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The weapons are officially known as electronic control devices. sur

National Police to be supplied with electric shock weapons at last

Police unions have been calling for several years for this type of device to be supplied, to reduce the use of firearms

Juan Cano / Álvaro Frías

Malaga

Thursday, 17 March 2022, 13:54

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They’re usually known as Tasers (the brand name) or electric shock weapons, although officially they are called electronic control devices. When a police officer fires one it isn’t a bullet that comes out, but two cables with darts that hit the target.

The weapon produces a 50,000 volt electric shock which causes total and momentary paralysis of the muscles, although with no loss of consciousness. Once the officer releases the trigger, the person they are trying to restrain should return to normal.

The police have been calling for these weapons for a long time, to avoid using a firearm and help to apprehend criminals without injuring them, and now they will be carried by officers on patrol duties. They will not be part of their individual equipment, but will be used collectively.

Training in the correct use will be given, to minimise risk, and there will be very specific circumstances in which they can be used. The plan is that on every shift there will be one officer qualified to use this type of weapon.

Police unions have been calling for this equipment for some time. In 2017, after the Independence referendum in Catalonia and the terrorist attacks in Las Ramblas in Barcelona, the Sindicato Unificado de Policía (SUP) requested that Tasers be supplied urgently as intermediate means of defence.

In October 2020 the General Police Directorate said 300 tasers had been acquired – since then they have bought a further 700 – and that 66 officers at the Police College in Ávila would be trained in their use so they could then teach others. However, according to the unions, those tasers have been gathering dust in a store somewhere since then.

Now, it seems they are finally being allocated. The SUP’s representative in Malaga, Mariló Valencia, says she is very pleased that this piece of equipment will finally become a reality, although she hopes that it will not take as long as it has for the police forces to be supplied with protective vests.

The use of the weapons has always aroused controversy, and they have been associated with several deaths in the USA and UK. In most EU countries their use is restricted to police or military, and they can only be used with a personal recording device and an automatic defibrillator.

In Spain some police forces such as the Mossos d’Esquadra and Local Police forces such as those in Marbella and Mijas had already been supplied with them.

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