Medway’s police have targeted suspects with tasers more often than anywhere else in the county, latest figures reveal.

But they also have the lowest use in Kent, between January last year and August 2010, for discharging the stun guns.

The area with most taser firings in Kent during that period is mid Kent, with nine uses over 48 incidents.

In all, the county’s officers have targeted 446 suspects with taser guns since January last year.

But the weapons - which send 50,000 volts through a person’s body - have only been fired 33 times at suspects.

They were pulled on people 413 times without being fired, with officers often just using them as a deterrent to violence.

Assistant Chief Constable Andy Adams said: "During the time Kent Police has used tasers, it has become clear that they are highly effective in violent or potentially dangerous situations.

"Often, just the presence of officers carrying and drawing a taser is enough of a deterrent to a volatile or violent individual resisting arrest to make them surrender to police."

Stun guns - which were introduced to the force in 2005 - are often used in domestic violence incidents and to restrain threatening members of the public and people trying to resist arrest.

At the beginning of this year the number of police officers trained to use taser guns in the county was almost trebled to about 300.