Amnesty Attacks Plans for Police TASER Guns

Amnesty International Scotland believes that because new figures depict a 17 percent decline in attacks, primary evidence is shown that the TASER device plan for Strathclyde Police is flawed.

However, the chairman of the Scottish Police Federation has announced that the arguments presented by Amnesty are outrageous.

Many individuals who own such a device for their protection know that it is a device designed to hinder a target after an electrical current has been fired into them. The country’s biggest force, Strathclyde Police, began their six month test with the stunning tools earlier this year.

And yet, while there are departments across the United Kingdom that had presented firearms officers with the TASER weapons, the test extended the single shot tool to 30 additional police who are specially trained that are stationed in the Rutherglen area and Glasgow’s city center.

Any non-firearms officer who is carrying one of these devices is easily identified by wearing a special fluorescent vest.

There are countless supporters of the test who believe that the self defense devices are important as they are effective at protecting the public, in addition to the police officers utilizing them. On the other hand, if an officer is absent from work because they were assaulted without the assistance of a self defense device then their absence drains money from the public purse.

Amnesty International Scotland, however, believe that because statistics have fallen from 4,600 in 2007 to 3,822 in the previous financial year, then the TASER device test is based on weak grounds.

The human rights organization believe that if the move goes ahead then it provides ordinary police officers with the devices to utilize extreme force into daily policing matters when that type of force should only be relied upon as a last measure.

In a counter attack on Amnesty International, the chairman of the Scottish Police Federation said that the human rights attitude toward the situation was outrageous.

In order for the police to keep the public safe from threats, it is necessary for the police to have something that protects them, which is ultimately what a TASER weapon does.