Stop Criminalising Hackney Youth -No More Tasers Public Meeting

TASER FACTSHEET

• By the end of April there will be four Tasers on call 24hrs a day in Hackney meaning they will never be more than a few minutes away.

• Since the last roll-out in 2008 there was a 66% increase in their use across the country.

• Hackney Taser deployments in 2011 (5), in 2012 (16) so a 220%  year on year increase BEFORE the roll-out.

• Between 2008 and 2011, the proportion of people Tasered who had emotional and mental health problems increased from 20% to 30%.

• Between 2010 and 2011 61% of Taser deployments were for people under 30.

• Met figures show that half of all people Tasered last year were black.

• Tasers fire hooked spikes into victims delivering a series of 50,000V incapacitating shocks.

• They also double-up as a pain-compliance tool where the 50,000V shock is discharged directly into the victim’s body. A senior officer described it as ‘pure pain compliance’.

• Tasers should only be used when serious violence is threatened yet police forms show they can be used to effect a search.

• Members of the public have been tasered accidentally, while having an epileptic fit and on a blind man walking down the road with his white stick.

• Police justified the roll-out of Tasers because officers were experiencing more violent incidents yet separately they’re telling us violent crime is down. Which is it?

• Despite 399 complaints across the country (151 in London) between 2009 and 2012 the police claim Tasers have NEVER been misused.

• More than 500 people have died in the US after being Tasered. How many must die here?

• The Police Federation Union has called for every officer in the country to be armed with a Taser. In London that would be an increase from 1,400 to 32,000 Tasers.