Patrol officers ‘deserve the protection’ of stun guns

Simon Chesterman, the armed policing lead for the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), has said that all police officers on routine patrol should be allowed to carry stun guns. In a Sunday Times interview, Chesterman suggested that a wider rollout of the weapons would be supported given growing threats to frontline officers. The NPCC has previously stated that the number of officers in a force who are trained and equipped with stun guns would remain a decision for individual chief constables. He said: “I personally would not want to be a frontline patrol officer now without Taser. My view is that if an officer wants to carry it and they can meet the standard, they should be allowed to carry it. I think we should be having more of a conversation with the public about this. I hope we will see an increasing rollout of Taser.”