Should all Wiltshire Police officers carry a Taser?
One police boss has suggested they shouldn't
A Wiltshire Police chief has told us not all officers in the force need to carry a Taser to tackle unrest in the county.
Tasers are part of an officer's operational contingency when dealing with violence and aggression in our communities.
We spoke to Chief Superintendent Phil Staynings who said tasers have a place in policing, but the organisation has to consider 'policing by consent'.
"We've got a number of officers in our force that are neighbour officers that don't want to carry Taser at all," he said, adding: "Of course, having a Taser can actually sometimes escalate a situation. So there's a balance to be struck, of course there's an operational need and contingency for some officers to carry Taser, but not all."
Fortunately, Tasers aren't needed all that often in Wiltshire, with the Chief Superintendent telling us they were used nine times in July - and not all of them saw the Taser deployed, suggesting they're a good deterrent.
Chief Supt Staynings said: "In the vast majority of occasions, simply the mere presence of a police officer with the tater can have a positive impact on the public and that's ultimately we want to do is deescalate the situation and manage things with the least amount of force possible."
How do they work?
When a Taser is deployed, two probes are released from the device into the body, delivering a small shock.
They cause an imbalance within the muscles, causing a person to fall down.
This enables an officer to gain control of the situation where a person is violent or aggressive, allowing the situation to be de-escalated.
Volunteers were recently invited to observe how officers are trained to use a Taser to keep our communities.