Gardaí to trial tasers in pilot project
Some uniformed gardaí in Ireland will be given tasers in a six-month pilot project. The project will begin in Dublin, Waterford, and Kilkenny, where around 128 Irish officers who already wear body cameras will be given tasers. The idea was brought to a meeting of Ireland’s cabinet by the country’s Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan.
Like in the UK, Irish officers, known as gardaí, are mostly unarmed. Only members of its specialist armed unit can currently access them. But the deputy PM said it would allow officers to be better protected. “Brave men and women who put on their uniform every day are often faced now with increased levels of abuse on the streets, levels of attacks,” Simon Harris said before the meeting. “In certain instances,” he said, tasers can be important.
Niall Hodgins, vice president of the Garda Representative Association welcomed the news, saying that there had been almost 1,000 attacks on gardaí last year, 300 of which were considered “serious.”
“The great thing about these tasers is that they can very much contribute to the de-escalation of the more violent and aggressive encounters that our members are experiencing year-on-year,” he said.
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL), on the other hand, said it was “deeply concerned,” saying that tasers are not an “effective de-escalation tool in all situations.” Its director, Joe O’Brien, said it was a “complete step change” from the tradition of officers being unarmed.
“We are unclear what precise issues the minister and garda commissioner (chief constable) feel tasers will resolve, why they believe this to be the case, and how they will run and analyse this pilot project,” he added. “We in ICCL are clear: tasers are not the Christmas gift Gardaí need.”
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