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IPCC Commissioner James Dipple-Johnstone said: "The IPCC has major concerns about the use of Tasers in 'drive stun mode', where the Taser is applied directly to the body without a cartridge, rather than fired from a distance.

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"Yet in several of the cases we reviewed, where it was used for the purpose of gaining compliance, it had the opposite effect, stimulating further resistance."

He also said that "angled drive stun" - where the officer fires the weapon with a live cartridge installed, and then holds the Taser against a different part of the subject's body, to cause incapacitation, and which he called a "viable tactic" - may have been being confused with a "drive stun" and reported incorrectly.

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"There is a risk, given the increase in Taser use, that police officers could become increasingly reliant on using force to gain compliance.

But it warned that one technique, known as "drive stun" - where the Taser is held against the subject's body and the trigger pulled with no probes being fired, causing pain but not an incapacitating effect - was still being used in 16% of firings, despite officers no longer being trained to deploy the weapon in this fashion.

Tasers were introduced into British policing in 2003 as a non-lethal alternative for firearms officers facing potentially dangerous suspects.

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In 2013, Tasers were deployed 10,380 times across England and Wales - and there were 154 complaints - a rate that has remained consistent over 10 years. In roughly eight out of 10 cases the Taser is not fired because a suspect complies with an order after seeing it unholstered. Fifteen of the complaints related to "drive stun" incidents.

The IPCC called on officers to do more to justify uses of the Taser against suspects already in custody or vulnerable people such as children or those with a mental disorder.

Staffordshire Police used a Taser 33 times for every 100 officers in 2013 - almost three times the rate of use by West Midlands Police.

An example could be where an officer was attacked whilst reloading his, or her, weapon after an initial firing missed the intended target, he suggested.

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The watchdog said it acknowledged that the Taser was "a valuable tool" in helping police to manage difficult and challenging situations - but forces must do more to guard against its overuse.

The police watchdog has raised concerns over police officers in England and Wales using Tasers at point-blank range despite no longer being trained to do so.

Neil Basu from the Association of Chief Police Officers said: "The IPCC rightly identify that police do not teach the use of 'drive stun' with the cartridge off.

It said it also wanted to further investigate why some smaller forces were more likely to deploy the device than their larger neighbours.