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Police in the UK do not carry firearms, at all. Regular police have a taser, there are also firearms units on call when needed. This is an outlier even for Euro
by rich_sasha 5y ago
Police in the UK do not carry firearms, at all. Regular police have a taser, there are also firearms units on call when needed. This is an outlier even for Europe, where I believe it is standard to carry a pistol.
This has some interesting consequences. The police effectively can’t position themselves in opposition to “the people of the street”. Two police officers against a rowdy pub is poor chances for the law.
As a result, the training emphasises deescalation, talking people down from stupid ideas etc. This part seems particularly effective.
Most days I still think it’s crazy the police here are effectively unarmed, but it does seem to work.
- whall6 5y agoAren’t there like way more police per capita in the UK though?
- gremloni 5y agoI don’t feel like that’s a bad thing. Way more non deadly police are a good thing in my opinion.
- effingwewt 5y agoSeriously I'd rather have a 10x increase in police if it meant no firearms.
- rich_sasha 5y agoNo idea, but if anything my impression would be the opposite. I know from a police officer friend of mine that on badly-staffed nights, Oxford (an affluent city of about 180k people) only had 2-4 officers on call. For anything from a bar fight to murder. You don’t get these American-style 10 police car buildups, unless it is literally a national emergency.
- anshumankmr 5y agoIn India, most cops carry sticks called lathis. When terrorists attacked Mumbai 12 years back, a lot of them were unable to protect people as they did not have guns. Many of them died as well.