Who is getting Tasers?
When he took office in September, Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly fast-tracked a pilot programme involving the roll-out of Tasers to 128 frontline gardaí in four stations across Dublin and Waterford. On Thursday, the first of these gardaí took to the streets while armed with the devices.
The pilot programme will last for six months after which the results will be assessed. If Garda management is satisfied, the weapons will be issued to members nationwide.
How do they work?
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The American-made devices resemble a handgun but are designed to be “less-lethal”. They fire two wires which connect with the target and form an electrical circuit. This delivers a shock which lasts for five seconds. The goal is to induce “neuromuscular incapacitation” and interrupt signals from the brain to the muscles. “All your muscles will contract and you lose control of them,” said Garda firearms instructor John Heeney. Additional shots can be fired if required.
Sounds painful
Heeney has been tasered, pepper sprayed and hit with a Garda baton. “I would take the Taser because I know the effects of it and I know five seconds later, it’s all over,” he said
If a Taser is used correctly, the target will fall over, allowing another garda to approach and handcuff them.
Afterwards, the suspect may experience symptoms such as muscle twitches, loss of memory and aches and pains.
Fatal effects are not unheard of, but are extremely rare. “The chances are very low. They’re not zero,” Heeney said.
When will they be used?
Tasers are being rolled out in response to “operational realities”, gardaí say. In other words, in response to the 300 gardaí who are injured on duty every year and the perceived increasing threat to the public of knife-wielding suspects.
The project “is about giving specially-trained gardaí a controlled, additional, tactical use-of-force option when every other approach has failed or isn’t safe,” a Garda briefing document states.
In each situation, it will be up to individual gardaí to decide if they should use their baton, pepper spray or use their Taser. They will be held responsible for their decisions afterwards. While gardaí have been issued extensive guidelines on their use, there are few hard restrictions on when Tasers can be deployed. For example, in some circumstances, the weapon is even permitted to be used on children or elderly people if the threat is judged great enough.
Do they always work?
Tasers are a difficult weapon to use, says Heeney. Gardaí must hit the suspect with two separate projectiles. It also matters where the barbs hit. If they are too far apart or too close together, the device will not function correctly.
Operators are trained to aim for the “belt line”. It is considered dangerous to target the chest, groin or head area. This means there is a chance the lower projectile will pass through a target’s legs. Both projectiles need to make contact to complete the circuit and issue a shock.
While the Tasers technically have a range or 25 metres, they can only be effectively used at between seven and 15 metres. Additionally, they are less likely to work on obese targets, people wearing heavy or loose clothes and people with low muscle mass.
What about human rights concerns?
Various UK human rights bodies have raised concerns about the use of the weapons by police officers, citing their potential to induce fatal heart attacks. Some studies have also shown the weapons are more likely to be used on vulnerable or minority populations.
The Irish Council of Civil Liberties (ICCL) has aired similar concerns and called the roll-out “a dangerous step for community policing”.
The Garda Commissioner says Tasers have proven highly effective in de-escalating situations in other jurisdictions and that in the majority of cases, officers do not even need to pull the trigger.
Officials also point out that Garda firearms units have been using Tasers since 2007, deploying them about twice a month on average.
This seems to be happening quite fast?
The Garda Commissioner announced the pilot project in September, just three months before the Tasers were issued to gardaí – an unusually fast turnaround.
Such was the speed of the roll-out, the Garda did not have time to get new Tasers. The weapons issued to the 128 gardaí in the pilot project come from existing stores used by the Armed Support Units (those units have upgraded to a newer model).
This means the weapons do not have the bright yellow colour scheme usually associated with Tasers. If the project is rolled out nationwide, new bright yellow Tasers will be acquired.
