Europe looks to arming more police
Terrorist threats have law enforcement officials reconsidering weapons policies, procedures
PARIS — One was a young policewoman, unarmed on the outskirts of Paris and felled by an assault rifle. Her partner, also without weapons, could do nothing to stop the gunman. Another was a first responder with a sidearm, rushing to the Charlie Hebdo offices where a pair of masked men with high-powered weapons had opened fire on an editorial meeting. Among their primary targets: the armed police bodyguard inside the room.
With the deaths of the three French officers during three days of terror in the Paris region and the suggestion of a plot in Belgium to kill police, European law enforcement agencies are rethinking how — and how many — police should be armed.
Scotland Yard said Sunday it was increasing the deployment of officers allowed to carry firearms in Britain, where many cling to the image of the unarmed “bobby.” In Belgium, where officials say a terror network was plotting to attack police, officers again are permitted to take their service weapons home.
French law enforcement officials demanding heavier weapons, protective gear and a bolstered intelligence apparatus met Monday with top officials from the Interior Ministry. An official with the ministry, speaking on condition of anonymity, said automatic weapons and heavier bulletproof vests were on the table for discussion.
Among the most horrific images from the Paris attacks was the death of officer Ahmed Merabet, who can be seen on eyewitness video lying wounded on the pavement as a gunman approaches and fires a bullet into his head. Merabet, who is seen alone on the street, had a service gun and a bulletproof vest, Michel Thooris of the France Police labour union said. “But he did not come with the backup he needed, and the psychology to face a paramilitary assault,” Thooris said.
“We don’t want, necessarily, the arms that American police have,” Philippe Capon of French police union UNSA said. “We need weapons that can respond.”
Among those weapons, he said, are modernized criminal databases, because the current databases are out of date, and firewalled between different law enforcement branches. “The databases are not interactive. They are not accessible to all. They are not up to date.”
Unlike their U.K. peers, French national police are armed although their municipal counterparts tend to be not. Thooris said they are not permitted to have their service weapons while off duty, raising the possibility they could be targeted when vulnerable or unable to help if they happen across crime after hours.
In the U, K., the overall threat level is “severe” — meaning intelligence and police officials have evidence a terrorist attack is highly likely. The threat to police officers is judged to be very high after the Paris attacks as well as the disruption of a reported plot to attack police officers.