TasersEuropean Police Services Turn to Tasers as Weapon of Choice

Published 15 June 2020

On Friday, the French government announced that French police would no longer be allowed to use chokeholds on suspects. More police officers would instead be equipped with stun guns. About 15,000 French police officers, out of a force of 240,000 officers nationwide, are already equipped with stun guns. The police in Italy, the Netherlands, England, Wales and other European countries have been increasing their use of tasers to subdue suspects instead of other methods.

Tasers, or other stun guns, are increasingly the preferred weapon of European police services.

On Friday, the French government announced that French police would no longer be allowed to use chokeholds on suspects. More police officers would instead be equipped with stun guns.

About 15,000 French police officers, out of a force of 240,000 officers nationwide, are already equipped with stun guns.

The French police said that tasers were already being used by the police, but in a limited way. Last year, stun guns were used in 2,349 cases in France, an increase over the 2017 figure of about 1,400. Also last year, one person was killed while being subjected to a stun gun’s pulse, and three were seriously injured.

English and Welsh Police said that between March 2018 and March 2019, stun guns were used in 2,700 incidents. Figures show that police in England and Wales use stun guns on black people much more often than on white people.

Last month, following an investigation, Britain’s Independent Office for Police Conduct said that there were growing concerns “about its disproportionate use against black men and those with mental health issues.”

British police figures also show that between March 2018 and March 2019, 18 people died after a stun gun was used against them, but in most of these cases a medical examiner could not conclusively determine that the death occurred as a result of the taser’s pulse.

In the United States, where about one-third of all police officers carry stun guns, about 500 people died between 2001 and 2012 after the police  used a stun gun on them.

Police forces in several European countries have also been expanding the use of stun guns. Italy is now in the process of purchasing 4,500 stun guns for its police, while the Netherlands, since 2017, has distributed 17,000 stun guns to police officers (out of a force of 40,000 officers).

William Terrill, a professor of criminal justice at Arizona State University, told ABC News that training must come before widespread distribution of Tasers, which are sold as a way to protect officers from aggressive suspects while avoiding deadly force.

“It’s almost asking a police department to make an unfair choice in many respects,” he said. “By articulating it that way, it’s almost saying I value my officers’ safety more than the community’s safety.”

Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, based in Washington, D.C., told ABC News that stun guns can be effective but also fail to subdue people as much as 45 percent of the time.

“We have seen circumstances where police officers get themselves in a situation where they use them, they don’t work and now they are very close to the person they are dealing with and they wind up having to use force, deadly force in some circumstances,” Wexler said.

Wexler said they can be foiled by distance, heavy clothing or only one of the weapon’s two prongs making contact.