According to figures obtained by children’s rights campaigners, half of the children shot by police with stun guns and a third of those restrained using spit hood in England are black or from other minority ethnic groups.
In the first of nine months of last year police in England used electronic stun guns 839 times on people aged under 18 compared with 879 used on children in the whole of 2017. Stun guns use includes any incident in which weapons are drawh or their laser sights are pointed as well as incidents when they were fired and activated.
These findings are published by the Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE). It pointed out the use of both weapons against children of colour – particularly in London. Out of the children who had stun guns used against them in England, 51% were from a minority background, rising to about 70% in London where black children alone accounted for 54% of incidents. Across England, 34% of children were restricted with spit hoods were from ethnic minorities – in London this figure rose to 72%.
In December the Home Office published data on police use of force for the first time which showed that nearly one in 10 incidents involved a child, including 519 incidents involving children under 11. The CRAE report argued the figures are likely to downplay the true scale of the use of force against children.
It said: “During each of these incidents multiple tactics may have been used but they will only be recorded as one incident,”
“A key problem with these statistics is that they don’t disaggregate by age and ethnicity and it is likely that there is underreporting of figures.”
The number of children arrested fell from 87,525 in 2016 to 79,012 in 2017 this is a reduction of more than two-thirds in seven years. Less children going to youth justice system with 14,400 first-time offenders in 2017-18 compared with 16,500 the year before. In 2017-18 the number of children cautioned or sentenced was 26,700 – a 82% drop in a decade.
Louise King, CRAE’s director, said: “It is alarming that there have been year-on-year rises in the use of Tasers and spit hoods against children, including children under 11 years old. Both of these devices can cause serious psychological suffering as well as physical harm and even fatalities. Children have also told us how frightening and traumatising the threat of their use can be.
“The use of Tasers and spit hoods against children should be prohibited. As an immediate first step, police regulations, training and guidance must be revised to ensure this equipment is only ever used as an absolute last resort when all other options have been exhausted.”
