New Zealand police are set to carry a double-shot Taser stun gun that fires two high-powered charges without officers having to reload.
Superintendent John Rivers confirmed yesterday the force had started planning to replace its "fleet'' of Taser X26s with a "more current model'', the Taser X2 that allows for a "back-up shot''.
"The routine and pre-programmed replacement of the New Zealand Police Taser fleet means police have the opportunity to replace the fleet with the most up-to-date model,'' he said.
The new model is similar to the version currently in use, firing two small prongs that attach to a suspect's clothing or body.
Mr Rivers said it delivered high-voltage electrical pulses designed to "incapacitate the offender''.
But it comes with more built-in "self-diagnostic computing tools'' and can fire two cartridges without manual reloading which can be challenging in high-risk standoffs, he added.
The development comes after several incidents in which the older model failed to work on armed suspects.
In July 2010 police in Auckland shot a 38-year-old man after a Taser proved ineffective. A week earlier the stun gun failed during an incident in Christchurch in which two officers were shot and a police dog was killed.
Less than a fortnight ago, a 27-year-old Somali man was tasered then shot by police after an alleged kidnapping and stabbing rampage, also in Christchurch.
The man was pepper-sprayed then tasered, but eye-witnesses said the electrical shock did not work and "only made him angrier''.
Green Party police spokesman David Clendon said this could be a "creep'' towards Tasers being used more regularly, something the party was worried about before they were trialled in 2007.
"I would like to see the justification by the police, why they would need such a weapon.
"We know that the weapons can be lethal, there have been recent examples internationally of people being killed by being tasered, I'm sure nobody wants that, including the police.''
He was worried the more powerful models could normalise high-level responses over lower-level responses.
"We don't want these things to become the default response, rather than a high-end response to extreme situations.
"They are capable of killing people, and not necessarily old people, or frail people. We have had examples of quite young, fit people being killed by these things internationally.''
Mr Rivers said the national Taser programme had been "a resounding success'' in ensuring violent offenders were "prevented from achieving their goal of violence, fear, harm and victimisation''.
"The Taser programme in New Zealand has ... safely concluded many violent and potentially lethal incidents with minimum injuries to the public, police and offenders alike.
"The mere presentation of a taser is sufficient to stop violent and threatening behaviour 80 per cent of the time and this makes the taser a valuable tactical option.''
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