A BAT-WIELDING thug and a man waving a knife were seemingly brought under control by an armed officer carrying a 50,000 volt Taser gun yesterday.

The two incidents were staged by police as examples of how Oxfordshire’s armed police deploy the Taser weapon in violent situations.

In the past six years, officers in Oxfordshire have been authorised to use the device on 188 occasions, but it has been fired just three times.

Thames Valley Police, which piloted the device in 2003, has now turned down an option which would have allowed front-line officers to carry Taser guns.

Instead armed response units will continue to carry the device and will be on-call to attend any violent incident within 10 minutes.

Speaking before the demonstrations at a police base in Upper Heyford, north Oxfordshire, Assistant Chief Constable Brian Langston said Tasers are safe.

He added: “Tasers provide us with a very useful tactical option between traditional public order tactics and firearms. In the vast majority of potentially violent cases the best tactic is to use communication skills to calm things down. When people do resort to violence we need an array of tactical operations and Taser is part of those options.

“Thankfully, often just the sight of a red-dot is enough for most people to calm down, so in Oxfordshire we’ve only had three incidents.”

Several forces have given the Tasers to specially trained front-line officers, but Mr Langston said: “We have taken the decision not to do this after looking at the occasions where Tasers were required — which was a very small number.

“By giving the Tasers to the armed response officers we believe we can answer any incident within 10 minutes anywhere in the county. There isn’t that much need to roll them out further.”

The first Taser deployment in Oxfordshire happened on September 5, 2007, in Parklands, Banbury, following allegations of a stabbing.

In November last year a Taser was fired at a 24-year-old man in Cherry Close, Greater Leys, Oxford, after he was spotted threatening a man with a knife.

A woman was also detained under the Mental Health Act after officers deployed a Taser on her in Henley following allegations of an attack with a meat skewer in September.

A further eight people have been ‘red-dotted’, which means the Taser was lined up to be fired, but the target backed down and the device was not deployed.

Across the Thames Valley, Tasers have been used 22 times and authorised 1,010 occasions since 2003.

There are 180 Thames Valley Police officers trained in use of Tasers. Tasers have been fired four times in Milton Keynes, three times in Buckinghamshire and 13 times in Berkshire.

* The target during the police exhibition was wearing a suit which prevented the Taser’s two barbs attaching to his body and he was not hurt or injured.