Front line police officers are to be given 50,000-volt taser guns as part of a controversial pilot scheme in the west of Scotland.

Amnesty International (AI) has said that, between 2001 and 2008, 334 people were reported to have died in the United States after being shot by a taser. AI did not suggest tasers had caused or contributed to each death.

But Strathclyde say the £1000 stun guns are a safer alternative to batons and CS spray.

Some 30 specially selected officers will be issued with tasers to help curb assaults on police.

The six-month pilot will take place in Rutherglen and Glasgow city centre and will be independently assessed.

The details were outlined at a full meeting of Strathclyde Police Authority yesterday at the City Chambers in Glasgow, where council members raised a number of concerns.

At the same meeting concerns about "significant backlogs" in forensic testing by the national Scottish Police Services Authority (SPSA) were raised. It was claimed that if the lab were to close today, it would take more than two months to clear all the drugs samples, more than four months to finish current biology tests and five months to clear scene of crime information.

It was warned that the statutory time bar for criminal cases is six months and that cases could be dropped altogether as a result of the forensic delays. SPSA says the backlogs were longer when they took over forensics.

Stephen House, chief constable of Strathclyde Police, said there has been a lot of "hype and hysteria" about the use of tasers and made clear that CS spray is a very "inconsistent piece of equipment which isn’t effective on everyone" and that the baton can be potentially lethal. If he had to choose, he said he would prefer to be tasered than hit with a baton or sprayed with CS.

Strathclyde is the first force in Scotland to give tasers to non-specialist officers. Currently, only trained firearms officers use the taser stun guns but forces in England and Wales have trained beat officers to use them.

Tasers deliver an electric shock to immobilise suspected offenders and research indicates that when used appropriately they are not lethal and do not interfere with pacemakers.

Mr House said: "Our use of tasers is very clearly contained. Officers must perceive that either they or a member of the public is going to be subject to violence before they can use a taser. And they must use it proportionally in line with human rights. That is part of the training."

The officers go on a three-day training course and they will not be allowed to use the stun gun if they fail.

Mr House said Rutherglen and the city centre divisions were chosen for the pilot due to the higher number of assaults on police than average for the force. The pilot project, which costs £45,559 to train and equip the 30 officers, is expected to start in March.

John Watson, head of Amnesty International in Scotland, said: "In general we don’t have a problem with tasers in the right place and we support them being used by firearms officers. It is the normalisation of tasers that we are very concerned about."