Police criticised for tasering mental patient

Officers have been branded 'hasty' after an internal probe which concluded other actions, including negotiation, should have been pursued further.

The case has come to light after it was selected at random by a safer neighbourhood panel in a review of body worn cameras used when Tasers had been fired.

Their report said: "Officers had been called to St. George’s Mental Health Hospital to deal with two patients who were displaying violence with one patient threatening to use rocks to harm staff and patients. One officer switched on his BWC (body worn camera).

"The accompanying officer discharged his TASER after efforts to calm the suspect failed. Handcuffs were then used to restrain the offender and the TASER barbs were removed."

However the panel found several lessons could be learnt from case in order to improve Taser use in future incidents.

The report said: "The patients were in a safe enclosed area, therefore other actions could have been used e.g. negotiations. The officers knew that they were dealing with a patient with mental health issues, so greater sensitivity could have been employed in the interaction with the patients and more effort made to de-escalate the situation."

The incident was the second of three cases looked at by the panel who concluded: "The Panel was reassured by the level of the review post-TASER deployment undertaken by the officers’ superiors, particularly with regards to Case 2 where the use of the TASER rather than continuing mediation / negotiation was considered hasty."

Staffordshire Police said they could not provide further details on the case due to the risk of identifying the people involved.

However a spokeswoman added: "Tasers are an important tactical option for our police officers to consider in their course of duties, particularly in certain situations where other tactics have been considered or failed.

"All officers who use Tasers have to go through a comprehensive training process. This includes training officers to factor in the potential vulnerability of the person and factors such as age and stature, when assessing each situation.

"In these instances Taser was deployed and the circumstances surrounding use, investigated by our Ethics, Transparency and Audit Panel (ETAP), who we provide full disclosure to.

"They work with Safer Neighbourhood Panels who carry out reviews. These reviews have a very positive impact and allow us to monitor quality and improve where necessary.

"In these scenarios our Professional Standard Unit also looked into the matter and no misconduct issues were identified."