POLICE: GIVE US GUNS
More than half of Scots cops want to carry firearms as assaults against officers soar
MOST police officers want to carry guns after 40 per cent of them were victims of assault last year.
A survey of Scots cops has revealed 53 per cent rank a handgun in the top five pieces of protecive equipment they “would like”.
David Hamilton, chair of the Scottish Police Federation, said that the figures “show just how real the dangers are to police officers and how vulnerable they feel delivering policing in Scotland”.
MORE than half of police officers want to carry guns according to a survey – as shock figures reveal 40 per cent of officers were assaulted in the last year.
The findings reveal 53 per cent of Scots police ranked a handgun in the top five pieces of protective equipment they “would like”.
It comes after 40 per cent of officers were physically attacked in the last year and 22 per cent in the last three months.
We reported yesterday how an officer suffered serious head injuries after an alleged baseball bat attack in Paisley.
UK police, outside of Northern Ireland, are unusual across the world for not routinely carrying guns.
However, critics have warned that arming the police could lead to a breakdown in relationships between the force and the public.
Of the 1698 officers surveyed by the Scottish Police Federation study on personal protective equipment (PPE), 53 per cent of them ranked handguns in the top five PPE priorities they “would like”, with a taser coming top of the wish list on 84 per cent.
Most Scots officers, 60 per cent, said they would be prepared to be trained in and use handguns – although this didn’t mean they’d expect to be armed as a matter of course.
However, 47 per cent said they didn’t want to carry handguns and 37 per cent didn’t want to be trained to use them.
David Hamilton, chair of the Scottish Police Federation, said: “(The figures) show just how real the dangers are to police officers and how vulnerable they feel delivering policing in Scotland. The survey shows that Police Scotland’s own figures are just the tip of the iceberg. “The public will be aghast that 22 per cent of our police officers have been assaulted on duty in the last three months. “These are sons and daughters, mums and dads, each of whom has taken an oath to serve their communities and keep people safe, but communities have a duty to keep their officers safe too.” Hamilton added: “Perhaps the biggest shock is that 53 per cent of our officers would like access to a handgun and a further seven per cent would be prepared to be trained in it if necessary.
“Officers consider knives to be the greatest risk to them and firearms are the appropriate last defence to being attacked by such lethal weapons.”
Hamilton said the Norwegian model – where officers do not carry firearms but keep them routinely locked in their patrol cars in case they need them – “deserves to be considered”.
He added: “Few officers want to be routinely armed but in light of these figures, that model of being able to have rapid access to a handgun when absolutely necessary merits further examination.”
Scottish Lib Dem justice spokesman Liam McArthur MSP said police should feel “secure and properly supported by their armed
colleagues”. But he warned: “Any move towards routinely arming officers with handguns would be disproportionate and risk driving a wedge between officers and communities.”
And Dr Mick North, of the Gun Control Network, said: “It certainly wouldn’t protect the public any more and it’s hard to see how it would protect individual officers, unless there was some change of culture and it became too much like America where you draw your guns for any reason, and that is not the way policing has been conducted in the UK.”
Police Scotland deputy chief constable Fiona Taylor told force magazine 1919: “Policing by the consent of our communities is a core element of Police Scotland’s principles and there are no plans to move away from being an unarmed service which has an armed capability.
“Being assaulted is not simply part of the job and tackling the concerning trend of increasing assaults on officers and staff is a priority.
“The Chief Constable has underlined his commitment to supporting operational capabilities by providing our people with the tools they need to do their jobs and he has also committed to continuing our focus on officer and staff safety.
“We have improved our infrastructure to support more take-up of existing taser provision and work is underway to uplift the number of Taser-trained officers by 1500 over the next three years.”
The public will be aghast at these figures DAVID HAMILTON ON COP ATTACKS