‘More risks by increasing armed officers’

Kent crime commissioner Matthew Scott says arming all police officers would increase the risk of American-style shootings.

He was speaking in the wake of a survey by the Metropolitan Police Federation suggesting three quarters of serving officers favoured being routinely armed with Tasers and backed having more firearms specialists.

Mr Scott, who made his comments on the latest edition of Paul On Politics on KMTV said: “Personally, I don’t support routinely arming the police with firearms. It would fundamentally change the model we have in this country of policing by consent. If you start to arm the law enforcers the others will start to arm themselves more.

“You will just get yourself into a situation like America, where you would have many, many more shootings taking place. It would put officers at risk as well as members of the public at risk.”

Ian Pointon, of the Kent Police Federation, said he didn’t believe officers had any enthusiasm for being armed, adding: “We are policed by a force which is overwhelmingly unarmed and I think we give that up at our peril.

“And if we were ever to give that up we would have to have massive public engagement because it would be fundamentally changing the principle of policing by consent.”

Kent Police is recruiting another 24 armed officers under a government initiative to increase UK security in the face of recent terrorist attacks on mainland Europe.