Parliament wants to equip transport police with Tasers
Keystone-SDA
Transport police officers are set to be allowed to use stun guns in Switzerland.
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On Thursday, the Senate adopted a motion by parliamentarian Michaël Buffat by 27 votes to seven with one abstention. It had already been approved by the House of Representatives in February. It will now be passed on to the government for implementation.
Buffat argued that stun guns could be useful for transport police officers. Especially in “obscure situations” where blunt objects or knives are used in the presence of many passengers, he said, arguing that police equipment and weaponry must continue to evolve. Since 2008, many Swiss police forces had introduced Tasers, he said.
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The government requested that the motion be accepted. The government will amend the ordinance regulating the deployment of the transport police, said Transport Minister Albert Rösti. However, it remains to be defined when these pistols can be used before this amendment is made, he said.
In the House of Representatives, Rösti had still said that the government understood the proposal as a test mandate. With reference to Rösti’s statement, a minority in the Senate requested that the motion be rejected. It was unclear what mandate the government would receive, they said.
The transport police ensure security at railroad stations and on public transport. They may stop people who are behaving unlawfully and carry out ID checks, the Federal Office of Transport says on its website. For more extensive police activities, it must call in the cantonal or local police authorities.
Translated from German by DeepL/ts
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