Amnesty fears threshold for using stun gun will be lowered

Published on Thursday 25 February 2010 21:45

THE international human rights agency Amnesty International yesterday expressed concerns at Strathclyde's Taser pilot, warning that it could see a drop in the "threshold" at which the weapon would be used.

John Watson, programme director for Amnesty International in Scotland, said that by spreading availability away from trained firearm units, it changed the parameters of use.

He said: "Firearms officers will be retained and, for events above a certain threshold of threat, will be deployed. The 30 people under the pilot will be ordinary officers out on the beat, and they will be called to situations that do not warrant a firearms officer, so it's a lowering of the threshold of when they will be used."

The body has already voiced serious concerns about the move, stating that while it did not oppose the use of Tasers, the training offered was insufficient.

Oliver Sprague, Amnesty International's arms campaign director, said the weapons should be kept in the hands of highly trained firearms officers, whose instinct is "never to shoot".

He added that guidelines on Taser use were flawed and had been criticised internationally for their lack of clarity: "There's an ambiguity in the threshold guidance. It essentially says that a Taser can be used against threats 'of such severity that the officer will have to use force', but it doesn't define the level and it's open to quite a lot of interpretation."

Amnesty feared that rather being treated as a weapon just below a gun, its use would become much more common. At first it might be used to deal with knife crime, but could in time be deployed to deal with simple rowdiness.