‘Taser, Taser’! Exploring factors associated with police use of Taser in England and Wales

Abstract

Police use of Taser in England and Wales has received little academic attention, despite being the topic of much public controversy. Much of our knowledge comes from the United States of America, but these findings are based on a small number of data sets and little testing has been done to see whether such findings apply internationally. This article uses a novel dataset from a police agency in England and Wales, and pilots new covariates, to conduct a multivariate analysis of factors associated with Taser use: the first time such analysis has been conducted outside of North America. This analysis also provides an ideal opportunity to test long-standing theoretical debates about whether police use of force is affected by 'who the citizen is', as the conflict approach would predict, or 'what the citizen does', in keeping with the consensus tradition. Variables from both the former (namely gender and mental health issues) and the latter category (including presence or use of a weapon) were found to be statistically significant after the inclusion of controls. The results highlight limitations to the application of the American based literature internationally and demonstrate stronger support for consensus than conflict theories. They also highlight that, under certain conditions, it may be appropriate for officers to take civilian characteristics into account when making use of force decisions.

Police Use of TASER: Multi-Level Predictors of Firing and Drawing in One-to-One Use of Force Incidents

“…Angiolini, 2017; Brandl and Stroshine 2017). The findings—that members of the public perceived to be Black or Black British have increased odds of TASER being drawn on them, but not of it being fired, and that members of the public perceived to be Asian or Asian British have decreased odds of both types of TASER use—broadly resonate with the prior multivariate literature (see Brandl and Stroshine 2017; Crow and Adrion 2011; Dymond, 2018; Gau et al, 2010). However, they do provide a contrast to findings from Worrall et al, 2021, which found that ethnicity was not significantly associated with TASER drawing (see also Riddell and Worrall 2021), and Johnson, who found no significant relationship between mental health and use of force.…”

“…see Crow and Adrion 2011 c. f. Quinton et al, 2020). While fewer studies have looked at the relationship between TASER and the deployment of unaccompanied police officers (often referred to as single-crewing), those that have again point in different directions (Dymond, 2018 c. f. Brandl and Stroshine 2017, see also Elliot-Davies, 2022).…”

“…While most find the gender of the member of the public to be significantly associated with TASER firing, some studies (e.g. Bailey et al, 2016; Brandl and Stroshine 2017; Dymond, 2018) find a significant association between use of force and mental health, while others do not (Johnson, 2011). Similarly, many studies find a significant association between ethnicity and TASER firing (Crow and Adrion 2011; Gau et al, 2010), while others do not (Brandl and Stroshine 2017, Lin and Jones 2010, see also Boivin and Lagacé 2016, Terrill and Resig 2003 who look at the use of force more broadly).…”

Towards a socio-technical understanding of discretion: a case study of Taser and police use of force

“…Another trainer noted that 'the big problem I've got, is that some of the ones who are not firearms officers … are jumping far too quickly to … thinking about Tasering'. Such statements may well have been exaggerated for effect, and need to be considered in the context of relatively low rates of Taser use in England and Wales (Dymond 2018, Ariel et al 2019). Nevertheless, they do speak to the potential for the presence of the weapon to impact officer behaviour in unpredictable ways, encouraging instead of minimising the use of force.…”

Supplemental Material for Using Twitter data to explore public discourse to antiracism movements.

“…Within the United States of America (USA), high-profile cases have illuminated the devastating consequences of racism, such as police brutality (Bullard, 1998;Chaney & Robertson, 2013;Ellison et al, 2008;Schaffer, 2014;Schwartz, 2020). Additionally, in the United Kingdom (U.K.), many BAME people are observed to be prone to be targets of Tasers by the police authorities (Dymond, 2020;Joseph-Salisbury et al, 2020).…”