It has been announced that the Taser gun will be trialled by police in Florence.
The state, military and finance police will be experimenting the electric weapon in 11 Italian cities—Florence, Milan, Naples, Turin, Bologna, Palermo, Catania, Padua, Caserta, Reggio Emilia and Brindisi. Thirty Tasers have been purchased to date and the trial will follow precise regulations dictated by a interforce committee who will educate the forces on how to use the weapon.
Italy’s Department of Public Safety defines the Taser as a “personal weapon”, which fires electrical pulses that disrupt muscular action from a distance between three and seven metres.
“It is a non-lethal weapon of dissuasion whose use is an important deterrent especially for security operators who patrol the streets and who may find themselves in borderline situations where a deterrent may prove effective, especially to increase the agents’ personal safety,” commented the Minister of the Interior Matteo Salvini.
The Taser is currently used by 107 police forces around the world, including Canada, the UK and the USA, Germany, France and Australia.