Taser used by officers from 2020/21 to 2022/23

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.23.030290

I note you seek access to the following information:

Please may you provide me with:

- The number of times officers used a taser over the past three years. Can you break this down by year and borough please?

- The number or times a person died/ injured or was hospitalised as a result of being Tasered by an officer. Can you break this up by number of deaths and injuries please?

- In the cases where people died/were injured or hospitalised - why were they pursued and/or why was the Taser used?

Decision

I have today decided to disclose some of the requested information. Some data has been withheld as it is exempt from disclosure and therefore this response serves as a Refusal Notice under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act) by virtue of the following exemptions:

Section 40(2)(3A) – Personal Information

Reason for decision

A Freedom of Information Act request is not a private transaction. Both the request itself, and any information disclosed, are considered suitable for open publication.

This is because, under Freedom of Information, any information disclosed is released into the wider public domain, effectively to the world and not just to one individual.

Where an individual is requesting his or her own personal data, the information is always exempt.

Where an individual is requesting third party personal data, such as in this case, the MPS must ensure that any action taken adheres to the principles of the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK GDPR. To clarify, the Freedom of Information Act only allows disclosure of personal data if that disclosure would be compliant with the principles for processing personal data. These principles are outlined under section 34 of the DPA 2018 and under Article 5 of the UK GDPR.

The MPS recognises that there may be a legitimate public interest in disclosing the information requested. A legitimate interest is inherent in the disclosure of information upon request under the Freedom of Information Act given the associated benefit of enhancing the transparency and accountability of public. However, under the Act we must consider whether it is lawful to do so.

In this case, section 40(2) and 40(3A) (Personal Data) of the Act applies, as disclosure of this information would be in breach of the first principle, and it is therefore necessary to maintain the exemption in this case. The disclosure of this information under the Act is not necessary or proportionate in the circumstances, and therefore there is no legal gateway under the Act in which to release it.

Disclosure

Q1 - The number of times officers used a Taser over the past three years. Can you break this down by year and borough please?

Below is the data we have collected for the last 3 financial years for each borough. Please note the yearly totals are higher than the sum of all borough figures as we have Taser trained officers in other departments that operate across London.

Area	2020/21	2021/22	2022/23
AS	948	600	426
AW	583	462	470
CE	478	423	348
CN	399	363	342
EA	408	430	435
NA	379	328	308
NE	462	352	336
NW	477	409	364
SE	820	489	568
SN	648	671	444
SW	466	424	341
WA	433	371	353
Yearly Total including non- Borough	9506	7654	6839

Q2 - The number or times a person died/ injured or was hospitalised as a result of being Tasered by an officer. Can you break this up by number of deaths and injuries please?

The data we collect is accrued month on month, and as a result of this the current data only goes up until the end of March 2023. Up until that data there were no deaths directly attributed to Taser usage in the Met. Additionally there was a period of time whereby standard practise was to take every subject of a Taser activation to hospital, regardless of whether they were injured or not. We do hold data on serious injuries, and in the last 3 financial years we recorded 27 serious injuries, which is 0.11% of uses.

Q3 - In the cases where people died/were injured or hospitalised - why were they pursued and/or why was the Taser used?

There are a number of reasons why officers pursue subjects and/or utilise their Tasers, unfortunately we are unable to release details of specific instances or individual cases. The Sect 40 exemption has been applied to this information.

Advice and Assistance

You may find the following links to information regarding Use of Force of interest:

Please visit the following link for MPS Use of Force data. Website:

MPS - Use of Force Dashboard
and
Police use of force statistics, England and Wales: April 2021 to March 2022 - Use of force by reason impact factors and outcomes