Uk police unarmed why

And no one else, bar year-old American Darlene Horton , who had already been stabbed to death, was hurt. The Metropolitan Police carried out some 3, deployments involving firearms in They didn't fire a single shot at a suspect. It's a world away from the United States, where cops killed 1, people in , according to figures compiled by The Guardian. Of course it's easier for police to remain unarmed if civilians do the same. Out of every people in Britain, fewer than four of them owns a firearm, according to GunPolicy.

In the U. While British officials have long since accepted that an attack is "highly likely," they believe that intelligence-gathering and stronger links with the community — rather than gun-toting cops — will do more to keep the city safer.

But to most inhabitants of the UK - with the notable exception of Northern Ireland - it is a normal, unremarkable state of affairs that most front-line officers do not carry guns. Unremarkable, that is, until unarmed officers like Nicola Hughes and Fiona Bone are killed in the line of duty. There are always those who question why Britain is out of step with most of the rest of the world, with the exceptions of the Republic of Ireland, New Zealand, Norway and a handful of other nations.

For a heavily urbanised country of its population size, the situation in Great Britain is arguably unique. Film director Michael Winner, founder of the Police Memorial Trust, and Tony Rayner, the former chairman of Essex Police Federation, have both called for officers to be routinely armed. But despite the loss of two of his officers, Greater Manchester Chief Constable Sir Peter Fahy was quick to speak in support of the status quo. Sadly we know from the experience in America and other countries that having armed officers certainly does not mean, sadly, that police officers do not end up getting shot.

But one thing is clear. When asked, police officers say overwhelmingly that they wish to remain unarmed. Today, fewer than one in 20 police officers in England and Wales carries a gun. The police carry weapons in Northern Ireland. These two territories employ , police officers, including only 5, authorized firearms officers. Armed officers very rarely discharge their weapons—there are generally only a handful of incidents per year.

And the few times the police have fired guns have not been without controversy. Another incident in led to police controversially killing a man named Mark Duggan, who they said was in possession of a gun. The killing was deemed lawful—but only after three years of legal cases and an inquest. Norway is one of 19 countries worldwide where police officers are typically unarmed, and permitted to use guns only in exceptional circumstances.

These countries, which include the United Kingdom, Finland, and Iceland, seldom see deadly incidents involving police officers. While people were killed by police in the United States in , Norway saw no deaths at the hands of police officers for the same year.

But pressure is growing to change the U. While the 19 nations in the world that do not arm officers vary greatly in their approach to policing, they share a common thread. Countries with a philosophy of policing by consent, such as the United Kingdom, believe that police should not gain their power by instilling fear in the population but rather, should gain legitimacy and authority by maintaining the respect and approval of the public.

This model of policing maintains that uses of force should be restrained and success is measured not in how many arrests officers have made but rather, by the absence of crime itself.