Number of Taser officers set to triple in the West Midlands

The move will more than triple the number of officers in the region armed with the electric guns.

Tasers provide a shock and disable a suspect, who can then be apprehended before fully recovering within minutes.

It comes amid concern by police representatives about the number of violent attacks officers are facing on a daily basis.

The murder rate in the West Midlands reached a 10-year high this summer, while knife crime has continued to rise across the region.

West Midlands Police Assistant Chief Constable Chris Johnson said: “An additional 998 officers across the force are to be equipped with Tasers.

"This will take the total number of police officers equipped with Taser to 1,441 across response units, operations and certain neighbourhood teams.”

He said training for these additional officers started in October and that the extra officers would soon be deployed on the streets of the West Midlands.

The move was today welcomed by West Midlands Police Federation.

Its chairman Sergeant Richard Cooke has called for all frontline officers to have access to Tasers as a matter of routine.

He said: “We have around 3,000 to 3,500 frontline officers.

"The Taser is a very effective tactic because it works at bringing violent suspects under control in four out of five cases were it is merely drawn and pointed with no need to fire.

“It is linked to a body camera so officers are accountable to the public and they can have full trust it is only used where public safety or the safety of the officer is genuinely threatened.”

The news comes after two officers were attacked by members of the public in two separate incidents in 24 hours in the Black Country last week.

Police were attacked by a drunk woman who fell asleep in a taxi in Halesowen at 3.20am on Friday, while on Thursday another officer was punched in the face in Brierley Hill and across the border in Coventry a custody sergeant had a prisoner spit in her face.

Sergeant Cooke added: "With the violent crime epidemic we are seeing, there have been 47 murders this year already.

"A further two murders this week both in the street show just what we are up against with knives and machetes common place in some areas."