Government cash backs police chief's bid to arm all Northamptonshire officers with Tasers

Chief Constable Nick Adderley is a step nearer making Northamptonshire Police the first force to arm every frontline officer with a Taser by 2021 after the Home Office pledged £132,000 to back the scheme.

Mr Adderley revealed his plan last August in response to a soaring numbers of attacks on emergency services.

The force applied for Government cash to help cover the cost of training and equipping 300 extra officers with Tasers.

Mr Adderley tweeted: “It really is great news and clearly the right thing to do given the escalation of violence and threats towards our officers.

“As I’ve always said, I hope Taser is the deterrent and that officers feel protected and valued- as they should be! We ask such a lot of them.

“This funding covers most of everything with a few exceptions which we can cover from existing budgets.

“You may remember that the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Stephen Mold and I had committed to fully fund this even if the money was not forthcoming. This is the value and importance we place on safety.

“Both Stephen Mold and I have made a joint commitment to do all we can to ensure we provide the very best training, kit and equipment for our staff to keep them safe and to enable them to serve the public in the very best way that they can.”

Home Secretary Priti Patel invited applications for a share of the £10million kitty for forces in England and Wales. Just over £6.5m will be divided between 41 forces, adding nearly 8,000 officers with Tasers nationally.

More money will support the training of Taser instructors with the rest being used to tackle serious violence and county lines drug gangs.

The most recent figures from 2018 showed 380 Northants Police staff were injured during attacks, leading to Mr Adderley saying: “Enough is enough.”

He added: "Every week, I am made aware of more and more sickening attacks on my officers – they are spat at, assaulted on a daily basis and are being exposed to increasing levels of violence when they are deployed to incidents.

"It’s time to give all front-line officers the ability to defend themselves and defend members of the public, which involves equipping them with more than a baton, handcuffs and a can of pepper spray."

The no-nonsense Chief Constable is a former Royal Navy Officer and Counter Terrorism expert. He took over the top role in Northamptonshire in August 2018 and has quickly gained a reputation for protecting and enhancing frontline policing.

This latest funding boost follows a £9.6m Government-backed hike in the force’s budget for 2020-21.

UK police officers have been armed with Tasers since the early 2000s. They work by firing two barbed darts which deliver and electric current to incapacitate targets and are considered a less lethal way of halting criminals than firearms.