Home Office announces transparency measures for use of tasers

Home Secretary Amber Rudd has announced new policies which will require police forces to collect and publish detailed data on all their use of force, including Taser usage, from April.

The new measures adopt recommendations from the David Shaw review into police use of force and will mean police must record the location and outcome of all conducted energy devices (CED) usage, along with the ethnicity and age of those involved, with the first set of data being published locally by forces this summer.

The new rules being introduced are aimed at improving safeguards and transparency required for the introduction of the new Taser X2 device.

According to a statement by the Home Office, all police use of force, including physical restraint, will be captured in the new statistical publications – to be collected from April 1 and published by forces from July onwards.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said: “We ask the police to put themselves in harm’s way to defend us and the use of force is a vital part of their powers.

“But when the police take the difficult decision to deploy force it is also vital that the people they serve can scrutinise it.

“These new rules will introduce unprecedented transparency to this important subject and reinforce the proud British model of policing by consent.”