Tasers used 15 times by gardaí since December

Eva Osborne

Members of An Garda Síochána have used tasers 15 times since the launch of the taser pilot programme in December 2025.

The taser pilot launched in four locations - Store Street, Pearse Street, and Kevin Street in Dublin, and Waterford - with 167 gardaí completing their training and being provided with tasers.

The taser pilot programme has now been extended for six months until the end of 2026, and has also been expanded to the Limerick Division.

A Garda Síochána said tasers have proven to be successful at de-escalating volatile and violent incidents. In six of the 15 incidents, a weapon was produced by the subject.

Of the 15 uses, there were three discharges, five instances of drawing and arming, and seven where the subject had the taser’s laser pointed at them by gardaí.

There were no serious injuries incurred by either subjects or gardaí in these 15 incidents, An Garda Síochána said.

In seven of these cases, the subject was arrested and subsequently charged. In one case, the subject fled and was not apprehended, and in three cases the person was detained and assessed in accordance of Section 12 of the Mental Health Act 2001, while one further subject was brought to hospital for an issue not related to the use of Garda force.

All three discharges were referred to the police ombudsman, Fiosrú, as per Garda policy.

In one instance, gardaí received a report of a domestic violence incident at a residential address. Regular uniform gardaí responded and arrived at the scene.

They met with the female victim who reported that she and her son had been assaulted by a former male partner, resulting in bite marks on the forearms of both the victim and her son. The injuries were observed by gardaí and another child was also present during the incident.

On approaching the suspect inside the house, he became extremely aggressive towards gardaí. One of the gardaí drew their taser from the holster.

A Garda spokesperson said: "The visible presence of the device resulted in the suspect reassessing their behaviour and the situation de-escalated without physical force, injury, or further escalation.

"The suspect was arrested, detained and subsequently charged. The case remains before the courts."

Deputy Commissioner for security, Paul Cleary, said: "As we said at the launch of the pilot, one of the key measures of success during this pilot is to de-escalate and to avoid harm, not the number of times a device is discharged.

"In fact, harm to the person arrested has also likely been avoided as the drawing, aiming and laser painting has meant that other uses of force such as baton did not need to be used.

"The taser pilot has demonstrated the effectiveness of the taser as a de-escalation tool. The presence and controlled use of the device in the pilot areas has enabled gardaí to resolve volatile situations calmly and often without having to resorting to discharge of the taser.

"It has also been welcomed by gardaí and local Garda management as providing additional protection to our personnel who have to deal with a wide variety of potentially violent situations on a daily basis.

"We will now extend the pilot to Limerick as this will enable us to provide gardaí there with another valuable tool along with their body-cams.

"It will also help us to capture more data on taser usage which is required to fully inform the final decision by Garda management on taser deployment more widely across the country.”