Mary Cunneen, associate director of Liberty, says:


"First of all, these weapons must be medically proven safe before their introduction. They should only ever be an alternative to using firearms - if they mean people can be safely tackled who would otherwise be shot, then that's a welcome improvement. But it must not lead to any wider use - it must be solely about options to reduce the force used by police, not about escalating armouries. The police have a clear duty only ever to use the minimum necessary force, and only to use their weapons defensively. There have been too many cases of police using weapons aggressively; that remains totally unacceptable. Proper research, controls & guidelines and training of officers would also be essential".