Use of Taser - West Midlands Police, September 2018

On 1 September 2018, West Midlands Police officers responded to an incident in Coventry, where a group of young men had been identified as the perpetrators of an earlier assault. The officers went into a takeaway shop to arrest the suspects, who resisted arrest and there was a physical altercation between the young men and officers.

One officer drew and attempted to discharge his Taser. On the third attempt, the taser barbs connected with a 17-year-old man. He remained standing for a short period before falling to the floor and remaining there. An ambulance was requested alongside police backup.

The officer also discharged his incapacitant spray in the face of one of the other youths and then discharged it in the same youth’s face for a second time.

Officers then proceeded to give the tasered man CPR, as he was unconscious. An ambulance arrived, and he was conveyed to hospital having suffered a cardiac arrest.

The young man made a full recovery and was discharged from hospital on 4 September 2018.

This came to the attention of the IOPC on 3 September 2018 as a Death or Serious Injury (DSI) referral.

Our investigators obtained witness statements from police officers and an expert police tactical firearms instructor from a different police force. We reviewed CCTV footage from the takeaway shop in which the incident took place. We seized mobile phone footage from members of the public and obtained a Taser download and radio transmissions which we individually analysed and compared to the officer’s accounts and comments from the expert.

Our investigation concluded in December 2019 and found there was no indication any police officer had behaved in a manner that would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings or had committed a criminal offence and the report did not raise any performance issues.

We shared our report with West Midlands Police who agreed with our conclusions.

During our investigation we identified some areas for learning around warnings ahead of the use of Tasers, ensuring restraint after Taser use and ensuring the use of force is properly recorded.