From a recent FOI request, the numbers of tasers purchased by the MoD in the last ten years.
| Year | Type | Qty | Unit Cost | Total Cost |
| 07/08 | Taser X26 | 49 | £800 | £39,200 |
| 09/10 | Taser X26 | 49 | £925 | £45,325 |
| 10/11 | Taser X26 | 20 | £975 | £19,500 |
| 11/12 | Taser X26 | 25 | £975 | £24,375 |
| 11/12 | Taser X26 | 5 | £995 | £4,975 |
| 12/13 | Taser X26 | 8 | £995 | £7,960 |
| 13/14 | Taser X26 | 67 | £1,050 | £70,350 |
| 14/15 | Taser X26 | 150 | £1,050 | £157,500 |
| TOTAL | 373 | £369,185 |
Read the full request here and here and information on the X26 at the Taser website
I’d completely missed that Tasers are being used by the MoD. Are they for riot control, or drunken squaddie control? Seem useful for either purpose.
Would give you an interesting option in riots. Useful for a snatch squad. And an alternative to bouncing rubber bullets of the road just in front of the rioters legs and balls, which depowered them a bit. Not that that ever encouraged extra usage. Oh no, that would be very against the spirit of things. ;)
We raided a house in Belfast once, mid 80s. In the bedside drawer of the suspect’s wife was a black early edition (pointed tip) rubber bullet, about 7 inches long and an inch and a half thick. Can’t imagine why she found it useful….
@RT It is for the MOD police rather than armed forces themselves. They need to have them as a tactical option if they follow the ACPO firearms guidelines.
To be honest I’m quite surprised they actually had any deployments at all. Guessing they were carrying as a tactical option for a non firearms job as well.
Randomer,
I suspect that you may be correct, although in a wider sense MOD PLOD have never seemed even vaguely useful to me. Mostly a lot of fat Charlies with a jobsworth attitude, and no job worth doing that a serviceman could not do better. Must be some quirk of the law I suppose that requires them to exist at all.
Still, the thought of them ever actually tasing anybody is a bit comical. The money spent is probably completely wasted.
But not cheaper RT, that being the point I think
Their are some real dum people out there! –
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ESwnuuSd3_0
To be honest they exist because of the need to protect nuclear deterrent related activities with a civilian force before the RM get involved as the final protective measure. That and protecting the ‘RAF’ bases that are effectively USAF so protestors don’t get a face to face meeting with a USAF SF airmen and pointed carbine.
All the rubbish they tend to put out about defence community policing etc has been cut to the bone by the funding being squeezed.
As another point of merriment the Port of Dover Police, who IIRC have 4 or 5 officers on a shift average more arrests in a single month than MOD Police carry out in a year.
Edited to add:
The MPGS are the long term threat to a lot of the MOD Police taskings. They are considerably cheaper than both PCs and full commitment service personnel.
My mind was definitely running to ModPlod and the Greenham Gals.