'nuff said

One of those mini ones you get on roadworks or a proper monster one?

I've often wondered why police helicopters weren't armed with TOW missiles, which could bring most car chases to a rapid and successful conclusion. The use of a non-lethal weapon in this case, though, is interesting and probably more acceptable to the lilly-livered-liberals, together with the AA and other roads lobbyists. Extrapolating the situation up to a faster-moving perp vehicle and closed windows complicates things somewhat, but I'm sure there are technical solutions out there somewhere.

Does not matter. Any of them can be used to dig out a cash machine from a wall. That is what they are usually stolen for.

I wonder if there are any guidelines about tasering people whilst they're driving on a public highway. Not that I can think of any other way of safely stopping a tracked JCB.

"Pc"

Why? You do realise it's an acronym, don't you? PC = Police Constable. "Pc" would generally mean "piece" (ref: "pcs", pieces).

As for the JCB man, he tried to defend himself by saying the police distracted him? Did nobody think to ask why the police officer was there in the first place? Circular logic. Deserves what he gets.

... Nizlopi clearly have a lot to answer for.

You do realise "PC" isn't an acronym, don't you? As the letters are pronounced individually it is an initialism. See http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronyms-grammar.aspx

WTF is a JCB?

/Paris, because she doesn't know either.

i second that a playmobil reconstruction forthwith!

"Don't taze me bro!" comment.

Maybe 'cos the plods were out doing some work (arresting trafficked paedophile terrorist photographers?), and the tooled-up ones were sat around at the station polishing their glocks again!

I thought tazers were to be used instead of guns.

Would someone making a very ... slow ... getaway ... ("we'll never catch them, who's up for a beer?") be deserving of a gunshot?

No?

THEN WHAT THE FUCK WAS THE TAZERING FOR???

Because the pissant little fairies in blue may have got a hurty wurty?

There exist conductive fabrics (www.lessemf.com) which will short out a Taser's "zap", allowing you to continue doing whatever you were doing without distraction...

http://www.diggerland.com/

"Because the pissant little fairies in blue may have got a hurty wurty?"

Because anyone else could have got hurt by the bloody great monstrosity, perfectly capable of driving over a car? It's a danger to the public.

Or would you prefer it for them to have tried to climb inside a large moving vehicle and to struggle theatrically with the driver?

They should have used a real firearm.

I was wondering that too, so I checked with wiki<youknowwhere>

"JCB, or J. C. Bamford (Excavators) Ltd. as it is more properly known, is a family business named after its founder J. C. Bamford, producing distinctive yellow-and-black engineering vehicles, diggers ("Backhoes"), excavators, tractors, and diesel engines. In the UK, the word "JCB" is sometimes used colloquially as a genericised description for any such type of engineering vehicle, now appearing in the Oxford English Dictionary, although it is still held as a trademark. JCB now makes over 300 types of machines for construction, industry, and agriculture. In 2007 the company's turnover was £2.25 billion."

Proably in this case it's a mini-excavator. "the mechanical digger shed its tracks " but since the PC was able to attempt to taser the thief, it sounds like they were at a level, which a full sized excavator would not be the case.

Typical police over reaction.

Thanks Keith.

We'd commonly refer to those as a "Bobcat" in my neck of the woods. (Canada)

If he expects to sustain that speed for a pursuit [hypothetically, until fuel runs out], he's a super-olympic athlete I guess.

http://www.jcbdieselmax.com/html/home.php

I don't think many police pursuit cars would catch it - in a straight line, anyway!

Paris because I think she's quite pretty really. No other reason.

Right...it should have been a shiny metal one and do up the job right.

Let's see...11 priors. Oh yeah, career crim here. Let's just slap him on the wrist and turn

'im loose on society to do more mischief. Maybe a fitting with one of those exploding neck

collars would do the trick.

I was working in Canada and talking about a JCB - nobody knew what i meant.

I wish you guys would learn to speak English.

Apparently they are called "back-hoes" not "yellow digger things" which was the only translation I could come up with.

Hey, U callin' me a hoe?

Why send an ARU?

It depends on the force area I guess, but in most they double as traffic units since they are usually pursuit trained and the cars are up to it. Since they often have a lower workload it makes sense rather than having them sat around the station waiting for a comparitively rare (in most areas compared to traffic) firearms incident.

As for the tasering, I'm curious as to how you'd have attempted to stop a JCB. It's not like a tactical stop is going to work, or stingers, or boxing it in. And it would be too dangerous to jump into the cab - all it would take is a size 10 in your face to throw you onto the tracks. It's probably got a decent sized fuel tank so can keep going for a reasonably long time, and if the drivers already swerved at the copper, who's to say he won't start swerving at pedestrians or drive into someones house? The officer was probably hoping that once he'd been tasered he'd have given up. It's a logical assumption.

And of course tasers aren't replacements for firearms - they have an effective range of around 5 meters. They fill a similar role to the H&K Baton gun but on a more general issue, IE they provide a less lethal option for use generally on suspects armed with a weapon other than firearms, who would previously have been shot. However the intention is clearly to slot them below this even - Baton guns require you to be firearms qualified and then (in the MDP at least) do an additional course to qualify on the Baton Gun itself.

I'm assuming the officer believed that after being tasered the driver would give up. It's not an unreasonable assumption in my mind - if someone shot me with a taser and I knew they could do it again and again, I'd stop what I was doing and comply. Wouldn't you?

I think the police did alright !

Common a digger can cause some serious damage,

and as for an uncocious man at the wheel, well its sounds like they wernt exactly in the middle of the city if he stuck in a field !

So before we condemn the police for tazering somebody when we dont know the situation fully !!!

Anyway he said the guy swerved at him, damn i would tazer somebody just for tailgating me !!!

Snort ~ snigger ~ Arf Arf etc...

Paris 'cos... see above.

Oh come one - someone had to say it!

I think the issue here is not the use of the taser per se. It was probably the most obvious choice under the circumstances. However, when they were introduced, it was said they would be used only when the only other alternative is to open fire with live ammunition. i.e. immediately below firearms. Therefore, use in these circumstances was not within their original stated case.

So, just like in the US and elsewhere, tasers are going to become more and more common and used more and more in any situation even remotely dangerous. You only have to look at the US to see what will start happening here. Drunk and a bit stoppy, that'll be a tasering for you.

Paris - Cos she knows what a policemans real weapon should be line - a truncheon.