An analysis of a National Survey on Police officers’ ‘lived experiences’ of Taser use in England and Wales

• In Event: POL Panel 19. Police officers' lived experiences and their impact

Abstract

In recent years there has been an increase in studies analysing the use of Conducted Energy Devices (CED), most commonly referred to as Taser. However, most of these studies have been conducted internationally, specifically in the US, and often they focussed on the consequences of Taser use without considering the officer perspective. Due to the lack of literature regarding Taser officers themselves, much of the depiction of who Taser officers are has derived from the media regarding high-profile non-representative incidents which often involve excessive displays of force by officers. This is especially true in the UK, where despite the growing use of CED by most police forces across the country, information regarding this has been scarce.

In this paper, we are going to rely on the National Officer and Staff Safety Survey (NOSSS) data, believed to be the largest ever police survey conducted in England and Wales. Conducted in 2019, the NOSSS was disseminated to all officers and staff in the British transport police and all 43 police forces in England and Wales. The sample size (N= 40,268). We are to identify the characteristics of Taser officers. We will demonstrate how Taser officers and non-Taser officers differ from each other both from a demographic perspective as well as their role and rank in the organisation. We will also be able to show the variation across the various police forces in England and Wales.

We are also going to present police officers’ ‘lived experiences’ of being Taser authorised, including their concerns, their perceptions of threat, and whether they are more likely to get injured or not. As a methodological innovation, inverse probability weights will be used to make the NOSSS data largely representative of all police forces across England and Wales. We will end the presentation with policy- and training-relevant recommendations.

Authors

• Jasmine Oware, London School of Economics

• Krisztián Pósch, University College London