Gazette readers share their views on country's police officers carrying Tasers

A multi-million pound Government fund has been made available to supply police forces in England and Wales with Taser stun guns.

We asked in our daily Facebook poll: “Do you think every officer should be allowed to carry a Taser?”

More than 500 voters took part in the online vote and a majority of 83% said ‘yes’ in response to the question, agreeing that every officer should be allowed to carry a taser.

This is what readers had to say:

Louise Moore said: “100% yes, we need to protect the officers we have. Due to reduced numbers of front line officers they don't always have colleagues to back them up.

“New officers are coming through but will take years to see any real impact on front line numbers.

“If we don't protect the officers we have now we will end up with even less on the streets.”

David Douglas said: “On the assumption that the Taser rollout is in addition to an increase in police numbers, I say yes.”

Glenn Schindler said: “Our police should have firearms not just tasers, dangerous times and our police should be allowed to defend themselves. I bet you would see a drastic drop in serious crime.”

Michael Butler said: “No contest. With immediate effect.”

Patrick Lesca said: “They don’t carry fire arms to start with so this is a must have requirement to protect themselves.”