Northamptonshire Police officers used force 4,452 in one year

The statistics show that force was used 4,452 times, which include 128 uses of a taser, 455 irritant (pepper spray) uses of force, 595 uses of force in custody, 2,639 uses of handcuffs, 1,970 physical restraint uses of force.

Just over half of all incidents were in the police officers' self defence.

The statistics have been recorded between February 2017 and January 2018.

Inspector Phil Holton said: “Every time an officer uses force, from putting someone in handcuffs to the use of a taser, they are legally required to record it.

“In the interests of transparency, we publish these figures and they can be found, with a more detailed breakdown, here: www.northants.police.uk/page/use-force.”