Increased Taser usage questions

[Ch00]

All Police officers should be armed with tazers. How can we protect the public if we cant have the tools to protect ourselfs? Just because I have a asp and CS already doesnt make me what to "fire at will" as soon as i get the chance.

I will be no help to anyone if I am dead!

Ch00

Originally Posted by Flamin_Squirrel

The biggest thing that'll deter a criminal is the risk of being caught, NOT the punishment they're likely to receive. All we need is a smarter police force, not a more powerful one. That's what's needed to reduce crime - certainly something that a police state and hellish jails wouldn't supply us with.

Don't agree with you there mate-deal with scumbags on a daily basis who don't care if there caught breaking the law because they know that the punishment will not fit the crime-whats your experience on this?, how many criminals have you spoken to that have said that going to jail has made them think twice about re-offending due to the punishment?-not one has said to me that going to prison under the current system has put them off offending as they know its gonna be a soft sentence.As for the taser,until you are put in the situation where another humanbeings life is at risk(there own or others due to a persons actions )and the choice is to either shoot them where the chances are that there will be a fatality or tazer them in a controlled situation, as a cop I know what i'd rather pick.If a cop decides he has to shoot a person, in this country every single shot must be justified.I've been there when the tazer has been used on a guy who was repeatedly stabbing himself,threatening to kill anyone who came near him,was putting his head through windows , attempting to cut his wrists and throat,then he made a lunge for the cops that were trying to help him-without the tazer he would have been shot dead-ended up with a couple of puncture wounds on his body and a sore head, but he was able to breath when he came round.
husky

More tazers and less Guardian readers.

Would you rather the Police had more 9mm or tazers?

All other Police forces carry guns as standard so we are lucky the UK don't.

Give teachers tazers too.

Originally Posted by Ch00

All Police officers should be armed with tazers. How can we protect the public if we cant have the tools to protect ourselfs? Just because I have a asp and CS already doesnt make me what to "fire at will" as soon as i get the chance.

I will be no help to anyone if I am dead!

Ch00

See I'm quite happy to agree with that, you're in those situations and you can tell if they're needed or not. All I wanted to clarify are the rules/guidelines for their usage. The police are the only public servants who are tacitly allowed to inflict violence on the public in the course of their duties and I simply believe that needs to be monitored - who polices the police etc.

The police are not the military, the police are mandated to enforce the rule of law by the people. The people are not some hostile populace to be quelled and subdued, we actually give the police their powers. I just want to clarify the monitoring of those powers, as if abused, by even a tiny number, I believe the mandate of the people will erode and the police will find their job much harder and more dangerous, as it could become more of a military role with a populace hostile to the policing powers.

Oh, and on the Menezes derail - it wasn't just five bullets. Eleven shots were fired, seven to his head, one to his shoulder and three missed. Hollow point bullets were used (incidently, these have been banned in warfare since the Hague Convention of 1899). These shots were fired over a thirty second period, roughly one shot every three seconds. Obviously not a "spray and pray" from an automatic but individual considered shots.

Originally Posted by MiniMatt

Oh, and on the Menezes derail - it wasn't just five bullets. Eleven shots were fired, seven to his head, one to his shoulder and three missed. Hollow point bullets were used (incidently, these have been banned in warfare since the Hague Convention of 1899). These shots were fired over a thirty second period, roughly one shot every three seconds. Obviously not a "spray and pray" from an automatic but individual considered shots.

11 and only 7 hit from close range, see amatures!!

They would have been single shot yes if they were from a 9mm pistol, but if the police had the MP5 with folding stock (easy to hide under a suit jacket) then chances are they would have been on burst.

And Hollow points are still used by the Special forces and other government and some police type agencys around the world ( more destructive), but they dont exactly sign up to the rules of warfare do they??

Neio79..You have on more than one occasion attempted to bring your warped sense of humour to this thread.I personally find it offensive. I know you belong to an institutionalised organisation but I can think of others where people with a mentality like yours would be best placed.

For the record I am certainly no namby, pamby PC minded individual.

Originally Posted by Pedrosa

Neio79..You have on more than one occasion attempted to bring your warped sense of humour to this thread.I personally find it offensive. I know you belong to an institutionalised organisation but I can think of others where people with a mentality like yours would be best placed.

For the record I am certainly no namby, pamby PC minded individual.

Like where??

well i though it was funny, but hey you dont so im sorry to have offended you. However if you find my humour offending so what, i dont care thats your problem not mine!!

Now where have i left that big bag of bothered??

TBH I was getting bored with the munitions expertise being shared to all us civvies by a Royal Signal(arent your boys more likely to be caught with a computer mouse in their hands than a gun?.)........where one always looks first when there is some serious fighting to be done!

But dont mind me.

Originally Posted by Pedrosa

TBH I was getting bored with the munitions expertise being shared to all us civvies by a Royal Signal(arent your boys more likely to be caught with a computer mouse in their hands than a gun?.)........where one always looks first when there is some serious fighting to be done!

But dont mind me.

LOL, well i assume you have some mil experiance yourself then? But we are all soldiers first, apparantly!

Actually the signals are the only other Cap badge to be associated with the SAS properly, we have our own SF regiment attached to them, of which one of the squadrons has an Operators and a Techs attached to each of the Sabre Squadrons a lot of the time who go out on ops with them. So there are some signalers who have got higher skills and more gun time than a lot of the Army.Skilled in the art of comms and killing people.

I am actually hoping to get posted to said regiment next actually.

But on a whole yes we are more likley to be dealing with IT and comms as that is out role.

Hasent stopped me experiancing a lot of non comms things and situations.

i like this thread, i agree with you neio79 your humour is well justified, any scumbag out there that resists arrest deserves to be tasered, i may have missed a reply to this but in the 1st post in this thread a question was asked if the armoury would be able to tell if the taser had been used. unless i am wrong the taser has a paper/plastic cover in front of the barbs that fire from it. and once fired this is broken so needs to be replaced etc.
someone correct me if i am wrong.