Exclusive
Public Overwhelmingly Back LBC's Call For All Police To Carry Tasers
3 September 2019, 07:20
An exclusive LBC poll suggests 73% of the public think that all police officers in the UK should be armed with tasers.
The survey of Police Federation members in conjunction with LBC is part of Nick Ferrari's campaign, Time For Taser, in which he wrote to the Home Secretary to demand ring-fenced funding to equip all police officers with tasers.
As well as showing overwhelming backing from the public, 89% of police officers say they would want to routinely carry a taser.
Less than 8% said they would prefer not to carry the device.
When we asked the public, 62% of those between 18 and 34 back the idea, with that percentage rising to 81% for those over the age of 55.
Those from the South East are most in favour of police having the opportunity to carry Taser (82%), the East Midlands are the most sceptical towards this, however still over 6 in 10 (64%) said Yes.
44% of the people surveyed said they would feel safer if Police Officers routinely carried Taser.
Whereas only 13% said they would not feel safer, this is higher amongst males (17%) and lower amongst females (10%). In the East of England more than half said they would feel safer (52%) whilst London and Scotland have a higher percentage of people who would not feel safer (London 17%, Scotland 20%).
It comes as a source close to the Home Secretary has said they support LBC's campaign to make officer safety a top priority.
They are looking at ways to help Chiefs roll out Taser to officers who want them where appropriate - these plans could include new funding ring-fenced for Taser, as suggested by LBC.
