A police officer has recounted how the threat of a Taser helped subdue a ‘very large male violently resisting arrest’.

In a Facebook post the unnamed Essex Police officer detailed how presenting the Taser, without discharging it, helped de-escalate a ‘dangerous situation’ at the side of a motorway.

Shortly after midnight on Thursday, July 9 officers patrolling the M25 around the Bell Common, Epping, pulled over a man driving a van at 70mph.

Police attempted to arrest the man on suspicion of drug driving, “which is where it all went wrong”, explained the policeman.

“The (very large) male violently resisted and had an unnatural sense of strength – now you don’t particularly want to be struggling with someone next to a busy road, you certainly don’t when you are dangerously close to the live lanes of a busy motorway, at night, in the rain”, he said.

Epping Forest Guardian:

Alerted to the emergency assistance button – “the little orange ‘Avengers assemble’ button” – activation from officers at the scene, the policeman made his way to the incident.

“Now I’m not a small officer, in fact gravity pays quite a lot of attention to me and I’m not afraid of conflict, confident I can use both my mouth and if need be, training and PPE to handle most situations however both officers on scene were from my shift – one officer was 6’5” and well built, the other whilst smaller was still very capable of handling himself – so to hear they had their hands full and needed help was certainly a worry,” he said.

“Thankfully I was equipped with a Taser device which is capable of discharging a controlled burst of electricity through metal probes fired into the body which then cause a temporary muscular incapacitation for a few seconds, physically preventing them from fighting, allowing us to control and retrain a violent suspect where needed and justified.

“This is the worst case scenario however and often merely the sight of it on an officers tac vest or equipment belt has the desired effect, as does aiming the two red dots of light onto their body which tends to focus the mind, knowing what could follow.

Epping Forest Guardian:

"We can also arc the electricity between the probes at the end which causes a very impactive and loud sparking before actually firing as a last resort if that doesn’t persuade them to calm down and comply with instructions, as you will see below however this is quite rare.”

When the policeman arrived at the scene he targeted the red aiming dots on the suspect and commanded him to stop resisting.

“He knew exactly what the Taser was and it being aimed on him immediately de-escalated the situation, allowing the male to be taken to the ground and controlled then transferred into a prison van and conveyed to custody.”

One of the officers suffered a broken finger during the struggle and is recovering at home “with no permanent effects”.

The policeman added: “The dangerous situation at the side of the live motorway with a violent male meant we could have used our batons, potentially causing the male serious injuries in order to prevent officers being pushed or thrown into traffic, we could also have used our CS spray however all it took was shining two small red lights at him to completely deflate all the aggression and risk with no further harm to him or us.”

If an officer draws, aims and places a Taser red dot on the suspect, without harming them, the weapon is classed as ‘used’ but not discharged.

According to Home Office figures, in police incidents across the UK between March 2017 – 2018 Tasers were not discharged in 85 per cent of the cases they were used.

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