More than £350,000 being spent on replacing police Tasers over next five years

Staffordshire Police currently has 252 Tasers – electroshock weapons that disrupt voluntary control of muscles.

But 160 are the X26 model, which are out of warranty and at the end of their lives.

The area’s Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Matthew Ellis has now given the go ahead for the X26s to be upgraded to the X2 model, which is already used by other forces and Staffordshire’s authorised firearms officers.

As well as the £159,000 spend on the new Tasers, accessories and cartridges during 2020/21 there will be an additional cost of £50,000 per year for the following four years to cover maintenance, batteries and annual cartridge requirement.

Staffordshire Police, Fire and Crime Panel considered the decision at its latest meeting. Panel member Simon Gaskin said: “I found (when) we look at the information given that they are a tremendous price. Do we have any quotes for that and do different people do the Tasers or is it just one company that provides them throughout the country?”

Mr Ellis responded: “It’s done for policing across the country. Broadly speaking, while there are different models, the new one we have just purchased on behalf of the police allows two shots rather than one shot so it’s being used most often.

“I’m afraid it’s very limited – it’s a closed market and a single supplier. Whilst there are other ones in different countries the only one that is approved here is one.

“I think all of us would probably shrug our shoulders to the fact it is just one organisation supplying absolutely every police force in the country and nobody being able to go anywhere else.”

Upskill

The decision notice, presented to the panel meeting, stated: “Before some forces began offering Taser to all officers Staffordshire Police had the highest proportion of Taser-trained officers in the country.

“The force has been reviewing its use of Taser as part of its Strategic Threat and Risk Assessment for Armed Policing. Whilst this has been occurring there has been a national review into officer safety led by NPCC (National Police Chiefs’ Council) and a heightened media interest in forces’ issue of Taser.

“Currently all (90) AFOs (authorised firearms officers) in Staffordshire Police carry Taser as a less lethal option. In addition to meet the threat there should be another 350 specially trained officers (STOs) predominantly in Response, Operations and Neighbourhood.

“All are subject to an initial training course and an annual one-day refresher. All AFOs and Ops officers are trained on the X2 Taser; all other STOs are on the X26 – this is out of manufacture. The X2 is the preferred model for all as it provides an officer with two ‘shots’.

“The recommendation is to upskill all our trained Taser officers in the X2 device, which requires the purchase of the new devices and associated kit combined with an upskill training course for each officer within 2020-21.”

The X2’s ‘two shot’ system gets rid of the need for a reload if the first firing fails, which increases officer safety if single-crewed and relieves the pressure of reloading in violent or heightened situations, the note added. It will allow the current policy to be reviewed that requires two Taser officers to be deployed to planned incidents to provide an immediate back-up in case the first firing fails.

Training staff in X2 usage will also bring Staffordshire Police in line with other colleagues in the region and the shared training facility at Cosford, as it is now the only remaining force carrying out X26 courses. As the X26 is no longer being produced there will be a risk in the future of being unable to obtain new batteries, ammunition and replacement parts and devices.