The Home Office has spent just over £55,000 on 67 new tasers for police officers working across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
As part of a £10million government investment in policing, £6.5million of the centrally funded money for vital equipment has been spent on tasers for 41 of 43 police forces across the country.
Provision has also been made to support the training of taser instructors with some £150,000 being allocated for this, with the remainder of the £10million being used to tackle serious violence and county lines drug gangs.
John Apter, National Chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said:
“Taser is an essential piece of equipment which has saved many police officers and members of the public from serious injury or worse.
“I have campaigned for ring-fenced funding for more colleagues to have access to Taser and it’s refreshing that the Home Secretary has listened and acted. It’s because of our lobbying that there will be almost 8,000 more Tasers available for my colleagues, this can only be a good thing.
“This was a unique opportunity for forces to secure extra protections without shouldering the majority of the cost. I would have liked to have seen every penny of the £10m funding used to fund more Tasers. At a time when officer safety is dominating the headlines, I am surprised that some forces chose not to take advantage of this extra funding.”
The Home Office’s announcement follows a raft of new policing-related policies which has seen the Government pledge to recruit 20,000 new police officers, review sentencing for those who attack police officers and introduce a Police Covenant.
In total, 7,923 new tasers are being introduced to police forces across the country.
Bargain at less than £900 each. Should save lots of assaults on the police. Now we just need all police cars to be fitted with ANPR. And a few more static ones covering strategic roads on the Island… Oh, and while we’re at it, reinstate manned CCTV…