In more than 12% of cases in which ethnicity was recorded – more than 36,000 of the 38,000 incidents – the person who the Taser was used against was black and of African-Caribbean origin or of mixed white and African-Caribbean origin.
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The weapon has been used by police thousands of times in the past five years, with a rise in its use against children, the Home Office data showed.
Matilda MacAttram, from the campaign group Black Mental Health United Kingdom, told the BBC the statistics were “deeply disturbing” and said evidence also showed police were using Tasers against people with mental health problems, particularly those from African-Caribbean communities.
For Asians the chance of involvement in a Taser incident in 2010-14 in England and Wales was only three in 10,000, whereas for white people it was six and for black people it was 18 in 10,000.
Police have increasingly used the weapon over the past few years.
“In a lot of cases, the officer may not have to use the Taser, the presence of it as well as the communication skills of the officer can lead to a peaceful resolution”.
The ethnic discrepancy also occurs across the various levels of Taser deployment, from being drawn to fired.
“Such human rights abuses should not be happening”.
Discussing the use of stop-and-search, Chief Constable Adrian Hanstock said: “It is important that we do not lose sight of the fact that, on a daily basis, officers utilising the stop and search power are finding weapons, stolen property and drugs”.
A Hampshire police spokeswoman said: ‘In the incident involving a nine-year-old boy, the Taser was “drawn” only in an attempt to calm the situation down where there was an allegation of a knife being used.
He added that Tasers were only used in situations “where there is violence or there is impending violence”.
“However sometimes a Taser may be necessary and it can be a very effective tool in resolving violent and threatening situations”.
Rick Muir, director of the Police Foundation, an independent think-tank, also described the figures as “extremely worrying”.
Superintendent Jon Dodman, of Suffolk Constabulary, said: “Our officers have a number of options available to diffuse high risk situations including Taser and the priority will always be the safety of the public and the offender”.
HAMPSHIRE police more than doubled their use of Tasers in a year, official statistics reveal.
In 2011 figures showed that police used Taser against just four young people aged 16 or under in London and the weapon was not fired.
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