Serious questions raised about shocking Nottingham Taser incident

I doubt I wasn’t the only one shocked (pardon the pun!) by the footage revealed by Trent FM of a man in Nottingham being Tasered for a second time while already on the ground and surrounded by four police officers.

According to the Guardian, Nottingham’s Assistant Chief Constable has acknowledged that the public is likely to be concerned about what we see in the footage and has already referred the case to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

It certainly has raised serious concerns for us at Amnesty as to the way in which the Taser was used. From what we can see it appears to be clear breach of the way they should be drawn.

Amnesty’s consistently warned the Home Office to restrict the roll-out of Tasers across the UK, to ensure that Tasers are in the hands of officers who receive ongoing and rigorous training, and to guarantee that they will only be used as a weapon of last resort.

At the moment this doesn’t appear to be happening.

While we don’t know the specifics of this case and a thorough investigation is needed by the IPCC, one thing is clear: Closer scrutiny and greater accountability simply must be applied when it comes to the use of Tasers in UK policing.  Otherwise the consequences could be devastating, and potentially lethal.