Arming the Police

So yesterday I was listening to one of those radio phone in programmes discussing the routine arming of Police which predictably always get raised in the wake of Police Officers getting shot or injured.

What makes me laugh in the absurdity of the people they invite onto their shows as guest speakers. A former Thames Valley senior officer kicks off the debate by explaining why officers should not be armed. He speaks about this idea of a British Policing model, and attempts to ludicrously convince the audience that arming Police Officers will not make them safer.

WTF! When last did you do a night turn in Harlesden, Hackney, Moss Side or Toxteth then Guv? I’m sorry to point out the difference but those places (I could name more) are a world apart from Chiltern and South Buckinghamshire.

As his continued, he went on to say that we only have to look at America as an example of how Police Officers are not safer just because they carry firearms. I was laughing by this point.

Who are these people that whenever this debate arises, self generate some debatable statistical evidence about the numbers of officers shot or seriously injured in America? Where did you get your empirical data from Guv? Wikipedia?

In a country that vast and that different you would have a hard time comparing individual states to each other let alone this tiny island to our former colony.  Hawaii and Texas could not be more different to St. Louis in Missouri which has one of the highest murder rates in the county.

What’s more, how do you compare a country of nearly 310 million, where the right to bear all sorts of firearms is enshrined into their constitution, to an Island of 64 million where you can expect to get locked up for carrying pepper spray?

In a country where people decide to go on killing rampages over the most trivial of things, it’s no wonder more officers get hurt. How about comparing us to France or Spain, surely that would be a more accuracte comparison.

However, the fact remains that in this country as tragically seen recently, officers continue to get seriously hurt or injured with an ever increasing degree of frequency. I am not going to speculate about the manner in which those two female officers in Manchester died. It would not be far to them, their colleagues or their family. But maybe if they had been armed, maybe, just maybe things might be different.

Politicians and senior officers have a short memory. What about the PC and PCSO who tried to speak to a mad man on a bus about his ticket when they were brutally stabbed in what was clearly an attempted murder? One of them would have died had it not been for a vascular surgeon who happened to be passing and managed to stem the blood loss from one of the officer’s necks.

What about the other knife wielding mad man that stabbed and hospitalised several officers in North London? These are recent events and I haven’t even mentioned those officers killed.

Finally, the biggest myth that has been voiced this week is that the vast majority of Officers don’t want to be armed. I have heard this time and time again from the Home Secretary down over the last week. Again, where are these people getting their research?

 They claim to speak for the rank and file but no one I know has ever been asked their opinion. There has never been a staff survey of those people that actually do the job in some of the worst cities in our country.

What there has been has been no end of senior management team generated staff satisfaction surveys. Yes Guv the uniform is crap, it was crap the last time you asked and the new itchy woolly jumper has done nothing to change that view.

 Do you really want to know my views on the impact the Olympics had on my work life balance? What for? You didn’t care before the games, or are you asking just in case this Government still has me trying to earn my pension by the time the next Olympic games come to London?

If the Commissioners and Chief Constables of this country said to every officer tomorrow, if you want a course and a Glock I’ll give you one, there would be a staggering uptake of the offer.

How about a proper staff survey Guv?