Guns for police officers are out but Tasers to be introduced in Wiltshire

Patrick Geenty, Wiltshire’s acting chief constable, has declared his opposition to the arming of police officers in the wake of the shattering double death of two women constables shot in Manchester. 

He has announced that at least one or two officers on every shift will be armed with a Taser, the high-voltage gun that can stun criminals but is non-lethal. 

“After the shootings in Manchester, I put a message out to my officers to say that I will always make sure that they are safe and have the best equipment they can,” said Mr Geenty, who joined the police force in 1982. 

And aware of the emotional reaction to the fatalities he is concerned in protecting the force’s officers but is aware what it mean on the ground if all police officers are armed. 

“It is clear that I – and I believe the majority of serving officers also – think it would be a backward step, and I don’t think it would improve officers’ safety.”

“We would find ourselves in more armed situations as it would raise the stakes, but I can understand the concern of officers.  So I’ve been thinking about alternatives and the Taser is the obvious one.”

“Although there will be an officer equipped with Taser on every shift, Wiltshire is a very rural county and some of our neighbourhood officers are quite isolated, and back-up may be 10 to 15 minutes away.”

“I know that they are concerned about the response of the back-up, so the idea is to get more Tasers out into the rural areas to the officers who find themselves most isolated.”

While there is an issue of the extra cost when the Wiltshire force is under-going £15 million cuts over a four-year period, Mr Geenty points out that Taser guns are used only rarely.

“But officers feel the Taser gives them an extra bit of protection from some of the circumstances they find themselves in,” he added.

“This isn’t a reaction to the tragedy n Manchester, as I was considering this before.  But what happened there has thrown it into a new light.”