South West Was The Testing Ground for Jacqui Smith and Tasers

As reported in the Telegraph this Summer

In the first six months of the pilot scheme Tasers were deployed on 252 occasions, 236 of which were in the last three months.

However, they were only fired 31 times - 25 in the last three months.

Officers reported that they helped resolve potentially fatal situations.

A Home Office source said that the officers using Tasers had been fully trained and followed official guidelines.

The forces involved in the trial were Avon and Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, Gwent, Lincolnshire, Merseyside, Metropolitan Police, Northamptonshire, Northumbria, North Wales, and West Yorkshire.

The Association of Chief Police Officers said that during the experiment Tasers would be made available at incidents of 'violence and threats of violence of such severity that they will need force'.

The Tasers fire barbed darts into their victims and deliver powerful electric shocks via a copper wire. They are intended to be a 'less lethal' alternative to regular police weapons.

These are potentially lethal weapons, what next ? giving Traffic Wardens and CPSO's these weapons ? 320 killed by Tasers in the US alone.