Sergeant supports Federation’s Taser campaign

24 January 2022

West Midlands Police Sergeant Rob Horton has backed Police Federation calls for a review of Force Taser policy after being denied a place on one-day refresher course.

Rob was among the first West Midlands Police officers to carry Taser after its introduction in the late 2000s and used it effectively for 11 years.

Based at Coventry Central Response since joining the Force in 2006, Rob was promoted to sergeant in 2019.

He managed to get on a conversion course authorising him to carry the new X2 model but his ticket ran out in December when he was unable to complete a refresher.

He explained: “I was on the first ever training course with West Midlands Police for Taser at Ryton in 2008 and I started carrying it in 2009.

“Since 2009 I carried it continuously up until a few months ago. When we changed from the X26 to the X2 model a lot of sergeants weren’t able to get it, but through persistence I spoke to the administrators in the training department and was told there had been a change and that the senior leadership team had now said sergeants still authorised for the old Taser could train for the new one.

“So I had a conversion course to the X2 around two years ago and until a few months ago I have been carrying the current Taser.

“I had done my first one-day refresher course for the X2 and had my next yearly re-qual booked in for a Friday in mid-December but when I called up on the Monday I was told sergeants were no longer being trained and that recently some had turned up for the course and had been sent home.

“If I hadn't called them to ask a question I would have turned up for my Taser course after rescheduling my shifts and a long drive to be then sent home.

“I then found out my course hadn’t been cancelled and I got an email telling me I had failed to attend. My slot wasn’t filled so there was a vacant space that I could have filled, so their argument that they need to train more PCs just doesn’t really make any sense.”

Rob said he had always found his use of Taser to be very effective in his frontline role and in 2014 he was commended by his chief inspector for using it to support his colleagues and deal with an angry crowd during a demonstration at Warwick University.

He said he found it was a very efficient way of controlling and de-escalating potentially violent situations and had deployed it around 20 times in the 11 years he carried it.

Like fellow sergeants on the Force, Rob said it was difficult to overstate Taser’s effectiveness as a deterrent.

He said: “Just having on my vest makes a massive difference and certainly makes people think twice.

“But I am now in the position where I will revert back to my baton and spray. I’ve never used my baton and I’ve used parva spray once, which unfortunately took about a minute to start working. In effect, I now am in the position where I am being forced to use a higher level of force on a subject, potentially resulting in me causing serious injury to them, while at the same time putting myself and my colleagues in greater danger.

“Taser gives you the tactical option to maintain distance between yourself and the subject and is a much better way to deal with a violent or agitated people than engaging them at closer quarters with a baton or spray.

“I am a proactive sergeant, I carried Taser and I used it with confidence whenever necessary and it just seems bizarre that I now find myself in potentially dangerous situations but am not allowed to carry it because I am a sergeant.”

West Midlands Police Federation is calling on the Force to rethink its policy and wants every officer to be authorised to carry a Taser if they wish to do so.

Branch chair Rich Cooke said: “As a Federation we have serious concerns about the current approach.

“The current level of risk faced by our frontline officers of all ranks is there for all to see. We want all our frontline colleagues of any rank to be afforded the protection Taser is proven to provide. We know that in 9 out of 10 cases where Taser is present there is no violence – so we could be preventing many of these assaults or worse.

“Put simply, Taser could save an officer’s life. Sergeants are often the only officers free to support colleagues at back up shouts, they are mostly single crewed in some of the most violent streets of the UK.

“This is the least they deserve, but to prevent sergeants who are already trained and have years of experience using the tactic from undertaking a simple one-day refresher course, on grounds of cost, is nonsensical to me.”