Police tests of CS spray to go ahead in 16 forces

JASON BENNETTO

Crime Correspondent

CS sprays are to be issued to about 2,500 police patrol officers throughout England and Wales in March, it was announced yesterday.

Chief constables have decided to go ahead with trials of the hand-held incapacitates in 16 forces despite plans for earlier tests being halted after a police instructor was badly injured during a demonstration.

Police chiefs yesterday conceded that the CS spray was potentially dangerous. However, they believe their officers need greater protection from increasingly violent offenders and armed criminals.

Trials of the CS canisters, which are worn on an officer's belt and have a range of up to three metres, will last six months. If successful all officers throughout the country could eventually be issued with the devices. The CS powder is mixed with a solvent inside the canister and sprayed into a person's face. It takes immediate effect and causes streaming eyes and nose, eyelids spasm, breathing difficulties, and in some cases blistering to the skin. Officers will be trained for a day before being given the sprays.

The trials will take place in the Metropolitan Police, and the West Midlands, Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Avon and Somerset, Cambridgeshire, Cleveland, Dorset, Durham, Dyfed-Powys, Kent, Leicestershire, Northumbria, North Yorkshire, West Mercia, and West Yorkshire forces.

They were due to take place last year but where halted after a Metropolitan Police instructor suffered 50 per cent burns to his eyes and had to have them covered for five days. He has warned that the spray is not properly tested and could cause severe injuries to the public. Civil liberty groups have repeatedly argued that not enough is known about the sprays.

Tony Burden, Chief Constable of Gwent and chairman of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) self-defence sub-committee, admitted the sprays to be put on trial were the same as the one that injured the officer, but said the training and guidance on aftercare had been improved. He said: "There's a need to balance concerns about health with the threat of violence for officers on the street. That threat is increasing daily."

He added that there was a belief within the police that the balance of power was too far tipped in favour of the criminal. He emphasised that officers would have to exercise discretion in using CS, and could only use "reasonable force".

Jim Sharples, president of Acpo and Chief Constable of Merseyside, said the sprays were not a substitute for firearms. "There's a gap between the baton and the firearm and this less-than-lethal option fills that gap."

Similar devices are already in use in France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The Home Office and the Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, yesterday welcomed the announcement. David Maclean, the Home Office minister, said research had established that CS did not pose a significant health risk.

n Chief constables also revealed that they had agreed on the structure of a national police squad to combat organised crime. The new body will have an operational wing made up of the existing six regional crime squads, which will be headed by a national co-ordinator, probably a chief constable. A new police authority should be established to oversee the unit.

A separate intelligence gathering wing will be made up of the National Criminal Intelligence Service and a small number of MI5 officers. The police chiefs want NCIS to be independent from the Home Office.