I want to clear some points that people are getting very wrong about taser.
(Source serving officer with loads of taser experience under my belt)
Firstly it is up to the chief constable of each force to decide to what extent taser is distributed between the officers.
If you go back to the early 2000s you will have seen that teaser was treated like an AEP launcher or a firearm with only firearms units being equiped with the CED (more commonly known as a Taser )
Fast forward to now, many forces are making it a piece of standard kit.
All officers that want to carry need to meet homeoffice standards by completing a national course in house usally at their force training centre, if successfull that means that they are now Specially Trained Officers (STOs) with training to deal with more high risk incidents where a taser deployment is required rather than unarmed officers intervening whether that be due to risk or weapons or tactics ect.
Just because everyone can carry does not mean
1 that everyone should (maybe due to behaviour or jumpyness leading to increased risk of overuse) and
2 are capable as its a massive responsibility as its classified as a lesss than lethal meaning if you use it you could kill someone and be charged with murder if you are found to have not followed policy or other factors.
I have dealt with somone who has had all 3, taser pava and been bitten by a police dog and he said that Pava is the worst as it keeps burning for nearly an hour and then taser then a dog bite.
TASER IS NOT A SUBSITUTE FOR A DOG AND SHOULD NOT BE TREATED AS ONE
A dog is tactical resource forcewide, a taser officer is a local unit usually.
A firearms trained dog will be sent in prior to firearms officers entering buildings.
A dog is a much more powerfull tool than a taser in many circumstances
EG Male with Acute behavioral Discorder (read about it here from Kent police -
https://www.kent.police.uk/foi…0a%20strenuous%20struggle.
These types of people expecially on drugs can be chaos, an incident where a male was taken to the local A&E with the above resulted in him breaking the cuffs and flooring two officers, panic button pressed everyone turns up, he was tased 4 times by 2 STOs failed to have any action, in this time he took down another officer,
Dog unit arrives and released the dog which pulled him to the ground and kept hold of him allowing officers and NHS staff to restrain and sedate him.
Taser is a wonderfull tool but will never replace teams such as firearms or dogs.