A Critical Examination of the Police Use of Tasers

Abstract

This study explored the police use of Tasers and how this has an impact on matters such as public confidence, governance, welfare of officers and holding the police accountable. This topic was chosen due to the lack of academic coverage that it has received and its need to be further developed for the purpose of creating more understanding around the matter. It was also chosen as a result of recent and ongoing speculation on the issue and due to its current relevance seen because of recent incidents that may either support or contradict a more elevated use of Tasers by the police. Due to the aforementioned lack of coverage on the topic, the project faced certain limitations concerning gathering information from legitimate and reliable sources. Despite this, the study is informed by academic publications, police documents, media outlets and primary research in the form of semi-structured interviews. Although the project was not completely conclusive in the findings, it was found that the public perception of the police use of Tasers does not appear to be as negative as was initially predicted. The study also found that there have been significant changes in the way in which the topic is viewed by multiple societal groups, suggesting that further change may be imminent. From this project, it has been concluded that the nature of the topic inhabits a number of ongoing developments, so it would not have been feasible to produce one irrefutable result.