English Police to get 10,000 more Taser stun guns

Tens of thousands of police officers across England and Wales are to be allowed to use high-voltage Taser stun guns, the government said on Monday.

Funding will be provided for police chiefs to buy an extra 10,000 of the weapons -- which are designed to temporarily disable a suspect -- after a year-long trial in 10 police forces, a home office spokesman said.

Under the pilot, non-firearms officers were given special training to use the stun guns to deal with potentially violent suspects. Previously, use of Tasers had been restricted to just 6,500 authorised firearms officers.