Should Police officers be armed?

[kuzkasate]

I'm Russian & in Russia, police are armed, went Germany too, their armed aswell. I think police should be because if a criminal is getting a way & you have no way of catching him, a bullet in the leg wont kill him & it'll capture him.

[Jordy]

I'm Russian & in Russia, police are armed, went Germany too, their armed aswell. I think police should be because if a criminal is getting a way & you have no way of catching him, a bullet in the leg wont kill him & it'll capture him.

That's exactly my problem with the police having guns, just because someone is running away does not mean you need to shoot them. First of all it is very difficult to shoot limbs etc just to disable them, the chances of shooting them somewhere else and killing them or causing them grave injury is enormous. It's a total disproportionate use of force.

If they are a threat and have a gun/bomb then they should be killed rather than simply shot in the leg. For example armed police in the UK will always shoot to kill and nothing else, and seeing as they only do this when there is a real threat, the rules surrounding it are pretty black & white.