to stop this guy from hurting others

I'm confused, they did taser him didn't they? This from the BBC:

The Met said police arrived within 12 minutes of the first call and officers had used a kind of pepper spray and a Taser on the suspect, which did not stop him.

I think more police should have tasers. Their safety and my safety is more important to me than that of a violent criminal. Criminals are already heavily armed.

And this is the crux of it.
police are dammed if they do and dammed if they don’t

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2023/dec/complex-picture-emerges-around-disproportionate-use-taser-some-communities

They're disproportionately used on minorities and the mentally ill.

The modelling of policing in this country is policing by consent. Of course it's up to us

as someone who takes an interest in looking at the background of perpetrators I can bet we are going to find out this man was known to mental health agencies and/or police.

He probably made clear he was a significant risk but yet allowed to roam free with tragic consequences. I think this is a bigger issue. The man in Nottingham who killed the students - i think he had a similar background.

When I see people acting strangely towards or even near me I immediately pull away , I know it’s not PC but I know there are so many unhinged people being released from secure facilities. And they won’t act until after something drastic has happened.

I was nearly attacked by a man (that I knew) with (untreated) schizophrenia in my early 20s - long story but it’s made me wary and hyper aware of the fact some people with mental health issues are in fact a danger to others.

The police said he is not known to them.

Re the tasers, from the footage it seemed as if three officers confronted him first but did not appear to have tasers. They were asking him to drop the sword then as he turned round, they were slightly backing off.

The police said he is not known to them

interesting well we will wait and see and I could definitely be proved wrong, but personally I’ll be surprised if mental health or social care agencies haven’t had significant dealings with him and know what he was like.

Absolutely 💯.

Tasers are treated with hysteria here. In m other countries they are treated like a joke and carried by pensioners.

They only work half the time and even then are not very effective.

The reaction of some people on here is truly pathetic.

I am in Northern Ireland and I honestly find it bizarre that 95% of countries including my own carry actual guns… weapons but not there rest of the UK.

Seeing so many attacks/stabbing etc I think they should carry weapons too. It makes no sense to me why the police force are in constant threat but with very little to hand to defend themselves and the community.

You don't really understand statistics do you?

🙄Its a Taser, not a firearm.

Your 13 year old will be just fine.

I suspect a growing proportion of the population no longer consents to be policed, so what now? Tasers are a happy medium rather than every officer carrying a firearm.

people say they use them too much (like pp I quoted) then a horrific incident like yesterday happens and people say there’s not enough of them.
as I say, dammed if they do, dammed if they don’t.

That bloke should think himself lucky to be tasered. He'd have been shot dead elsewhere.

as someone who takes an interest in looking at the background of perpetrators I can bet we are going to find out this man was known to mental health agencies and/or police.

He probably made clear he was a significant risk but yet allowed to roam free with tragic consequences. I think this is a bigger issue. The man in Nottingham who killed the students - i think he had a similar background.

I thought the same as soon as I heard this on the news yesterday @SharpAzurePanda . And I wonder if adequate resourcing for MH services might prevent some of these events, which seem to be becoming more common. Services are horribly overstretched, acute beds for those needing admission are in very short supply, lots of people needing support and monitoring don't have a lead practitioner and the frequency of community appointments has been much reduced.

You cannot enforce people taking meds tho

MH facilities can diagnose and prescribe the meds. I've seen plenty of men NOT taking the meds....refusing....and suffered the effects from that.

You can't keep everyone 'locked up'

The word you're looking for is "respect". We treat these weapons with the respect they merit.

The "tasers" carried by pensioners are likely to be the little handheld zappers that you press against someone like a philishave, which are a little uncomfortable but won't put off a determined attacker. The ones used by law enforcement fire out barbs which stick into someone, and if they land right, the target can no longer properly operate their own muscles. I wouldn't want to live anywhere that allowed members of the general public to walk around with weapons like that, ready to use on random people whenever they fancied.

I promise not to murder you. Even if I haven't taken my meds.