Law-enforcement technologyTaser shotgun in legal trouble in U.K.
Taser’s new, powerful eXtended Range Electronic Projectile, or X12, is being evaluated by the U.K. Home Office for possible adoption by U.K. police; before the evaluation has been completed, the British importer of the weapon sold it to the Northumbria police, in the north of England, which used it against fugitive Raoul Moat, who died as a result; the Home Office has now revoked the importer’s license
Taser shotgun discharging a shell // Source: infiniteunknown.net
Controversy continues to follow the Taser shotgun, the recent, and more powerful version, of the Taser stun-gun.
The X12 Taser shotgun is made by Taser International of Scottsdale, Arizona and fires a battery-packed 12-bore shell with forward-facing barbs that deliver a debilitating electric shock (“U.K. considers Taser’s latest device,” 24 August 2009 HSNW).
In August last year, New Scientist revealed research that showed an early version of the weapon was both difficult to aim accurately, putting victims’ eyes at risk, and sometimes delivered a shock for more than five minutes, rather than twenty seconds.
Paul Marks writes that such issues were part of the reason that the Taser shotgun went into a program of testing in the labs of the U.K. Home Office’s Scientific Development Branch (HOSDB).
The weapon is still being tested at the HOSDB lab and has not been approved for use by U.K. police forces (“Recent stun-gun use by police in U.S., U.K. raise questions anew about the device’s safety,” 13 July 2010 HSNW).
Yet it emerged in July that the weapon had been fired by police attempting to subdue a killer named Raoul Moat in an armed standoff in Northumbria, in the north of England.
Marks notes that it turned out that Pro-Tect Systems of Daventry, Northamptonshire, a company set up in 2000 to import U.S.-made Taser stun-guns of all types into the United Kingdom, had supplied the unapproved Taser shotgun to the Northumbria police.
Yesterday, the U.K. Home Office issued a statement revoking Pro-Tect’s licence to sell any Taser weapons. “Pro-Tect breached its licence by supplying X12 Tasers direct to police that were only available for supply to the Home Office Science and Development Branch,” the Home Office says. Its license expires on 30 September.
The Home Office says Pro-Tect may seek a judicial review of its decision. A Pro-Tect spokesman said: “For legal reasons we are not issuing any comment on this.”
The Taser shotgun is already in use in a number of U.S. police departments. This account by Taser International describes one example of its use in 2009.
