Chief defends use of Taser in policing after Dalian Atkinson verdict
The UK policing lead on Taser has "confidence" in the device and "robust" officer training but has acknowledged there is more to do to understand its "disproportionate" use against black people.
The latest Home Office data shows black people are eight times more likely to have a Taser used against them by police than a white person, after analysis of all 43 forces in England and Wales.
Use of Taser in the black community has been brought into sharp focus after a Birmingham Crown Court jury on Wednesday convicted 43-year-old West Mercia police constable Benjamin Monk of the manslaughter of former Aston Villa footballer Dalian Atkinson in Telford.
A six-week trial was told Monk, 43, fired a Taser three times – including a single 33-second discharge – and left two bootlace prints on Atkinson's forehead after kicking him near his father's home in Meadow Close, Trench, in August 2016.
On Thursday, jurors were discharged from reaching a verdict on Monk's partner Mary Ellen Bettley-Smith, who was accused of assaulting Dalian Atkinson with a baton after he was tasered to the ground. The Crown Prosecution Service was given seven days to decide whether to seek a re-trial.
The National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) lead for less lethal weapons, Lucy D'Orsi, has said it was "absolutely right" that those frontline officers who deploy with Taser have it as part of their toolkit.
In January 2021, the NPCC and College of Policing launched the 12-month Independent Review into Disproportionate Effects of Use of Taser, chaired by Junior Smart.
The latest data, for the year ending March 2020, showed a 37 per cent increase on the previous 12 months – to 32,100, in part explained by much greater take-up by forces.
Ms D'Orsi said Taser had gone "through a very rigorous assessment process" by scientists and medical experts before being authorised for UK use.
She added: "Nothing is ever completely risk-free but I am satisfied, in terms of the process that we go through for authorising Taser, that it's pretty robust.
"In fact, I would say it is probably one of the most robust in the world."
The charity Inquest said it is aware of at least 12 cases in England and Wales where a person has died following police contact in which a Taser was used.
Asked how risks around use of Taser are managed, Ms D'Orsi said not all frontline officers are equipped with the device, but those who are go through a "rigorous selection process" which not all officers pass.
She added that officers faced with a "threat of violence or extreme violence" are equipped with the training to decide with confidence "how and when they need to use Taser".
Ms D'Orsi said: "We find, in 85 per cent-plus of incidents where Taser is present, its mere presence tends to cause the violence to be significantly reduced."
She added: "I think it is absolutely right UK policing has Taser as an option available.
"I am very confident in the training that is given to officers, and I am also very confident in the scientific evaluation... and the medical evaluation of Taser."
But she stressed that the use of the device is "constantly under review".
"I genuinely think Taser is a very divisive device," she said.
"It really polarises public opinion and I am very conscious of that.
"But... I am confident in the use of Taser by policing in the UK and I think it has a place as a distance device to protect the public."
She added: "No death, in my view, is ever acceptable, it's something we are all working tirelessly to make sure that doesn't happen – and particularly doesn't happen with the use of Taser.
"Many communities feel there is a disproportionality in terms of the way Taser is used.
"We have currently just launched an independent review of disproportionality and Taser use.
"That group has commissioned some academic work which will start to look at some of the drivers which are there which perhaps lead to disproportionate use of Taser so we can understand that better and have conversations with those communities who feel the most affected."
