Australia: Officers using tasers with inbuilt cameras obscured

The Greens have MY vote!!

October 14, 2010
Brisbane Times

The NSW government should conduct an inquiry into police use of tasers, after it was revealed that officers were using them with their inbuilt cameras obscured, the Greens say.

The 146 instances where cameras were obscured in the 18 months to September this year represented 13 per cent of all taser incidents during that period, figures released by the government showed.

NSW Greens MP John Kaye said the high number of times where the safeguard mechanism was being turned off is evidence of systematic abuse.

"It's very clear the training of police and the regulation of the use of tasers is inadequate," Mr Kaye told ABC Radio on Friday.

"It is time for the NSW government to conduct a thorough inquiry into the use of tasers, into the way the training is working and into the way the police are responding to the opportunities to use tasers," he said.