The Chief Constable of the PSNI, Sir Hugh Orde, was forced into a rethink yesterday over plans to arm his officers with 50,000-volt stun guns.
A report found that the PSNI has yet to develop a proper legal and human-rights policy over the use of the controversial Taser weapons.
In a 45-page dossier drawn up for the Policing Board, experts said the police service proposals had not satisfied requirements to show situations where use of the guns would be immediately necessary to prevent firearms being drawn.
Human-rights experts Keir Starmer and Jane Gordon, who compiled the advisory paper, said Tasers should be treated as potentially lethal.
Their assessment did not mean their use could never be compatible with European legislation on the right to life. But the lawyers said the proper test centred on the need to show that Tasers would reduce the likelihood of resorting to conventional guns.
"We are concerned that none of the official bodies charged with considering the use of Taser have publicly addressed the legal and human-rights frameworks within which Taser can or should be used," the report said.
Sir Hugh had confirmed to the Policing Board last week that he had decided to equip specialist officers with the electroshock guns. However, after discussions with the body's human-rights committee in Belfast yesterday, he has accepted the points raised in the report.
Even though Tasers are already used by police forces in Britain, a bitter campaign has been fought over their introduction in Northern Ireland.
Tasers have been drawn almost 700 times in Britain and fired 242 times, without any deaths or serious injuries, the report said. However, after a number of sudden deaths where the guns were used, the direct link to being hit is disputed. Less debated are the groups most vulnerable to Tasers: those suffering from mental illness, and those who are drunk or on drugs. The full effects on children and pregnant women are not known.
It now appears unlikely that Tasers could be in use in Northern Ireland this year. SDLP Policing Board member Dolores Kelly reiterated her opposition to the use of Tasers by the PSNI. "The fact is that these weapons have killed at least 15 people in the US and Canada," she said.