MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The statistics, provided to the national BBC broadcaster under the Freedom of Information Act, reveal that UK police officers drew, aimed or fired Tasers a total of 38,000 times over the past five years.
According to BBC estimates, 12.7 percent of those tasered by police officers in England and Wales were black and 4.4 percent were Asian. In proportion to the total population, the chance of a black person being stunned stands at 18 in 10,000, while for a white person it is 6 in 10,000, and 3 in 10,000 for an Asian person.
The study indicates that Tasers are mainly used on people aged between 20 and 40. However, the number of young people under 18 involved in such incidents has been on the rise in the past couple of years.
The BBC said the released data showed that on one occasion a Taser was used on a 91-year-old man in Suffolk, East England, although local police could not corroborate the report based on its records.
