The Taser is designed to deliver a 50,000 volt-shock Thames Valley Police officers prefer using CS spray to the Taser gun in violent incidents, it emerged today (Friday).

Police are to debate whether all frontline officers should carry the stun guns after a poll found eight out of 10 of them supported the move.

The Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, will examine the issue at its conference next week.

At present, only authorised firearms officers are allowed to use the weapons as an alternative to conventional guns.

The stun guns -- which fire needle-tipped barbs to deliver a 50,000-volt shock -- are used by 15 forces in England and Wales, including Thames Valley Police.

But Insp Martin Elliott, a spokesman for the Thames Valley Police branch of the Police Federation, said CS spray, not the Taser, was the preferred weapon of choice in the force for dealing with violent incidents.

He added: "I don't think there would be any desperate hurry for the Taser gun to be issued on a personal basis.

"On one of the two occasions it has been used it did not work because the barbs did not go in, so officers had to use CS spray instead.

"CS spray is one of our really big success stories -- as an incapacitant it will have the desired effect. Villains are not daft and even the threat of a CS spray can be very effective. "If someone is playing up and they find out they are going to be sprayed they will soon think twice."

Police Review's poll also said 58 per cent of the public wanted to see Tasers deployed, including 70 per cent of people aged 25 to 34.

A Home Office spokesman said: "The policy in this country has long been that the police should not generally be armed, and that gives a character to our policing that we should not readily give up.

"Safe as it is, there is no doubt that Taser is an aggressive response and the Government believes that it should only be used in strictly controlled conditions." Association of Chief Police Officers' spokesman Derek Talbot added that police chiefs did not support the increased deployment of the Taser.

Last November, Amnesty International called for use of stun guns by British police to remain tightly controlled after a report showed 74 people had died from their use in North America.

For the Police Review survey, NOP polled 100 police officers and 1,000 members of the public.

Thames Valley is one of five forces to have trialled the Taser stun guns since 2003, and has used them on two occasions.

On February 15, a 35-year-old man was hit by a stun gun outside the Westgate shopping centre in Oxford.

A fortnight later, a Taser was used on a man following reports of an incident involving swords in east Oxford.

Earlier this year, the Defence Scientific Advisory Council approved a new X26 Taser, which is safer than the existing M26 Taser and less likely to induce heart attacks.

CS sprays have been used by English and Welsh police forces since 1995 for self-defence where "lethal force is inappropriate".

They can cause can cause skin inflammation and blurred vision, prompting some forces to consider adopting pepper sprays instead.