SOUTH Wales police used tasers more than 700 times in a year and disproportionately against black people, figures suggest.

Home Office data shows that South Wales Police drew Tasers 764 times in the year to March 2020, though officers only discharged the electric shock weapons on 79 occasions.

The figures show that where the subject's ethnicity was recorded, 631 incidents of Taser use involved white people, compared to 61 involving black people. In seven cases, no ethnicity was recorded.

It meant black people were involved in 8 per cent of all taser incidents, despite representing 1 per cent of the population, according to the latest population estimates at police force level.

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The figures count the number of times officers involved in an incident used their Taser rather than the number of separate incidents.

South Wales Police told the Penarth Times: "The use of Taser by South Wales Police officers is proportionate and frequently prevents harm both to police officers and to the individual being restrained as well as to members of the public.

"In many cases, the presence of a Taser alone is enough to calm an offender or an individual who is in crisis, and in the vast majority of incidents the Taser is not discharged. 

"Despite that evidence of benefit, the deployment of Taser is very carefully controlled, and enormous care is taken when training officers who will carry Taser to ensure that they fully understand their responsibilities.

"The use of Taser covers three elements, namely deploying the Taser, aiming a red dot at the suspect or firing. Its use is carefully and responsibly overseen and Tasers are only used to prevent harm to victims, the wider public, police officers and offenders themselves."

Across England and Wales, black people were eight times more likely to be subject to use of Taser than white people in 2019-20, according to the IOPC report.

Chief Constable Lucy D'Orsi, the NPCC's lead for less lethal weapons, said the work to understand and tackle racial disproportionalities in Taser use would remain a policing priority.

She added: "We do not yet understand the reason for this and that’s why, for over a year and a half, we have been working with national independent advisors and the College of Policing to independently review this disproportionality."

She added: "Policing is not easy and in many violent situations I believe Taser is a viable less lethal option for officers between using a baton and the lethal force of a gun.

"Officers are well trained to use the reasonable force given to them in law to confront the violence or threat of violence they are faced with when they protect the public and themselves."

The IOPC report warned that police risked losing public confidence if concerns around Taser use were not addressed through improvements to guidance, training and scrutiny.

IOPC director Michael Lockwood said forces must be able to justify the circumstances in which Tasers are deployed.