Tasers not to be fired indiscriminately, Police assure

– officers trained for controlled use, amid rising attacks especially against traffic ranks

Amid growing public concern over aggressive drivers and recent viral videos showing citizens physically attacking traffic ranks, senior officials of the Guyana Police Force are reaffirming that tasers, newly deployed non-lethal weapons, will be used only with clear justification and restraint.

Speaking on a recent programme of Road Safety and You, Assistant Superintendent Sherwin Henry, from the Traffic Headquarters’ Education Section, emphasised that the tasers, or “conducted energy weapons,” have been introduced as a safer alternative to lethal force, but that they are not to be used indiscriminately.
“It is not the instrument being used to intentionally injure people or so,” ASP Henry explained. “It is being used to maintain and control a situation.” Officers, he added, are required to follow a use-of-force continuum that includes verbal warnings and situational assessment before a taser is discharged.
“They will give them a verbal warning to desist from the behaviour… and if the drivers continue to behave in such a manner, they will have to use it,” Henry said. “Ranks are being trained with it in the way they should use it… with justification and within the force policy.”
The taser’s physical effect is temporary, meant to subdue, not harm. “It just temporarily incapacitates the driver or whoever… It is being aimed to the body – except the head and the groin area,” he clarified. “So, when it’s being shot – there’s two prongs being done—one will hit the upper part and the other will hit the lower part.”

Henry also outlined the situational precautions required during use.
“We gotta ensure the areas around [the target] is very much safe… because when you’re being hit with it, you might fall,” he said. “We are also looking at persons, vulnerable, like children, we will not choose to use [the taser] on them.”
This comes days after Traffic Chief Assistant Commissioner Mahendra Singh issued a strong public warning, citing increasing assaults on law enforcement. Singh made it clear that traffic offenders who violently resist or attack officers will now be subdued using tasers and arrested.
“I want to re-emphasise that this type of behaviour by our citizens will not be condoned by the Guyana Police Force (GPF),” Singh declared. “Offenders who are willing to attack law enforcement officers… especially traffic policemen, will be tased with the use of taser guns, arrested and brought to justice.”
According to Singh, the decision follows “recent social media posts of members of the public violently assaulting and resisting police ranks in uniform with impunity.”
He noted that all traffic officers are being trained in less-than-lethal and non-lethal tactics in accordance with the Police Act Chapter 16:01.
“No longer will members of the public be allowed to violently assault members of the Force with impunity when enforcing the laws,” Singh added.
The use of tasers is grounded in legislation under the Police Amendment Act 13 of 2021, Section 2(b), which makes provisions for less-lethal weapons. Officers have also been instructed to consider environmental factors, such as whether the person is standing near traffic or flammable material, before activating the device.
Public safety advocates and former lawmen are backing the policy shift. “It makes no sense that the police are there to protect, but there’s nothing to protect the police,” said Earl Lambert, Chairman of the National Road Safety Council.
“You see videos on social media of people tumbling with somebody in uniform, and you’re wondering where we are, if we are in the Wild West,” he said.
As the GPF expands its modernisation efforts, authorities are promising more public education on the role and limits of tasers. “This is not something just coming and throwing at you,” Henry said. “Systems would have been put in place long before… and it’s being enforced now.”