Tasers and Serious Injuries
Date of request: 2 June 2020
Reference: 538/20
Request
- How many of your officers are currently carrying a Taser, and how many of these officers are firearms officers?
- How many times has the deployment of a Taser led to serious injury? Can you please specify whether the Taser was used in either one of the stun modes or fired. (If this still exceeds the cost limit, please ignore this question)
- Have any of your officers been seriously injured following an incident that required the use of Taser in the past five financial years (2015/2016 to 2019/2020)?
- How many of your Taser officers have had their Taser permit withdrawn in the past five financial years and for what reasons?
- Has any of your Taser officers been charged with assault following an incident that included the deployment of a Taser in the past five financial years?
Response
The total numbers of officers carrying a Taser in Avon and Somerset Constabulary are 608, this is broken down as follows:
500 Specially Trained Officers (STO, Not firearms)
108 Authorised Firearms Officers (AFO)
Please see detailed below the total number of severe injuries recorded during an incident that involved the deployment of a Taser. Please note, this table includes data for incidents with a severe injury only. Records prior to 2017 are not held.
Please note there could be several means of force used during one incident, e.g. physical restraint, unarmed skills and then Taser. This means injuries could have happened before the Taser intervention. We are therefore only reporting that there has been an injury during that incident however it may not have resulted specifically from the Taser.
You will see from the details below on 3 occasions a serious injury was sustained where the Taser was not fired.
| Severe Injury | ||||
| Fired | Red-dotted | Not centrally recorded | Total | |
| 1st January – 31st March 2017 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2017/18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2018/19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019/20 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 7 |
No Avon and Somerset officers have been seriously injured during an incident that required the use of a Taser in the past 5 financial years (2015/16 – 2019/20).
Please see detailed below the total number of Avon and Somerset STO that have had their Taser usage revoked and the reason given.
| Reason given: | 2018 | 2019 | 2020* |
| No longer wishes to carry | 13 | 7 | 5 |
| Retired | 4 | 5 | 2 |
| Changed roles / Forces | 6 | 27 | 14 |
| Discipline | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Medical | 2 | 5 | 3 |
| Career break | 1 | 1 | 0 |
*Up to and including 19th June 2020.
Please note, records previous to 2018 are no longer held.
Zero AFO have had their Taser usage revoked.
Two Avon and Somerset officers have been charged with assault following an incident that involved the deployment of a Taser between the financial years 2015/16-2019/20. Please find further Taser information including detailed definitions on our website here.