Orde says no to Tasers in the North

Police in the North will not be issued with controversial Taser stun guns in the immediate future, it was announced today.

Police Service of Northern Ireland chief constable Sir Hugh Orde said: “My decision is that it will not be deployed for the time being.”

He said it was his personal decision and added: “I think I am taking a risk by standing back.”

Nevertheless the decision was that the weapon will not be used by his officers “until operational procedures and guidelines have been agreed”.

Mr Orde said that if Tasers were eventually issued for use in the North there would be serious limitations.

“I have no intention of issuing Tasers routinely to ordinary police officers. All we are talking about, in Northern Ireland, is potentially issuing them to the most highly trained firearms officers as an alternative.,” he said.

He made the announcement at the Belfast launch of a major report monitoring the PSNI’s compliance with the Human Rights Act during the past year.

The annual report , which made a series of recommendations for improvements by the service, was critical on a number of fronts.

His comments in part pre-empted the report, produced for the third year running by leading human rights lawyers Keir Starmer QC and Jane Gordon for the Policing Board which holds the PSNI to account, and which expressed concerns about the use of Tasers and recommended they only be deployed as a last ditch alternative to the use of lethal force – opening fire with conventional firearms.

It further recommended the policing board should satisfy itself that “the PSNI had properly addressed the legal and human rights framework within which Taser can be used and, in particular, that it had devised clear and robust policy, guidance and training to ensure that any use of Taser in Northern Ireland fully complied with the requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act.”

In addition, it said any use should be planned and controlled to minimise to the greatest extent possible recourse to its use.

It was the first report produced by the lawyers since Sinn Féin took its seats on the Policing Board and its members refused to endorse it – because there was no order against the use of Tasers – or plastic bullets even against the young.

Board member and South Belfast Assembly Member Alex Maskey said: “Sinn Féin does not support or endorse a number of recommendations in this report.

“Sinn Féin will not, under any circumstances , endorse the use of plastic bullets, particularly against children.

“We are very disappointed therefore that the Policing Board has again supported the use of plastic bullets.”

The report said that while overall there was a “quite positive picture” on human rights compliance by the PSNI, it singled out “troubling” findings over policy where there would appear to have been a fundamental failure to address concerns and recommendations made a year before.

The authors highlighted an examination of the PSNI intranet which had posted on it for all officers policy directives and procedures.

“Some are hopelessly out of date and we found several examples of service procedures making reference to and giving guidance on legislation that has been repealed.

“We found service procedures giving out of date advice on matters such as disclosure and the role of the [now abolished] post of director of public prosecutions,” they said.

There was also “inconsistency and confusion” in a number of service procedures in references to the Human Rights Act, European Convention on Human Rights and the PSNI Code of Ethics.

So seriously did they consider the issue they gave the PSNI just a matter of weeks to prove things were being put right.

The lawyers said the quality of some PSNI policies remained poor. “This needs urgent action and we have taken the unprecedented step this year of requiring the PSNI to formally report to the Policing Board on progress within three months of the publication of this report.”

Board chairman Professor Desmond Rea commented: “Human Rights underpins all aspects of police work and it is simply not good enough that a number of policies, which guide decision making for officers work, have not been reviewed.”

The chief constable conceded the PSNI did not get everything right but added: “I thought we had done better that Kier does.”

But he pledged to address the policy issue as a matter or urgency.