It should be the twin aim of the authorities to defuse dangerous situations without harm to either offenders or police officers. The development of the Taser gun - which delivers a non lethal electrical charge - met this criteria.
As seems usual with the New South Wales government a bureaucratic decision has sharply reduced the effectiveness of this weapon. Two Taser guns will be issued to each police command - to be kept locked away and only used by nominated senior officers who will be trained in their use.
The whole concept of safely taking down a dangerous offender has been negated. The first on the scene are usually police officers armed with nine millimetre Glock pistols.
Confronted with an out of control person who attacks them with a knife their first line of defence is Capsicum spray - and if this fails there is a high chance of a fatality if they are forced to use their hand guns.
The weapon that could subdue a violent person safely is locked away in the regional police command post. There would be an obvious delay in calling out a senior officer, obtaining the Taser and then proceeding to the scene of the confrontation.
This could be useful at the time of a siege - or some sort of protracted encounter, but mostly violence erupts suddenly - and in the great majority of cases it is the first arriving police officers who have to deal with it.
The police union is calling for a Taser to be standard equipment in every patrol car, with all officers trained in their use.
That is simply plain common sense. Which seems to be something that is sadly lacking when government's make decisions !
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