Taser Usage

Date of request: 4 July 2023
Reference: 703-23

Request

In each of the following years to 1 April: 2019-20, 2020-21; 2021-22; 2022-2023

– How many times did the force use a Taser on people in each year? Please give the number of incidents, rather than the number of individuals.

Please break down by incidents where a Taser weapon was drawn, aimed or fired.

Where a Taser weapon was fired, please only mark this once (no need to note it was drawn or aimed in these cases), and similarly where a weapon was aimed, no need to note it was drawn.

– Please provide a breakdown of incidents by the age of the person who the weapon was used on – if exact age is not possible, please use the following brackets (0-17; 18-25; 25-65; 65-80; 80+).

Response

Our response is based on information recorded in our Use of Force forms. The Home Office requirement to record Use of Force began in 2019/20. As such, the information we are able to provide is by financial year since 2019/20.

Regarding the age of the subject, information on Use of Force forms is held for age ranges, relating to the perceived age of the subject. Information has been provided below for all perceived age ranges where information is recorded.

Please see the below tables showing a breakdown of taser usage for each financial year since 2019/20, for the age ranges relevant to your request.

Please note we aim to only record the highest level of taser used in each incident. For example, when a taser has been fired, this would result in ‘fired’ being the only level recorded for that incident. Please be aware, however, that prior to 2021 the Use of Force form enabled users to select more than one type of use for taser. This resulted in the figures for years 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 being distorted as a user may have selected that they ‘red dotted’, ‘aimed’ and ‘fired’ in one use.

2019/2020	Aimed	Angle drive-stun	Arced	Drawn	Drive stun	Fired	Red-dot	Grand Total
11-17	6		4	9		6	45	70
18-34	34	1	39	92	1	110	351	628
35-49	16		16	45	5	54	139	275
50-64	4		6	20		11	39	80
60-69				1				1
Unknown							5	5
Total	60	1	65	167	6	181	579	1059

2020/2021	Aimed	Angle drive-stun	Arced	Drawn	Drive stun	Fired	Red-dot	Three point contact	Grand Total
11 – 17 years	10		2	17		5	33		67
18 – 34 years	47	1	18	65	9	72	377	1	590
35 – 49 years	20		13	23	5	42	182	3	288
50 – 64 years	5		2	15	2	10	50		84
65 and over							1		1
Under 11						1*			1
Unknown						2	1		3
Total	82	1	35	120	16	132	644	4	1034

2021/2022	Aimed	Arced	Drawn	Drive stun	Fired	Red-dot	Grand Total
11 – 17 years	6	2	19		4	41	72
18 – 34 years	58	3	167	2	115	485	830
35 – 49 years	28	2	112	1	45	219	407
50 – 64 years	11	1	22		15	51	100
65 and over	2		1			1	4
Unknown	3		3		2	11	19
Total	108	8	324	3	181	808	1432

2022/2023	Aimed	Angled drive stun	Arced	Drawn	Drive stun	Fired	Red-dot	Grand Total
Unknown	3		3	7		1	15	29
11-17 years	6		2	19		3	37	67
18-34 years	45	1	18	104	1	60	344	573
35-49 years	22		8	83		42	180	335
50-64 years	6		3	18		4	54	85
65 and over			1				7	8
Under 11 years						1*	1	2
Total	82	1	35	231	1	111	638	1099

*Regarding the records relating to under 11s, these have been reviewed manually and we have identified that both cases recorded under ‘Fired’ (2020/21 and 2022/23) are incorrect. One relates to a one year old dog which was the subject. In another case, the date of birth of the subject was incorrectly recorded; the log makes clear that it was an individual perceived to be between 18 and 22. The instance of ‘red dotting’ relating to an under 11 (2022/23) appears to be correct.