Bromley officers equipped with Taser

From Monday 2nd July 2012 Bromley Police will be able to deploy Taser equipped vehicles to quickly and directly respond to emergency calls.

The arrival of Taser in Bromley is part of a gradual rollout of Taser to all London Boroughs, so that each borough will have two Taser equipped vehicle available to respond to violent incidents – in addition to the support that MPS TSG (Territorial Support Group) and CO19 (Firearms) provide.

The Metropolitan Police currently has 1140 Tasers, of which 446 are deployed overtly by CO19 Firearms Command (116) and the Territorial Support Group (450). The remainder are allocated to training sites, or used in covert operations that are not deployable in support of normal Borough operations.

Bromley will have forty officers trained in the use of Taser – at any one time a maximum of four of these will be on patrol in two vehicles.

Chief Inspector Darren Murphy from Bromley Police said: “Taser has been safely and effectively used by the Metropolitan Police since 2003. This is about making sure that our officers are best equipped in their duty to protect the public.

It enables restraint of violent individuals safely and efficiently, it is often less harmful to offenders than striking them with an asp or using CS spray and it is a less lethal option than using a firearm.

Any time that a Taser is discharged the circumstances will be looked at for monitoring purposes and for transparency. There is a robust system of accountability including unique identification on each discharge and downloads from the Taser itself”.