Spence commits to state wide roll out of tasers

Police Minister Judy Spence has committed to making tasers available to operational police after the trial finishes in June this year.

The trial of tasers began on 1 July 2007 among District Duty Officers and Regional Duty Officers in Brisbane, Logan and the Gold Coast (Tasers have been available to Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) officers since 2002).

“The trial so far has been very successful and tasers have proved to be effective in curbing potentially violent situations

“So far tasers have been presented 121 times and deployed 71 times.

“On 50 occasions the mere presence of a taser defused a situation and caused an offender to comply with police directions.

“Last week a taser was deployed successfully and enabled police to restrain a man after a 24-hour siege in a regional city.

“On January 20, at the Big Day Out music festival, a man who had allegedly assaulted a security officer ignored multiple directions from police. A police officer produced a taser and warned the man it would be used. The man then became cooperative.

“On January 16 police were called to a domestic disturbance at Wynnum and found a man allegedly armed with several knives. For 15 minutes he allegedly refused to disarm or surrender. An officer then arrived with a taser and pointed it at the man and warned him it would be used if he did not drop the knives. The man then complied with an order to drop the knives and lie on the floor.

“These are just some recent examples that demonstrate that tasers are reducing the risk of injury to police and offenders.

“On one occasion a family actually thanked police because they had used a taser on their son who had mental health issues and was behaving violently. He was then restrained without injury,” Ms Spence said.

“Of the times tasers were used police believe alcohol was a factor in 66 percent of uses, illegal drugs 29 percent of uses, and a mental health issue 27 percent of uses – and obviously some cases have involved a mixture of these factors.

“There will still be an evaluation of tasers at the end of the trial and the information gathered will be used in the training of police officers.

“Queensland police who have a taser available for use are thoroughly trained and there are strict guidelines governing the use of tasers,” Ms Spence said.

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