Mandatory training
Using a “less lethal” weapon, such as the taser, does not mean there is no risk. “Extensive training and subsequent regular training sessions are important conditions that must be met before police officers are allowed to take the weapon on duty. In addition, it is up to each local body to decide whether or not to deploy electric shock guns.”she specifies.
The impulses from this weapon cause muscle paralysis for a few seconds and thus allow the police to apprehend a person in safe conditions in order, for example, to remove a knife or handcuff them. “The use of a conducted energy weapon is, like any other weapon, subject to regulations on the use of force by the police. Thus, the principles of legality, appropriateness, proportionality and subsidiarity must always be respected.”according to the minister Verlinden.
On the outskirts of Brussels, a police zone is implementing a technique to counter Waze
In 2017, a pilot project was launched in which 15 local police areas, which already had a special assistance unit, trained several police officers from the regular response service. During this process, the deployment and use of the electric pulse weapon was the subject of “a thorough and constant evaluation. This is ultimately at the request of the police services themselves, in view of of the positive final evaluation, that the electric pulse weapon was included in the category of collective weaponry”, she concludes.
