The Greatest Aid to Recruiting British Police

There are disturbingly frequent stories coming from America involving policemen shooting unarmed members of the public. That some recent high-profile cases have involved unarmed black youths has suggested a racial bias. Indeed a federal report alleged overwhelming racial bias in the policing of Ferguson, Missouri, the scene of a shooting of an unarmed black youth by a white policeman in 2014, resulting in nationwide protests.

Other disquieting interactions between the US police and the public have recently been caught on camera. A US police dashboard video showed a Texas state trooper stopping a black 28 year- old woman driver, Sandra Bland, for failing to signal a lane change. The situation escalated when Sandra questioned his actions, firstly for the triviality of the offence and then for telling her not to smoke in her own car. The state trooper then asked Sandra to get out of her car and when she refused, the officer informed her she was under arrest and told her he would drag her out of the car. The video appeared to show the policeman with a weapon in his hand and telling Sandra “I will light you up” after she left her car. A struggle ensued off camera, but her screaming that the officer was about to break her wrists was heard, as were her complaints that he knocked her head into the ground. The officer admitted that he used force to subdue Sandra ‘to the ground’, but said that as she continued to fight back, he arrested her for assault on a public servant. She was taken into custody but tragically Sandra Bland was found hanged in her cell. Sandra’s family disputes the authorities’ finding that she hanged herself.

Another less tragic but still disturbing incident captured on video occurred at a pool party in Texas, 40 miles outside of Dallas. The police were called to a disturbance where some uninvited teenagers had refused to leave the party. A white police officer drew his gun before throwing a distraught 14 year-old black girl in a bikini to the ground. He knelt on her back for several minutes and could be seen pulling the girl’s hair and pinning her down, shouting “On your face” as he shoved her head into the grass.

He also pointed his gun at two black teenage boys, but other officers intervened and the youngsters ran away. The officer swore and appeared to randomly handcuff several black youngsters who protested to the officer they had only just arrived. The officer was subsequently suspended.

If the above cases show any pattern, it’s that there was a willingness to resort to the threat of firearms much too early, with the ever-present danger that their actual use could also have come much too early. In the traffic incident, the state trooper showed very little diplomacy or respect in his dealing with Sandra Bland. He likely had as much of a problem with her gender as with her race. The officer seemed to display little natural authority and his attempts at controlling the situation were based on threats of violence, presumably confident that in the last resort he was in possession of a firearm. The over-reaction of the policeman at the pool party almost defies belief. There can be little argument that anyone with the kind of volatile temperament to angrily physically abuse a child and then point his gun at other innocent children, shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near firearms, or indeed children.

I don’t doubt for a second that the ubiquity of firearms in the US means that the police have to be routinely issued with firearms. However, how is it possible to differentiate between those police recruits who derive their authority only from the knowledge that they’ll have a firearm, and those who have the confidence and intelligence to genuinely manage difficult situations with respect and tact, with their firearm as a weapon of truly last resort?

In Britain, the police aren’t routinely armed. Therefore they’re aware that in some situations they may be facing unknown danger, perhaps even firearms, without carrying firearms themselves. I suggest that anyone willing to join the police under those circumstances would be more suited to the job than someone more insecue, who only derives his confidence from knowing that he’s armed. Therefore one of the very great advantages of having a routinely unarmed police force, is the filtering out of those who would have joined only because of the authority that the carrying of a firearm bestows.

If for no other reason than keeping up the standard of recruitment, I hope we in Britain are able to continue with our police routinely unarmed, where the only high calibre mentioned is of the standard of the police.

So the burning question of the day is; should the British police remain routinely without firearms?