Austria has been hesitant in the past to roll out the Taser, which is popular with police forces across the world, due to reports of people dying after getting electro-shocked.
Austria is considering adopting the Taser electro-shock weapon across its entire police force.
Police officers are trialling the weapon system in three high-crime areas of the capital Vienna, among them the Praterstern subway station and the 10th district.
Around 70 Taser units will be procured initially, the police announced on Thursday.
“It’s not like I’m putting a Taser in my holster and now I can do whatever I want. Now I have a wonder weapon. Past operations have shown that it is not a wonder weapon,” said the head of division for police special forces, Ernst Albrecht.
“It’s not a magic wand that allows you to freeze a situation. But it is a very difficult use case. Therefore, we want to make very, very sure that the training will be very intensive.”
A police spokesperson rejected claims that the potential adoption of the weapon was due to increased violence between migrant gangs in the country.
Instead he said the weapon system was part of a broader push to further modernise the equipment of the Austrian police, according to federal police chief Michael Takacs.
Austria has been hesitant in the past to roll out the Taser, which is popular with police forces across the world, due to reports of people dying after getting electro-shocked.
Special units like WEGA and EKO have been using the weapon since 2012 with 700 units in use today.
Now the plan is to equip every officer in the country.
Former commander of Austria’s special police unit WEGA Ernst Albrecht said the Taser could be useful in certain situations.
“The Taser is very useful when it comes to people who want to hurt themselves. There are situations where we as the police are powerless because we know that when we take three steps towards that person he’s going to slit his throat. In such a case the Taser might be a possibility,” he explained.
If the Vienna trial is successful, Austria could purchase up to 34,000 Tasers for its police force.
