Police Commissioner Mike Bush announced this morning that all frontline first response police staff will soon routinely carry Tasers.
Police Minister Michael Woodhouse said the Taser rollout was an important step to help ensure the safety of both the community and frontline officers.
"I fully support the decision.
"We know frontline officers often find themselves in rapidly changing situations and it is not always practical to return to their vehicle to retrieve a Taser.
"Having a Taser strapped to their hip provides officers with another option to diffuse or deal with violent offenders."
Mr Woodhouse said Tasers had proven to be an effective tactical option for both preventing and responding to high risk situations, with a consistently low risk of injury to the public, offenders and police staff.
In the past five years, Tasers have been available to Police during more than 30,000 reported incidents, but due to their deterrent effect, in almost 90 per cent of cases they were not been discharged.
"We owe it to the frontline officers protecting our communities and keeping us safe to ensure they have access to all tactical options they may need during the course of duty."
The change will require around 400-600 additional devices to be purchased and will be funded from within police's current budget.