Kent Police see three-fold increase in Taser officers

More than 1,000 officers in Kent are now trained to carry Tasers

The number of police officers authorised to carry Tasers in Kent has almost trebled in five years.

Figures from the force show in 2018 there were 351 officers authorised to carry the weapon, while in 2022 there are 1,031.

Some special constables in Kent are now carrying Tasers.

In March, Kent's chief constable Alan Pughsley said an increase was partly due to the number of attacks on officers.

A BBC Freedom of Information request revealed between April 2021 and August 2022 Tasers were deployed in Kent 887 times, being fired 806 times.

The youngest person at which a Taser was fired between 2018 and 2022 was 13, although the force said one was drawn and aimed at a boy aged 12.

Ch Supt Tracey Quiller said: "Very young teenagers and pre-teens are presenting weapons.

"A knife, a machete, could be fatal to members of the public and the officer would take all of that into account in deciding how they were going to resolve that situation."

One of the volunteer officers trained to carry a Taser, Scott Dawson, said: "We go to the same incidents, the same jobs, as our regular counterparts and we face the same level of threat.

"Being able to carry a Taser reassures us we're provided with a piece of kit that can keep ourselves safe."

But Oliver Feeley-Sprague, Amnesty International UK's policing expert, is concerned about the increasing numbers being carried.

"It's becoming less about a specialist tool to be used as an alternative to shooting someone dead," said Mr Feeley-Sprague, who is also involved with an advisory group to the National Police Chiefs' Council.

He said a Taser was now more "a piece of kit that's about keeping officers safe", adding: "That raises a concern about the weapon being used more and more frequently for less and less appropriate circumstances."

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