SA police to carry Tasers and able to use them on unarmed offenders
SA Police have been given permission to carry Tasers - and use them on unarmed offenders.
SA Police have been given permission to carry Tasers - and use them on unarmed offenders.
Officers will wear the “electronic control devices” on their belts in a move Deputy Commissioner Grant Stevens says is to ensure their safety.
Previously, police were only allowed to have a Taser in the boot of their patrol car and could remove it if they were confronted with an armed offender.
“We are now the last police jurisdiction to move towards personal carriage of ECDs – and our staged rollout out has been a very deliberate approach,” Mr Stevens said.
“The decision to now allow personal carriage of ECDs has certainly been influenced by the operational safety needs of our officers.
“We need to provide police with the safest possible options to resolve incidents of extreme risk.”
STAR Group officers have been using Tasers for about a decade and they were given to general duty officers in 2009 under strict conditions.
“Since introduction of ECDs into the operational field, there have been no reported incidents of misuse,” Mr Stevens said.
He said Tasers are often the best option during incidents where officers or community members were at risk of injury.
“However, it needs to be understood that while an ECD is often a sound tactical option, in some circumstances a firearm may still need to be used,” he said.
Under the new policy, one Taser will be issued and carried by a member of a patrol crew on each shift, including solo patrols.
An officer can only carry and use an electronic control device when they:
HAVE completed the appropriate training program and are currently certified,
ARE qualified in firearms training, and;
ARE performing uniformed operational duties.
The devices are fitted with infra-red video cameras which start recording when the Taser is used.
Each time a Taser is fired, police will review the matter to ensure it was used appropriately.
There are more than 2600 officers trained to use Tasers.
In NSW, the use of Tasers by police came into question when Brazilian student Roberto Laudisio Curti, 21, died after tasered up to 14 times in March last year.