Volunteer police officers in Cheshire are being given the option to be equipped with Tasers.
Cheshire Police is set to become the first Home Office police force in the North West to equip its volunteer officers with the weapons.
Experienced Special Constables across Cheshire will be given the opportunity to apply to be trained in using Taser.
The force is the 7th in the UK to equip their volunteer officers with the Conducted Energy Devices.
It currently has around 170 volunteer Special police officers.
But they had not been authorised to carry a Taser until a change in legislation in May last year.
Officers will only be issued with a device after they meet the College of Policing and Home Office stringent requirements.
This includes frontline experience with at least 12 months spent qualified to patrol independently.
They will also undergo a four-day intense training course in how to use the device safely, correctly and meet the same required standards and assessment.
Special Constabulary Chief Officer Leon Boland said: “The Special Constabulary plays a huge part in day-to-day policing here in Cheshire, giving over 5,000 hours a month, our volunteers regularly dedicate incredible amounts of their own time to maintain public and police safety.
“Our volunteer police officers are professional, highly skilled and trained volunteers who want to give back to their community in a unique way, they come from all backgrounds including, medical professionals, airline pilots, teachers and business owners.
“Specials often attend emergency incidents first, putting themselves in danger alongside full-time officers to protect people in our community.
“Taser is an important tool available to us in policing and we want to assure the public that our volunteer officers will, quite rightly, be expected to undergo the same rigorous training as their full-time counterparts before they have access to any Conducted Energy Devices.
“We will start to begin the training of Taser to our voluntary officers in a phased approach, this will begin from November and it will now mean that our officers are further able to protect themselves and the general public when dealing with the threat from the small minority of people that wish to cause harm to both the police and the public.”
Assistant Chief Constable Bill Dutton added: “With the change in legislation enabling Special Constables to join the police federation, we are able to select the appropriately experienced officers and equip them in this way to give them greater skills to protect the public and themselves from danger.
“Over the last 12 month the support and involvement our volunteer officers receive has increased significantly and we are able to involve them across a broader range of policing challenges, every day.”
The force will be recruiting Special Constables and applications are open to anyone who may be interested in the role.
To apply, or to find out more about becoming a volunteer police officer, visit the careers page.
The deadline for applications is November 14 2023 for March 2024 start.
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