A GREATER number of Tasers should be available to Thames Valley Police officers to help keep both themselves and the public safe, it has been claimed.
Craig O’Leary, chairman of Thames Valley Police Federation made the comments after chief officers launched a review of both gun and Taser capability in England and Wales.
Pc O'Leary said: "It's a welcome development. I’ve been having conversations since becoming TVP Federation chairman with my Chief Constable about increasing the roll out of Taser to our officers on the frontline.
"I think that we need to keep putting the pressure on to make sure that’s going to happen. We’ve had some really horrendous figures around officer assaults. We’ve got an average two a day in Thames Valley, being assaulted. That’s unacceptable. Two officers a day being assaulted just cannot carry on."
Government figures show 875 TVP officers were assaulted last year.
PC O'Leary added: "As a former Taser officer myself, you can’t put a price on turning up to an incident, where there’s potentially a violent offender there and overtly showing a Taser. In the majority of cases that has a massive impact on that subject’s mental mind-set."
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