THE Donegal-based President of the Garda Representative Association (GRA) has said arming more gardaí with tasers would be a “natural step” for the force.
The Dunfanaghy man was speaking amid renewed calls for more protection for officers, with 285 Gardaí assaulted last year.
Mr O’Connor said the taser is available in other countries, but not widely used.
“We often look to Scotland for leadership, and we see in Scotland where we have possibly a quarter of uniformed, frontline officers are STOs – Specially Trained Officers,” he said.
“They carry tasers and they arm it and use it, the actual number of times that it’s actually used is very, very few.
“The international experience is that when offenders see the red dot on their chest, and know that there’s a chance of them being maybe tasered, they often deescalate.”
Mr O’Connor said tasers are available, but are only used by gardaí in the Armed Support Unit.
“When we call upon (the Armed Support Unit), particularly in rural occasions, it can be a very long-delayed response time. So we would look for tasers to be available to more officers and trained. Currently we only have your standard Guard with their protective equipment of a baton and handcuffs, and then we might have a local detective with a firearm.
“(There is) nothing in-between lethal and a baton, so we would see that as a natural step.”
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