Taser: has someone got to be seriously injured before Force sees sense?

11 January 2022

A West Midlands Police sergeant has warned colleagues could face serious injury without the protection of Taser after the Force announced it was no longer funding one-day refresher training courses for them.

Sergeant Hannah Graham, who has been based at Stechford since her promotion four years ago, is among the sergeants affected by the decision which has been branded nonsensical by the Police Federation.

Hannah, who was a response PC across Birmingham for 14 years before becoming a sergeant, said she found it difficult to understand the Force’s stance.

She said: “I really can’t get my head around it. It’s as if they have no idea what is going on. But what is it going to take before they realise? Has someone got to get really badly hurt before they see sense?”

Hannah was fully trained and equipped with Taser for eight years but was unable to convert to the new model as a result of the funding decision and is no longer authorised to carry it because her ticket has now expired.

She said: “After having it for eight years, I really miss it and there have been times when I have felt vulnerable. I am quite slightly built and, while not suggesting I can’t handle myself, I always felt it was there as added security.

“I am a proactive sergeant, I like to get out there and I am nearly always single-crewed and sometimes I really wish I still had the Taser.”

Hannah said Taser was more often than not used as a deterrent to defuse tense and potentially violent situations rather than actually deployed.

She explained: “Sometimes you just need to put your hands on it and it defuses the situation, sometimes you have to draw it but it is very much a deterrent, it calms people down because basically they don’t want to be Tasered.

“I just can’t get my head around the decision not to make it available for all frontline officers. There is an argument for not giving it to office-based sergeants but the ideal scenario would be to make it available to every serving officer who requests it.”

Hannah said levels of violence on the streets have risen noticeably in recent years and made the need for proper PPE such as Taser essential for frontline officers.

She added: “It something I am very passionate about and I find it so frustrating that the Force is taking this attitude towards it. It feels as if it is really unaware of what’s going on out on the streets.”

West Midlands Police Federation chair Rich Cooke, who wants to see all officers trained and equipped with Taser if they want to be, says the Force’s decision comes at a time when the recent assessment by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services found the West Midlands had the highest rate of firearms offences (24.5 per 100,000 population) and knife crime offences (1.55 per 1,000 population).

He 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.”