Get the data – Children tasered by police officers

OpenWorld News has today revealed how young children have been shot by police officers with 50,000-volt Taser stun guns.

You can see more about our investigation here.

Now we’re making all the data – from police forces across England and Wales – available to download on this page. 

Any media using the data must credit “OpenWorld News”.

The latest data now includes responses from 27 police forces.

Below is the most up-to-date table, and below that is a list of police forces. Where available you can click to download the original FOI response.

Main points:

– The youngest child tasered is a 12-year-old girl who was shot in St Helens by Merseyside Police. You can see their response here and here, along with a media statement about the incident released following our questions to the force.

– The responses from the 27 forces show Tasers have been deployed at least 194 times against children aged 16 and under in 2010, 2011, and 2012.

– It includes 24 children aged 16 and under being shot with a Taser, where an officer pulls the trigger to shoot out a barb on wires, delivering 50,000 volts.

– Six children aged 14 were hit. The forces include Northumbria who shot two 14-year-olds, Gwent, Merseyside, Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire.

– 15-year-old children were shot by the following police forces: Avon and Somerset, Dyfed Powys, Essex and Nottinghamshire.

Incidents:

A 12-year-girl was shot in St Helens by Merseyside Police after she was said to have armed her herself with two knives and threatening to harm herself.
Two 11-year-old boys armed with knives in Crewe were targeted by red laser dots from a Taser.
A 14-year-old girl in Nottingham was accidentally shot as officers tried to arrest a suspect in the city.
A 14-year-old burglary suspect armed with a screwdriver was shot in Gwent, south Wales.
A 14-year-old was shot with Taser in Northumbria after the teen attacked another person with cosh – a truncheon-like weapon.
A 14-year-old was shot by armed officers in Warwickshire who was alleged to have been armed with a knife and “being racially abusive”.
A 14-year-old boy was drive-stunned in York for resisting arrest.
A 12-year-old girl armed with a knife was red-dotted in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, by armed officers.
A 15-year-old was shot in Frome, Somerset, after an alleged assault.
A 15-year-old was Tasered in Nottinghamshire after apparently being violent towards an officer and carrying a knuckle duster.
A 15-year-old was red-dotted in Kent after fleeing from a stolen vehicle. The officer used the Taser light “as a torch to locate subject hiding in bushes”.
A 15-year-old was red-dotted in Kent after “holding a pool cue in a threatening manner”.
A 15-year-old had the red laser dot shined at him when police believed his eyes had become “squinted” as if ready to attack in the West Country.
An “aggressive” 13-year-old girl “suffering mental imbalance” had a Taser aimed at her after being found in possession of a number of knives in Gwent.