How Keir Starmer and other Left-wing lawyers have fought police over Taser use
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Tuesday’s harrowing sword attack in north-east London has brought the issue of police use of Tasers back under the spotlight.
Footage has shown the yellow-hooded suspect being apprehended having been hit with multiple Tasers. However, on Wednesday questions were raised as to whether the two officers who were injured, one of whom nearly losing her hand, had been issued with the devices.
The implication is that they might have escaped the mutilating horror of that Samurai sword if they had been. Tasers have always been controversial.
For the best part of two decades their use by police has been the target of criticisms and attacks by Left-leaning campaign groups and lawyers. One such individual is Sir Keir Starmer.
In 2007, as a leading barrister, he penned a weighty legal opinion raising concerns over the human rights implications of rolling out Tasers in an advice document to the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
He demanded more evidence of a “capability gap” that would justify the use of “potentially lethal equipment”. Effectively, the advice recommended holding off on the rollout.
The future Labour leader consulted, among others, the prominent liberal-Left pressure groups American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International.
The latter has been vociferous in its criticism of Taser use in the UK.
The only partial use of the devices among police in Britain – about 22 per cent of Met officers carry them – is, in part, a result of such advocacy.
Weary of criticism, chief constables prohibit their use among certain units. In the Met, for example, officers based in town centre and neighbourhood units are not allowed to carry them.
One retired officer said: “A lot of it is about optics. Senior officers think that it won’t be a good look for a neighbourhood officer out in the community being armed with a Taser.
“But the reality is you never know what you might face from one day to the next, so it is certainly better to have one and not need it than the other way round.”
However, just as significant a factor in the relatively low use of Tasers could well be a nervousness by individual officers.
Rick Prior, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said many officers were reluctant to carry Tasers because of the risk of being subjected to lengthy scrutiny by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) if things went wrong.
Between 2015 and 2020 the IOPC conducted more than 100 investigations into the use of Taser in England and Wales.
In 2023 Pc Jonathan Broadhead was dragged before a disciplinary panel for using his Taser on a 10-year-old girl who was threatening her mother with garden shears.
He was accused of using force “which was not necessary, reasonable and proportionate” against her.
This was despite the child holding a bladed instrument, and the fact that she had already attacked her mother with a hammer.
Pc Broadhead was eventually cleared – yet the Met still offered an apology to the family.
Pc Imran Mahmood found himself in even more serious trouble after deploying his Taser in 2020.
The officer was charged and tried with grievous bodily harm when the suspect he had been chasing fell and broke his back, leaving him paralysed, after being hit with the Taser.
Pc Mahmood was also cleared, a jury finding him not guilty after 10 hours of deliberation.
However, ordeals such as this are likely to play a role in officers’ decisions.
Just drawing Taser means paperwork
Even drawing the device triggers an onerous paperwork exercise because it counts as “use” even if it is not fired, which is the case in 90 per cent of incidents involving Tasers in London.
There are other practical reasons why Tasers are not more widely used.
The minimum mandatory training is 18 hours, but some forces extend that. The Met’s initial course is four days long with regular refreshers.
It includes practical scenarios that focus not only on firing the device but also on the related law, communication and de-escalation skills.
Officers must also receive refresher training every year including practical assessment and knowledge tests. They must also undergo eyesight and fitness assessments.
Roughly a quarter of applicants fail the course, and training also places a heavy burden on budgets.
Barbs £12 each
One Met source said: “It is not the expense of buying the Tasers themselves that is the problem but the cost of providing the training. The barbs that you fire on the training exercises are £12 each, so you can imagine the cost soon racks up.”
The number of officers who are allowed to undergo Taser training is a matter for individual chief constables and is based on their Strategic Threat and Risk Assessment.
Mr Prior said: “In the wake of the awful events in Hainault and the shocking injuries suffered by two Met officers we will consider our position on whether Tasers should be issued to every officer as part of their Personal Protective Equipment.
“We are clear that every officer who wants to carry a Taser should be supplied with one, but perhaps it is time to consider issuing them to all operational police officers.”
