Arming the Police

CJM CRMLNAL JUSTICE MATTERS ARMING THE POLICE mistakenly believed that An historical appraisal he was going for a gun, the authority for issue The question of whether the police should was raised to its current be fully armed is guaranteed to produce level of Assistant Chief lively debate. To fuel it, the impression is Officer of Police. sometimes given that we are seeing a The raising of au- major change in policing with more and thority level, combined more officers being armed. In reality a with the system of draw- study of history shows that nothing could ing firearms from police be further from the truth. Let's look at stations which had re- some facts. mained almost When the first steps were taken in unchanged since the 1829 toward providing the police service 1860s, had drawbacks. we know today, the new Commissioners This was dramatically had to overcome considerable hostility to demonstrated on 19 Au- the very idea of such an organisation. gust 1987 in Hungerford Whilst a professional police service was in the Thames Valley seen as the only alternative to the use of when Michael Ryan the army there were many who claimed killed 16 people and that police were just the army in disguise. wounded 15 more before To emphasise the difference, the uniform committing suicide. The adopted was designed to be as unlike any armed response took military style as possible, and no guns more than an hour and it was clear that the were to be routinely carried. answering a routine call to a post office. death toll could have been much higher The role of the ARV crew is simply to Not all the recruits joining the new had Ryan not killed himself. provide immediate armed support to their service saw the benefit of this. There The police service reviewed its re- unarmed colleagues and they have stand- were several directions recorded in the sponse capability and came up with the ing authority to carry firearms for this early years about ensuring officers re- Armed Response Vehicle (ARV), a per- purpose. There can be up to 12 cars avail- mained unarmed. For example on 8th manently patrolling vehicle containing able and they must cover the entire 700 November 1831 Richard Mayne - one of officers either carrying or with immediate square miles that make up urban and rural the Commissioners of the Metropolitan access to firearms. London, working to a shift pattern which Police - directed that 'The Superintend- will give response availability 24 hours a ents are to take particular care that the day, seven days a week. Constables do not carry Pistols about An armed response them, nor in fact Arms of any kind with- Now let's get right up to date. Actual The actual use of firearms by police is out the express permission of the training in the use of firearms was almost rare. In London last year shots were firedby Commissioners thereto'. non-existent until the late 1960's. One of police 3 times. In New York last year the the first full time Firearms Training Units equivalent figure was 312. So much for was created in London in 1966. Its pur- the commentators who persist in claim- The pendulum swings pose was to teach officers not only how to ing that our streets are becoming like There was a major change in policy in shoot but also how to arrest armed crimi- those in America. June 1884 after the murder of two police nals with the minimum of danger to officers by armed burglars. A survey of themselves and, more importantly, to the London officers showed that 4,430 out of An issue of morale public. Today the training also places The arming of the police is essentially a 6,325 wanted to be armed and morale was great emphasis on the decision making so bad that the Commissioner agreed to morale issue. If officers feel that no-one process necessary before a shot is even else cares they demand that the means of allow night duty officers in suburban fired. London to carry a revolver if they wished. self-protection be placed in their own There are some who would argue that we In London there are now about 1,800 hands. To retain an unarmed police serv- were closer to being a fully armed police officers trained in the use of firearms. ice officers must have, and be seen to service then than at any time in our his- This is out of a total of 28,000 and is 3,000 have, the protection they need. The com- tory. less than 10 years ago. Most armed offic- promise solution is to have a small number ers are involved in some kind of VIP of armed officers in support cars with In the early 1920's, following the protection or security duty and, although further backup immediately available, so partition of Ireland, armed motor patrols some officers on divisions are still trained, as to provide the added reassurance to were set up in the Capital to thwart at- the immediate response to armed crime is their unarmed colleagues who undertake tempts by Sinn Feiners to steal weapons provided by the AR Vs set up in July 1991. the routine provision of the police serv- from London gun dealers. Some 2,000 ice. officers were armed for the patrols, a Last year 3,902 officers in London figure which has never been exceeded were assaulted. Firearms were used in 41 Is this enough? The real question is, since. assaults and officers were shot at 23 times. do the officers who perform their duty In October last year Constable Patrick unarmed feel that it is enough? If the The automatic right to carry a firearm Dunne was shot and killed in Clapham answer is yes, then the day we become a was removed in July 1936. From then on answering a routine call from a member fully armed police service is pushed that a 'satisfactory reason for firearms issue' of the public to an alleged burglary. In little bit further away. had to be given to the Station Officer, February this year Sergeant Derek Michael Waldren is a Superintendent in usually a sergeant. In 1983, after the shoot- Robertson was stabbed to death, again the Metropolitan Police Firearms Unit. ing of a man in London after detectives 11.

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