Denmark’s government is moving to equip police in all districts with Tasers, after a nearly two-year trial involving about 230 officers in three districts.
According to reporting by DR, the trial showed that officers could react from a distance of more than 10 meters if a person with a knife came toward them. In several cases, officers with Tasers avoided using other means of force, including the service pistol.
In more than half of the episodes involving Tasers, officers only drew the weapon without firing it. The trial ran in North Jutland Police, South Zealand and Lolland-Falster Police, and Copenhagen West Police.
The government has decided, as part of the multi-year agreement for the police, that Tasers will be rolled out in every district as a so-called pool weapon. Per Peter Olesen Dahl, police inspector at Copenhagen Police and a member of the trial’s steering group, that means the device will not be personally issued like the baton and the pistol.
A supplement to existing means of force
Dahl describes the Taser as a relatively gentle means of force. He notes that it often serves as an alternative to an officer drawing a service pistol, and works as a supplement to physical force, baton, gas, pepper spray and firearms.
It has not yet been decided which staff groups will carry the weapons. As stated by Dahl, they will be officers in outward-facing patrol duty, and training those officers will be a substantial task.
TV 2 adds figures from the National Police showing that since the trial began in December 2024, Tasers were used 325 times and fired at people 115 times. The outlet also reports that police expect to publish the full trial findings in a report later in 2026.
The police model used in the trial is the Axon Taser 10. It holds ten darts with current-carrying wires, can fire over 13 meters, and delivers a shock for a maximum of five seconds once at least two darts hit their target.
The Danish Institute for Human Rights has warned against the use of the weapons and argues that Tasers in policing raise human rights questions. Johan Busse, the institute’s national director, stated earlier this week that legislation should review the health risks connected to their use and set requirements for police training.
As noted by Busse, individual officers need to know which people face an increased risk of injury or, in the worst case, death from an electric shock. The institute issued its statement in a written notice.
Until a final solution for the rollout is in place, the three trial districts will continue using the weapons. DR reports that it may take a couple of years before Danish police in the remaining districts can put them into service.
