About 100 London armed Police have turned in their firearms. Link. Below.

J

jimintoronto

Well-known Member
Of the 37,000 Police officers in the Metropolitan London Police service, only about 2,000 are licensed to carry firearms while on duty. This action is the result of a shooting by an armed Police officer on September the 5th in London. in the UK. The unnamed fire arms officer has been charged with murder by the Crown Prosecutor's office. The number of armed Police in London, who have turned in their fire arms is growing quickly. The head of the Metropolitan Police has made a request to the British Army to borrow armed soldiers to replace the firearms officers who are now working without guns. The soldiers would not have powers of arrest, and they would work with armed Police officers in London.

In an average year the armed Police of the Met force respond to 3500 incidents, but rarely fire their weapons. In the last year for which statistics are available, they fired their weapons TWICE in a year. Hardly the wild west.

The case that brought this reaction by armed Police officers is not yet before the courts.

link. MSN

My personal view is this. If the UK public wants armed Police ( only about 10 percent of all UK Police officers are armed in a country of over 60 million people ) they should be prepared to see firearms used, when needed, as a last resort. IN this case the officer fired one round, through the windshield of a car that was driving towards him. The courts and the jury will decide if he acted properly. or not. JimB.
 

I don't know how things are today but many decades ago I learned that any NSW police officer who discharged their firearm while on duty would have to account for that action. There would be an internal inquiry. Then, and now, NSW police are always armed while on duty.

A fatality would require a coronial inquest. As far as I can see, this is entirely appropriate.
There was a time when NSW detectives were hand in glove with organised crime, and murders were carried out by corrupt detectives.

Accountability is extremely important.
 
The thing about having unarmed cops is that it has to be well known the cops don't have guns. If you're a bad guy getting chased by a cop, you don't want the felon to wonder if the cop is carrying or not. Granted there are times when armed men have to respond to incidents.
Going gunless in the US would never work till we got rid of the millions of weapons, where a 93 year old widow lady could be packing enough heat to mow down a platoon of cops.
 

fuzzybuddy said:
The thing about having unarmed cops is that it has to be well known the cops don't have guns. If you're a bad guy getting chased by a cop, you don't want the felon to wonder if the cop is carrying or not. Granted there are times when armed men have to respond to incidents.
Going gunless in the US would never work till we got rid of the millions of weapons, where a 93 year old widow lady could be packing enough heat to mow down a platoon of cops.
Click to expand...
Armed Police in the UK are wearing a different type of uniform, and hat, plus they are in vehicles that are clearly marked as ARMED POLICE . The situation I reported in the topic line of this post is one where a Armed Police officer shot a man who was surrounded by Police vehicles, and Police on foot. The driver was shot once, through the windshield of the car he was driving AT the police officer. The Armed Police members who have turned in their firearms are doing so as a way to protest the laying of a murder charge against one of their fellow officers.

For our American friends...Policing in the UK and other Commonwealth countries is based on the concept of " using the least amount of force, required to deal with the situation at hand. " About 90 percent of all the Police in the United Kingdom are UNARMED. It is called "Policing by consent " meaning the public agrees that Police are an important part of a civilized society, but they must act within the law as they do their jobs. JimB.
 
So, they seldom use their weapons. Compare this with the USA. I was always amazed, when traveling through the USA to see heavily armed State Troopers. Their car almost always had a nice shotgun placed vertically in the front seat. Different strokes for different folks; they say!
 
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