A 12-year-old girl with a large knife and a 14-year-old boy holding a potato peeler were among teens who the police aimed Tasers at over the last year in Glasgow. 

The officers did not fire the stun guns but pointed the red dot laser at the youngsters.

The incidents were among a very small number involving under 18s in the greater Glasgow area.

Police revealed the weapons have been fired only nine times over the past 12 months, and only discharged once against a person under the age 18.

Two 17-year-old males in possession of a knife and broken glass saw a Taser aimed at them but not discharged.

Officers also ‘red dotted’  a 16-year-old male who threatened to stab paramedics, but he was not tasered. 

Police Inspector James Young told a council meeting this week only one per cent of taser use involved those under 18 between April 2022 and March 31 this year.

Inspector Young said in relation to the young people: “We apply significant scrutiny to those types of incidents. There was seven uses during the reporting period where a Taser was used on persons under the age of 18 with only one discharge.”

About 92 per cent of Taser incidents involved male criminals while only about seven percent related to women. The weapons were mostly pulled out against those aged between 18 and 30.

Tasers were taken out of holsters 90 times and were  fired nine times over the year in the Glasgow area compared to 72 discharges nationally.

There are currently 169 trained taser officers in Glasgow with that figure expected to grow. It is understood the officers turned up to 844 incidents during the period. 

Inspector Young said: “Although Greater Glasgow has the highest proportion of incidents that taser officers attend they have one of the lowest discharge rates in Scotland, which shows us that although the taser officers are being sent to more incidents and dealing with more incidents they are using the device extremely proportionately and in line with their training.”

He told councillors attending the Safe Glasgow Partnership: “We have a very robust and rigorous review and governance of all taser use by our taser officers.  We have a weekly taser review group where we scrutinise everytime a Taser is taken out of a holster to ensure it is a appropriate and proportionate in the circumstances. From that we take any lessons learned or identified issues and progress them appropriately.”

Every time a Taser is discharged it is reported to the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (PIRC) in Scotland.  Inspector Young said officers must “ undergo the most rigorous selection process of all UK forces” and extensive training before they qualify to carry Tasers.

The meeting heard figures showed there was no disproportionate use of Tasers towards ethnic minorities.  SNP councillor Graham Campbell expressed concerns about Tasers being “lethal weapons.”

He said: “We definitely need them  but are  they being called to the right types of incidents and should officers have that discretion or should they be called for from headquarters?”

Glasgow Times:

Chief Superintendent Mark Sutherland said: “There is a really sound approach to governance, to control, to training, to quality assurance and we have seen the deployments are very low and particularly the deployments of discharge are very low in Glasgow.”

Superintendent Sutherland added that he would describe Taser as being “less lethal” and Taser officers are going to incidents where historically it would have seen an armed response.