Police Officers Renew Plea for TASER after Shooting Incident on Gold Coast

Police officers on the Gold Coast in Australia were called at about 3:30 p.m. to the scene of disturbance at a home in Tristan Court, Benowa earlier this week.

A 38 year old man produced a carving knife when confronted with police officers and the police officers called for backup. The police officers attempted to disarm the man by negotiating with him, hoping to get him to drop the knife himself, but instead he lunged at the police officers with the knife.

Forced to defend themselves, the police officers shot the violent and aggressive man. The man was taken to the Gold Coast Hospital in stable condition and was treated for a wound to his leg.

The Queensland Police Union Assistant Secretary said that the incident was an example of why the police union has been calling for police officers to be equipped with TASER guns.

“I don’t think there would have been injuries to the person at all had a TASER been used. They could have settled the situation quietly without other incident,” he said.

Luckily in this situation there were no fatalities, something that is always possible when deadly force comes into play. Police officers must often negotiate the fine line between using sufficient force to control the situation and excessive force. Giving officers additional tools that would allow them to use less force when the situation calls for it, seems reasonable and preferable to using high levels of force in all situations.