Should Police officers be armed?

[RedStratocas]

Police know not to abuse their power and would know the consequences if they did.

hahaha i lol'd at this.

i dont think you guys in the uk need to arm your officers, seems kinda pointless since theres virtually no guns around there from what i understand.

[Rockstar63]

My Opinion yes because what happens if there is an armed robery or police need to do a drug raid? and only fully trained armed officers should have guns i agree with Constables and Sergeants and the rest having a Taser gun because they dont kill but i defo wouldnt let PCSO's have a taser untill they are a Constable

[KebabJuice]

If gun crime and knife crime is on the rise of course police should be armed. humans are capable of anything no matter how horrid the consequences are. We kill ourselves with our own creation.

Although saying that i believe in second chances. if you get a tazer gun they won't be able to retaliate due to 40,000 volts frying their body. Its a win win situation really. aslong as the policemen tazers him before he gets stabbed/shot of course.

[RedStratocas]

If gun crime and knife crime is on the rise of course police should be armed. humans are capable of anything no matter how horrid the consequences are. We kill ourselves with our own creation.

i dont like the whole "solve gun crime with more guns" argument. you're saying humans are capable of anything and kill with guns, and the solution to this is giving people more guns? police are humans too, and are just as capable of mistakes/horrible crimes as any other human.

[Oleh]

Well they have to be, otherwise they'd be 'armless.

I think they should, all these yob's running around with shivs and projectiles, they should atleast have some sort of neutraliser to calm the situation (bean bags) or splurge guns.

[Jorc]

Yes, if the criminal could potentially be armed they should be able to have some back up. Now I know some cops take things to the extreme like pepper spray and tazers. Thats just crazy lol. They should be able to defend themselves though.

[Slowpoke]

Police know not to abuse their power and would know the consequences if they did.

Some do. Recently there was a story in the news about a policeman who when arresting a man over a year ago, repeatedly bashed his head off a curb and then rubbed his cheek against the tarmac on a road. He obviously denied the accusations and it was only a few weeks ago that CCTV proved the accusations true.

However, I do believe police should be armed - mainly because most criminals are.

[Shockwave.2CC]

Yes, if the criminal could potentially be armed they should be able to have some back up. Now I know some cops take things to the extreme like pepper spray and tazers. Thats just crazy lol. They should be able to defend themselves though.

Yeah, that's what i think aswell

`--||||||||----------------------]
./_==o _________________]
...),---.(_(__) /
..// (\) ),----".'
.//___//
...//;__//

Lol that failed

[Special]

yeah just incase of a emergency. what harm is it doing to anyone carrying them around anyway? if anything it scares them which is a good thing

[Jordy]

yeah just incase of a emergency. what harm is it doing to anyone carrying them around anyway? if anything it scares them which is a good thing

It would cost an absolute fortune, it'd take weeks of training and then there's the cost of actually arming them. I honestly think we'd be into the hundreds of millions to pay for this. Only a few officers are shot dead every year, some of these wouldn't even be preventable by the officer simply having a gun.

So in effect for the hundreds of millions of pounds we don't have to fund it, it would possibly save 3 or 4 lives every year. Then of course there's the fact, gun crime would rise as criminals would also need to carry guns if officers did. It's inevitable some police would use them accidentally or inappropriately resulting in many more deaths and there's always the chance they could be stolen and fall into the wrong hands. It would also distance the relationship between the Police and the community which is a vital link.