by: The Sunday Post
published: 27 October 2013
4WardEver’s Tippa Naphtali speaks out to Sunday Post.
A furious row has broken out over the use of police stun guns on children. Official guidelines warn of potentially fatal consequences if youths are hit by the 50,000-volt Taser devices. But despite this, their use in confrontations with under-18s has rocketed by 1,000% over five years.
Figures show police used the weapons on just 29 occasions in 2007 but that shot up to 323 in 2011, an average of six times a week.
This included firing them outright and doing “drive stuns” in which the device is placed against a youth’s body and fired without causing incapacitation.
Justice campaigners said the soaring use of Tasers on children was a major concern. However police defended their actions.
