Police chiefs dismiss call for tasers to combat terror threat

Scottish police chiefs have ruled out making tasers widely available among frontline officers to counter the heightened terror threat.

The Police Federation in England and Wales last month voted for all operational police officers to be offered the option of carrying a taser and receiving training in their use.

It followed elevation of the threat level to police officers across the UK amid fears that they may be the target of a ‘lone wolf’ terrorist attack.

The Scottish Police Federation, which has previously called for tasers to be made available in every police vehicle, were not consulted on the policy change by their counterparts south of the border.

Police Scotland officers and staff have been briefed about their own personal safety while the force has been involved in developing contingency plans looking at the response should a Paris-style attack happen on home soil. 

However, deputy chief constable Iain Livingstone said offering stun guns to uniformed officers – as urged by the Federation south of the border – is not on the table.   

“We would never wholly discount any measure because we need to [respond] as the nature of the threat increased or changed,” he told Holyrood.

“But at this time we have absolutely no plans to go down that line. We don’t think it’s proportionate or needed [and] we don’t think that it would be welcomed in our own communities.

“But quite clearly we need to make sure that our officers have the appropriate level of personal protective equipment and we think they’ve got that at the moment.”

Livingstone, who will return to parliament next week to deliver further evidence on armed policing, insisted recent attacks across Europe “underlines the absolute critical need to have… a small number of dedicated firearms officers”.

Tasers are only issued to authorised firearms officers in Scotland at present. As of last week, there were 538 authorised firearms officers within Police Scotland, 268 of whom were full-time armed response vehicle (ARV) officers.

A previous decision by the chief constable of Police Scotland to implement a national standing authority for ARV crews allowed such officers to be overtly armed with a sidearm and a taser.

A working group set up to review how sidearms and tasers are carried – whether on show or concealed – is set to report its findings to the Scottish Police Authority later this month.

In 2010, Strathclyde Police – then headed up by the current Police Scotland chief constable Sir Stephen House – ran a pilot project in which a small number of beat officers in Glasgow city centre and Rutherglen were issued with the stun guns.

The pilot, which the legacy force said followed a high level of assaults on officers in the two sub-divisions, attracted controversy with human rights group Amnesty International and Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, Tam Baillie, among those who called for it to be halted.

Scottish Police Federation chairman Brian Docherty has reiterated their support for tasers to be available in every police vehicle, though suggested its use in the event of a terrorist attack would be limited.

“If you’re going to look for what taser can probably be used for more, [it] is more for officer safety and public safety,” he told Holyrood.

“To that end, at least if we have one in every vehicle we’ve got that capability of a faster response in order to do that. But it does bring it more and more to people’s attention because of the heightened terrorist threat as well yes.”