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It's an apples-to-oranges comparison for all sorts of reasons, but England and Wales has a population of about 60 million and averages about 3 fatal police shoo

It's an apples-to-oranges comparison for all sorts of reasons, but England and Wales has a population of about 60 million and averages about 3 fatal police shootings per year. From that perspective, 'regular' sounds like something of an understatement. Swatting just isn't a thing here - our armed officers are trained completely differently and held to much stricter standards regarding the use of force. American police do have to deal with much more widespread gun ownership and higher rates of violent crime, but that's only one half of the equation. Policing in the US is exceptionally fragmented across thousands of agencies, with no consistent standards of training and supervision. Even if there was a clear political mandate to reduce the number of police-involved shootings, there's no effective mechanism to change how policing is carried out on the ground. https://www.statista.com/statistics/319246/police-fatal-shootings-england-wales/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/319246/police-fatal-shoo... https://www.college.police.uk/about https://www.college.police.uk/about

monetus 2y ago
Can I ask you about the political power of police? Is there an equivalent to our police union? My mayor is downright afraid of them.
- jdietrich 2y ago
  Extremely limited. Police officers are not legally permitted to join a conventional trade union, because of the risk to public safety that would be posed by industrial action. Rank-and-file officers are represented by the Police Federation, which has many of the functions of a trade union but none of the legal recognition. More broadly, the British police are a service, not a force. A British officer would never refer to a member of the public as a "civilian", because our police are civilians in uniform. They have powers granted to them by Parliament, but their right to use those powers comes from the consent of the public that they serve. It's a radically different attitude that colours every interaction between police and the public. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_Federation_of_England_and_Wales https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_Federation_of_England_a... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peelian_principles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peelian_principles

monetus 2y ago

Can I ask you about the political power of police? Is there an equivalent to our police union? My mayor is downright afraid of them.

jdietrich 2y ago
Extremely limited. Police officers are not legally permitted to join a conventional trade union, because of the risk to public safety that would be posed by industrial action. Rank-and-file officers are represented by the Police Federation, which has many of the functions of a trade union but none of the legal recognition. More broadly, the British police are a service, not a force. A British officer would never refer to a member of the public as a "civilian", because our police are civilians in uniform. They have powers granted to them by Parliament, but their right to use those powers comes from the consent of the public that they serve. It's a radically different attitude that colours every interaction between police and the public. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_Federation_of_England_and_Wales https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_Federation_of_England_a... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peelian_principles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peelian_principles