An iconic image of the British Police is that of a bobby swinging a truncheon, chasing down criminals and sending them away in handcuffs. While in the UK today an increasing proportion of the police force is armed in the name of anti-terrorism , it is hard to picture a British Bobby being armed to the same extent as, say, police forces in the United States. However, there was a time when several branches of British Police were armed and remained that way for quite a significant time.
They were issued with dull blue uniforms which contrasted starkly to the red piped uniforms of the army and were in the main armed with truncheons instead of army rifles.
However, inspectors and ranks above in the police force were allowed to carry pocket pistols or revolvers and some policemen were even allowed to carry sabres when walking dangerous beats or in case of emergencies.
Uniformed officers with detective of police seated, s. Firearms were issued in limited numbers to policemen on numerous occasions throughout the 19th century, usually upon the death of a police officer by armed criminals.
These firearms were usually in the form of revolvers. Despite the revolver model being known as the Metropolitan Police Model, the guns were only issued at the discretion of the Divisional Officer and only if the constable in question requested to use one during night duty. British police are attempting to recruit more firearms officers but the overwhelming majority will remain unarmed.
Officials believe they have the balance about right. The police heroically did their job. IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Politics Covid U. News World Opinion Business. Share this —. He is also Executive Chair of Make Time Count, a new social enterprise digitizing the supervision and reintegration of offenders and other vulnerable groups into communities.
He spoke to me from his London home. On average, less than one police officer a year gets murdered in the line of duty in the UK, out of , cops.
The average is high enough—about 50—that the murder of a police officer in the US is not big news. Just yesterday, there was a short article buried in The New York Times about the murder of two police officers in Texas. By contrast, when two young women officers were tragically murdered in Manchester in , that was in the news for ages.
The government set up a task force to coordinate efforts to tackle the organized crime behind the murders. In the States, there is data around officers being killed by their own gun after it was taken by an assailant.
An FBI report says that between —, 28 US police officers were killed by their own stolen guns. The downsides are serious. On average, less than one police officer a year gets murdered in the line of duty in the UK, out of 12, cops. A nonprofit that promotes mental health assistance for US police officers reported a record number of suicides in ——among current and former police officers.
Still, there must have been a moment in your career as a police officer when you wished you had a gun? Not really.
I was very pleased when he decided to throw it away and keep running rather than turn around. If we were more militarized and armed in UK policing, maybe he would have turned around and pointed it at me. As it was, he threw it away and ran and I was faster than he was because I was fit and he was a drug addict. So justice was done. Did I hear you say the percentage of British police officers carrying guns rose slightly under your watch?
After looking at terrorist attacks as they were developing in other parts of the world, most notably after the Bataclan attack and other Paris events, we decided we needed a larger number of armed officers to deal with such eventualities.
At that time, I was in charge of national counter-terrorism, and I discussed that with David Cameron and Theresa May and they gave us extra money to arm us. That might have taken us from 5. It was a big deal for us, but it still left well over 90 percent of our officers unarmed. That small percentage does mean the training levels can be very, very, very high. Overall gun crime, too, remains low. In Scotland during the same period, there were two fatal and non-fatal injuries during the same period, a decade-long low.
Additionally, officers, chief constables and politicians alike are wary of upsetting an equilibrium that has been maintained throughout Britain's year policing history. Arming the force would, say opponents, undermine the principle of policing by consent - the notion that the force owes its primary duty to the public, rather than to the state, as in other countries.
This owes much to the historical foundations of British criminal justice, says Peter Waddington, professor of social policy at the University of Wolverhampton. A force that did not routinely carry firearms - and wore blue rather than red, which was associated with the infantry - was part of this effort to distinguish the early "Peelers" from the Army, Waddington says.
Over time, this notion of guns being inimical to community policing - and, indeed, to the popular conception of the Dixon of Dock Green-style bobby - was reinforced. While some in London were issued with revolvers prior to , from that date only trained officers at the rank of sergeant or above were issued with guns, and even then only if they could demonstrate a good reason for requiring one.
Today only a small proportion of officers are authorised to use firearms.
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