Should Police officers be armed?

[T0X!C-uk]

After that guy whose on the run atm said he would continue to kill police, what chance do they have against him being unarmed and all. For special cases I'd say yes, but what happens if they get robbed for their gun etc, bad things .

Again not the job of a standard Police Officer, they will have had clear instruction, not to approach or attempt to detain said person. They currently have all of the armed officers deployed in that area on the streets looking for this guy as well as back up from other forces.

[Hollie]

Yes, they don't know who they might come across tbh. The criminal or however might have knifes or a gun on them.

[coopera11]

I believe police are armed with enoth already, with them have battons and pepper spray and there own training i believe are fine to keep on with this.

And on the other hand with tasers becoming a more seen weapon on police aswell with more and more having them that is the highest weapon an averahe police officer should have.

With them having anything more harmful than the tasers crimminals will just get more scared and arm them selves even stronger and meaning it will ahve a joint knock on effect, police will have to arm up even more and then so will the crimminals.

So police are doing just as good a job now as ever nd should stay like this, the only improvement needed is for the goverment to change there decisions the opposite way and employ more police officers to protect us as they are now reducing it to pay of debts it will lead to inceased crime, more work and eventualy just re-employment of the officers.

[ihatehash]

Police are not armed enough, how often do you hear of a policeman that has been killed or injured due to criminals violence. It's not safe if they have little protection.

[Pyroka]

No, and there's a reason why.

You arm the police, and the people they're fighting will find it easier to get guns. Things like this work in the US because gun laws are legal, you can get guns anywhere when you have a license. I mean yeah the laws quite strict on them, but you can purchase them from an outdoor shop or a gun shop. There's a trained unit of armed police officers who, when somebody is in posession of a firearm and aims to use it, can response to the incidents and have the best judgement on what to do. Giving every copper a gun isn't a great idea, because for one alot of coppers will say no to a gun, and alot will simply get trigger-happy and want to use it like it's a plaything. The armed response units are trained up and are chosen quite thoroughly, so that mistakes aren't made regularly.

I never hear about a cop shooting someone else in the UK, because the armed response unit is only called in when theyre certain a suspect is armed and dangerous, who has the potential to harm human life. Tasers I do agree, that some police officers should have them as they're less harmful and won't kill you, but even then I think it'd have to be a group of officers in every police station, so that the training involved doesn't involve the whole police force. That costs taxpayers money, remember that.

[Shockwave.2CC]

Yes i think all police should carry a automatic guns because then it mite cut down crime a bit, because the criminals mite think twice before doing something.

[louder]

if you allow guns, there will be more gun crime.

[GommeInc]

No, there's no reason to. We're not the USA, not every crime will have a weapon like a gun. Most crimes like hostage situations or ones involving weapons involve knives and they're easy to disarm. Arming police with guns will make the number of cases involving mis-use of a fire arm rise. In this country we have special teams to deal with weapons, most of the time we just need frontline people dealing with any trouble. Arming them all with guns would be more dangerous. The current system is fine as it is.

Strangely enough, this debate was on Google Buzz not long ago. It's interesting how the US do not quite understand why we do not need guns and why they only have them because it's too late to get rid of them

[JACKTARD]

I don't think they should. They should be better protected and they are right to have batons but if they've got guns then they may decide to use it irrationally in the heat of the moment irresponsibly and then regret it for the rest of their lives.

[Gibs960]

Not all of them but I believe they should have some sort of long range weapon... The firearms department do a good job, no need to arm 'em all