Should Britain Arm It's Police?

Op-Ed Contributor

by Greg Smith

(WireNews+Co) - London, England - 19 September 2012

As might be expected following the killing in Greater Manchester yesterday of two female PCs (Police Constables), the debate over whether or not UK police should carry firearms has raised its head above the parapet once again.

I was born in the United States where most cops are armed to the teeth and so the thought of police carrying weapons doesn't worry me too much.

I read from time to time about U.S. police unloading 50 or more bullets into unarmed suspects and or innocent bystanders being killed (such as in New York City recently) by stray bullets fired by officers and I fully expect that arming police in the UK would produce similar results.

But I also know that many of my criminal fellow countrymen and others from around the world came to these shores because they knew the police were unarmed and they knew that it's a lot easier to outrun a policeman whose most offensive act is to blow on a whistle or to shout "Stop, Police!"

The automatic assumption that arming police would place them on an even footing with criminals or that it would give them more authority or respect, as has been suggested by some pundits, is not true. It would produce more fear on the part of some criminal elements and most of the general public. Sometimes fear is good.

There are very few places in the world where police are not armed. According to one online forum (http://www.policespecials.com/forum/index.php?/topic/32618-countries-with-unarmed-police/) there are about 10 nations:

1. England
2. Wales
3. Scotland
4. Republic of Ireland
5. New Zealand
6. Cook Islands
7. St. Helena
8. Falkland Islands
9. Pitcairn Island
10. Iceland

With the exception of Iceland these unarmed nations have a connection with or long history with the UK and so the concept of an unarmed police force can be described as "particularly British".

But since 1900 there have been 248 police officers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_British_police_officers_killed_in_the_line_of_duty) (average 2.2 per year) who have died in the line of duty in the United Kingdom. 71 of these were shot. 24 were stabbed. 22 were run over by some sort of vehicle.

In 2010, the most recent year that the FBI has figures for (http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/leoka/leoka-2010/officers-feloniously-killed), there were 56 officers killed in the line of duty in the United States; 55 of whom were shot with a firearm (38 of those were killed with a handgun).

There could therefore be some conclusion drawn for the dramatic increase of police shootings in the USA, where police are armed. But consider that about 10% of the police in the United States who are shot are actually killed with their own weapon, taken from them by an unarmed criminal.

So, should police in the UK be armed?

My own opinion is that they should be armed or they should be issued with bigger whistles.