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After coming across this article on Facebook i was divided on the concept on police officers being issued with tazer weapons, routinely including all Specials and Regulars.
Should they all be armed? Should just one in 2 of them be armed in foot patrols subject to budgets? Should it be allocated on a case by case or an area basis?
Let's not forget the sad misuse of it in an incident against their own race relations advisor...
Case study: Thames Valley - horrific woodland attack
PC Lucie Chhetri and PC John Donovan were subjected to a horrifc attack in a remote rural spot in West Berkshire.
Their attacker - an intoxicated man accompanied by a young child - had driven into a ditch. The officers tried to help, but in a split second he turned into a “complete maniac”. PC Chhetri had her head smashed against a police car and her colleague was also punched repeatedly.
She said: “There were no signs, no body language clues – he went from zero to 100 in the blink of an eye. We sprayed him with Captor but it had no effect, he was like a raging bull.”
Back-up was 20 minutes away and the radio controller had poor local knowledge. Both officers feared for their lives. Later an ambulance took 40 minutes to arrive as it was diverted to another job. The suspect left with the injured offcers following a safe distance behind.
He was eventually arrested by officers from neighbouring Hampshire and appeared in court a year later. He denied the assaults but body worn video footage revealed the truth and he was jailed for two years.
PC Chhetri believes they got a good result in court but feels that if either officer had been carrying a Taser, they may have been able to subdue the offender without being assaulted.
PC O’Donovan (since promoted to sergeant), described the incident as like “something out of a horror movie”. He had to walk into hospital in front of members of the public in a muddied police uniform with injuries on display. The encounter has left him with recurring nightmares which he will be dealing with for some time.
He recalls: “The man was on the rampage – intent on causing serious harm. He was a lot stronger than me. He literally held me down and rained blows of immense force towards my head. He seemed to take great pleasure in inflicting this pain and I really didn’t think he was going to stop."
PC O'Donovan said his wife was devastated: “She talked about what would have happened if things had been worse and I had not come home to her and our baby. She wants me to leave policing as she feels that it is not safe.”
Police assaults
Assaults on police officers are sadly commonplace. Our latest welfare survey data suggests there were more than two million unarmed physical assaults on officers over 12 months, and a further 302,842 assaults using a deadly weapon during the same period. These figures estimate that an assault on a police officer happens every four minutes.
To assault a police officer, prison officer, or other emergency service worker is to attack society itself and should never be accepted as ‘part of the job’. Together with our partners, the British Transport Police Federation and Prison Officers’ Association, and supporters, we are campaigning for:
Should they all be armed? Should just one in 2 of them be armed in foot patrols subject to budgets? Should it be allocated on a case by case or an area basis?
Let's not forget the sad misuse of it in an incident against their own race relations advisor...
Case study: Thames Valley - horrific woodland attack
PC Lucie Chhetri and PC John Donovan were subjected to a horrifc attack in a remote rural spot in West Berkshire.
Their attacker - an intoxicated man accompanied by a young child - had driven into a ditch. The officers tried to help, but in a split second he turned into a “complete maniac”. PC Chhetri had her head smashed against a police car and her colleague was also punched repeatedly.
She said: “There were no signs, no body language clues – he went from zero to 100 in the blink of an eye. We sprayed him with Captor but it had no effect, he was like a raging bull.”
Back-up was 20 minutes away and the radio controller had poor local knowledge. Both officers feared for their lives. Later an ambulance took 40 minutes to arrive as it was diverted to another job. The suspect left with the injured offcers following a safe distance behind.
He was eventually arrested by officers from neighbouring Hampshire and appeared in court a year later. He denied the assaults but body worn video footage revealed the truth and he was jailed for two years.
PC Chhetri believes they got a good result in court but feels that if either officer had been carrying a Taser, they may have been able to subdue the offender without being assaulted.
PC O’Donovan (since promoted to sergeant), described the incident as like “something out of a horror movie”. He had to walk into hospital in front of members of the public in a muddied police uniform with injuries on display. The encounter has left him with recurring nightmares which he will be dealing with for some time.
He recalls: “The man was on the rampage – intent on causing serious harm. He was a lot stronger than me. He literally held me down and rained blows of immense force towards my head. He seemed to take great pleasure in inflicting this pain and I really didn’t think he was going to stop."
PC O'Donovan said his wife was devastated: “She talked about what would have happened if things had been worse and I had not come home to her and our baby. She wants me to leave policing as she feels that it is not safe.”
Police assaults
Assaults on police officers are sadly commonplace. Our latest welfare survey data suggests there were more than two million unarmed physical assaults on officers over 12 months, and a further 302,842 assaults using a deadly weapon during the same period. These figures estimate that an assault on a police officer happens every four minutes.
To assault a police officer, prison officer, or other emergency service worker is to attack society itself and should never be accepted as ‘part of the job’. Together with our partners, the British Transport Police Federation and Prison Officers’ Association, and supporters, we are campaigning for:
- a change in legislation
- tougher sentences
- better training and access to equipment
- more accurate data on police assaults
- improved welfare support
- more consistent reporting of assaults on emergency services (as these are vastly under reported)
- training and access to body-worn video, Taser and spit and bite guards
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