The Chairman of Kent Police Federation has criticised The Independent Office for Police Conduct for its unbalanced report published this week on police use of Taser

26 August 2021

Neil Mennie has responded to the Review of IOPC cases involving Tasers report, where the watchdog raised concerns with Taser guidance, training and scrutiny.

But the report has been slated by a uniformed voice in policing, with The National Police Federation of England and Wales dismissed the review as “statistically insignificant”.

It stated: “This report makes recommendations on 101 IOPC investigations into Taser use in a five-year timescale. However, there were almost 100,000 recorded Taser usages in this period, so it is statistically insignificant.”

And police chiefs said the report by the IOPC is “vague, lacks detail, does not have a substantive evidence base.”

“When is a sample a viable sample?” said Neil. “I would suggest not when its 101 uses of Taser over five years and when its then further dissected by the hindsight committee (a phrase vary familiar to our colleagues) I read with interest about examples that could have been dealt with and de-escalated in a different way.

“I haven’t seen these examples but it’s very easy to judge events from a distance and become something akin to a film critic based on no operational experience whatsoever.

“There continues to be a long running hullaballoo about Taser and references to tasering ‘children’ and people with ‘mental health issues’ which could leave the impression that officers look eagerly for opportunities to reach for the Taser in such circumstances.

“Of course, that is utter rubbish and misses the fact that this is one option amongst a number and use of force is a last resort. It misses the point that sometimes incidents happen in seconds and require fast time decisions.

“Often officers will also try and negotiate and defuse incidents wherever they can, sometimes placing themselves in situations where they would have been justified in using options such as Taser earlier. If sadly a 6’2 16 year old armed with a knife (child) or an individual in a mental health crisis and being violent is non-compliant then Taser can actually be a very safe and justified way of bringing the situation under control.

“This is better on many occasions than clobbering them with an iron bar (ASP) or spraying them with incapacitant spray which either may not work or leave worse injuries.”

Neil added: “The majority of the public and those that I speak too seem fully supportive of officers carrying Taser and trust us to use it appropriately.

“I keep saying that use of the Taser is about safety and protection and it gets very tiring listening to the ‘you could have done this brigade’. The overwhelming majority of officers are well trained and professional in using both Taser and the rest of their safety equipment.

“Accountability and scrutiny are to be expected but I do sometimes think the drive to find ‘wrong doing’ is completely disproportionate whereas when our colleague’s use Taser it’s hard to find an incident where it wasn’t proportionate.”

Neil concluded: “The Chief Constable in Kent was quick to fund (amidst criticism) the early rollout of Taser and continues to ensure those who want it and are capable of passing the course can carry it. The only thing that hasn’t changed a few years on is the continued criticism from some quarters.

“I am fairly confident that I could cut and paste this article and wheel it out again in the near future and that’s despite the benefits of Taser massively out-weighing the risk that all officers have to consider.

“It’s a wonder anyone is prepared to leave the station - but of course they always will.”