MANCHESTER's Chief Constable Mike Todd put himself in the firing line by allowing himself to be shot by a Taser stun gun - and then called for them to be made more widely available to frontline officers.

But his call comes as Home Office minister and local MP Hazel Blears insists the weapons should not be given to all officers.

Mr Todd volunteered to be shot by a 50,000-volt Taser after praising them in a speech to officers earlier this year.

The weapons, which fire metal barbs into the skin before delivering an incapacitating electrical charge, are used in situations when previously-armed officers could have no option but to shoot a suspect dead. The gun's developers say they are perfectly safe, but Amnesty International claims 74 people have died in the US after being fired on.

Two months after his speech, Mr Todd demonstrated his confidence in Tasers in the car park of the force's firearms unit where he was on the receiving end of an agonising electrical blast from firearms officer Sgt Mike Keyworth.

Standing 10ft away, Sgt Keyworth issued a clear warning before pulling the trigger, just as he would have done on the frontline.

He shouted: "Michael, Michael, I have got a Taser, stand still. Taser, Taser."

A split second after the tiny metal barbs were fired into the Chief Constable's back, he called out in pain, then fell on his stomach on to a blue crash mat.

As he lay on the ground the tiny wires trailing from his body to the gun continue to release the charge for what seems like an age, but was just five seconds.

Police firearm officers then knelt beside him on the ground, and prevented him from getting up until the barbs were removed from his skin. Within seconds, he had recovered but was still shaken up.

He said: "It was incredibly painful but I feel fine now. I couldn't move, it hurt like hell, I wouldn't want to do that again. I've never experienced anything like it. You just seem to freeze. If I was carrying a weapon and about to attack a member of the public when this happened, I couldn't have done anything at all, which is why it is important that we have them."

Mr Todd said the new weapon, currently only used by authorised firearms officers, could help save the lives of ordinary beat bobbies.

He said: "I would like to see a situation, gradually and after training is given, to make it available to more than just firearms officers. Our men and women out on the streets need it as a more readily available tool they can deploy. It could save the lives of officers and the public and the man himself."

But in an article in the Police Review magazine, Ms Blears called the gun a "dangerous weapon" which was not an "everyday weapon" appropriate for use in "everyday circumstances".She said: "I would not want to see everyone on the streets having that kind of weapon.

"I am concerned that officers sometimes come up against pretty violent individuals and obviously I want to make sure they have sufficient protective equipment to make sure they are not in danger.

"I think we should have the flexibility to use it more widely than we do at the moment.

"But I am not convinced that every police officer on a neighbourhood team should be equipped with a Taser."

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