The Individual Security of Polish Police Officers in the Context of the Usage of a Stun Gun as a Means of Physical Coercion. A Study Report

The increasing brutalisation of society results in Polish police officers becoming increasingly exposed to threats to their lives and health. In 2016, 311 assaults on police officers took place. A secure police officer equals a secure state and its citizens. This is why it is so important for Polish police forces to be in possession of proper means of physical coercion which ensure their safety while on duty. The Act on means of physical coercion and firearms of 5 June 2013 specifies the range of the means of physical coercion permissible for use by police officers. However, the most important of these are individual means with which a police officer is equipped. Research conducted among Polish police officers demonstrates which individual means of physical coercion available to them are used most frequently for the purpose of ensuring safety on duty. Undoubtedly, the key measure is the object designated by the said law to incapacitate people using electricity, colloquially referred to as an electric stun gun, a stunner or a taser. This measure of direct coercion, present in the equipment of the Polish Police since 2007, is gaining in importance, as evidenced by the conducted research and the data on the use of electric stunner by police officers.