By Jesse Peach
The Police Association says the first year of police in some districts having tasers available has been a success, with only nine of the stun guns being fired.
But as police plan to roll out tasers across the country, anti-taser campaigners say they are still sceptical.
There will soon be 681 tasers in use across the country after what the Police Association calls a “very successful first year”.
“The taser's not widespread enough yet to see a huge difference, but for the districts that do have it, very positive feedback,” says Greg O’Connor of the Police Association.
It was used nine times last year, all in serious incidents, including a man wielding an axe and another who had stabbed himself with a samurai sword then threatened police with it.
“You only need to look at the incidents in which we used it and it makes you wonder how we could have managed before,” Mr O’Connor says.
Anti-taser campaigners acknowledge those incidents are serious, but say their concern is, over time, police might not be so vigilant about the way they use tasers.
“The most critical part is that there is no relaxation on the monitoring and accountability on each time it is used,” says Marie Dhyrberg, an anti-taser campaigner.
Ms Dhryberg says while nine taser incidents in a year may not sound a lot, it doesn't give any indication as to whether the taser is an effective deterrent.
“What would be of interest to the public would be how many times it was simply aimed, not fired, and there was then resistance by the person targeted.”
The Police Association says, ironically, anti-taser campaigners generated such hype around the dangers of the taser, that it's given the weapon more power as a deterrent and is optimistic about rolling out more tasers – which 3,500 police will have access to use.
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