Editorial: A fair compromise

OPINION: Without doubt, the police often face traumatic and dangerous situations. Even in comparatively quiet Nelson, beat constables must be ever mindful that apparently routine callouts can go wrong.

The mere sight of a blue uniform at the door is enough to turn some idiots feral. People with drinking, violence or mental health issues can be especially challenging and difficult to read. Employers have a responsibility to ensure their staff are able to undertake their work in safety.

To that end, it has often been suggested – especially by the Police Association – that the time has come to debate the routine arming of the police with firearms. However – despite the fact that seven police officers have been shot in the past 20 months, two of them fatally – the first year of use of the Taser in this country suggests a slightly softer option has been found.

Being zapped with a stun gun is enough to shock the most wound-up perpetrator into submission. The nine people – all men – who were Tasered during the device's first 12 months in this country might otherwise have had to be shot, and also clearly threatened the lives and safety of others before being subdued.

The Taser has its critics. It has been linked to a number of fatalities overseas and its use is clearly not 100 per cent risk-free. However, the sort of cases which led to its deployment would surely have had much worse endings if it had not been available.

Providing the clear rules around the device are understood and followed, and it continues to be used with the sort of restraint shown until now, it appears to be a valid and valuable policing resource. Better to stop the deranged or dangerous temporarily with 50,000 volts than permanently with a bullet.

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