Taser use sees drop in deployment

Since the reintroduction of the Taser to Auckland City, Waitematā, Counties Manukau and Wellington districts at the end of 2008 there have been 78 incidents where the Taser was used: 16 in Auckland City, 15 in Counties Manukau, 14 in Waitematā, 32 in Wellington and one in Waikato (which has no Tasers) where a Taser was sent from another district to assist in resolving an incident in the Waikato river.

A successful resolution to an incident on the edge of the Waikato River, Hamilton. The Taser and operator were helicoptered from Auckland to attend. Photo: Waikato Times

Of those 78 incidents, 72 (92 percent) were successfully resolved without having to discharge the Taser. The Taser was discharged only six times (8 percent).

This means that 90 percent of the time where Taser has been used it de-escalated violent incidents without resorting to physical force, thereby avoiding the risk of injury to both staff and offenders.

By comparison with data from the corresponding first six months of the Taser trial – in the first six months of the reintroduction phase in the four trial districts there has been a 23 percent reduction in the number of incidents where the Taser has been used, and five percent increase in the de-escalation rate.

In the trial there were 60 incidents where the Taser was deployed versus 46 during the six months of the reintroduction. There were nine discharges in the trial against five in the reintroduction.

“It is significant to see the drop in the number of Taser deployments between the comparative periods. This would indicate staff confidence and constrained decision making around when and where to deploy the Taser,”
says National Manager Services, Superintendent John Rivers.