THERE is a risk police will become too reliant on Tasers, using the stun guns as their weapon of first choice, a review of a year-long trial of Tasers in Queensland has warned.

NSW will begin issuing Tasers to all front-line police officers this month. Queensland has halted its adoption of the weapon after the death last month of a North Queensland man who was stunned 28 times.

Almost half the officers surveyed by the Queensland Police Service and Crime and Misconduct Commission warned there was potential for over-reliance on the Taser. A quarter said there was potential for misuse. The report found better training was required to ensure police officers did not use the stun mode - where the gun is applied directly to the skin or clothes rather than fired from a distance, known as the probe action - needlessly.

The report concluded Tasers "can provide an important, alternative use of force option", but warned there was a risk officers would use them where not necessary, become over-reliant on them and deploy them repeatedly or for extended periods.

To guard against this the Queensland Police Service will audit Taser data downloads, stations will have detailed Taser registers, officers will have to record their use of the weapon and a "significant event" review panel will assess Taser use. Training for the statewide implementation of the devices will focus on decision-making about using the stun mode.

During the Queensland Taser trial, which ran from July 1, 2007, to June 2, 2008, Tasers were used 170 times. The report found that three-quarters of subjects were unarmed when a Taser was used against them. Tasers were fired multiple times in a quarter of incidents. One man, a schizophrenic who had taken amphetamines, was Tasered 10 times. In 17 per cent of incidents, the subject was already handcuffed when stunned.

The report said the stun mode was more likely to be used multiple times than the probe action.