lansbury

Some police at HP are armed. Even if he was armed depending on the circumstances he might not have been able to use it.

dc koop

But then again he might have been able to use it. Another thought, if ISIS tactics are now aimed at killing pedestrians by motor vehicles as has also happened in France and Germany then this is a good reason for police to be armed. Whose going to stop a maniac behind the wheel of a large vehicle running down people all over the place other than by use of a firearm ?

Obviously that doesn't mean to say that there would be an armed police officer on hand in such a situation but it could on the other hand mean a response that would be much quicker and effective if there was.

Armed Response can only be on the scene as soon as soon as it takes to get there and a lot of damage done in the meantime

mrken30

Wasn't the recent attack in France made worse by the attacker getting hold of the security forces firearm? So there are arguments for and against.

If you are stabbed unexpectedly, you may not be in a position to stop the assailant getting your firearm.

Giantaxe

with a jury-rigged sawn off shotgun that had "most of its stock and barrel cut-down".

lansbury

Armed officers were on the scene as it was happening. There are RDPG officers all over that part of London, as well as Trojan units, and it didn't stop it. Certainly the tactics used at the moment is not a good reason to arm the police. If you had done the job, or perhaps closely watched UK and US police programs you might just have an inkling of the price to be paid by having an armed police service. Conversations with my son and others I know serving in the UK leads me to believe the majority of officers still do not want to be armed. As things are there were more than sufficient armed officers to contain the attack.

mrken30

A lead ounces of lead won't stop a ton of steel. I personally think the UK has a good system with armed and unarmed Police. Then again the British way is to use stealth and intelligence, whereas other countries use the "all guns blazing" approach.
There were 10 arrests made immediately after this incident. Compare this to the Boston event.

Anian

Don't they usually just block them in with their own vehicles? Even in the US, they don't tend to shoot the driver.

mrken30

Maybe a LAW 80 would have stopped him, but I'm sure more people would have been killed.

dc koop

I don't think UK police in general need to be armed either but certainly they should be if assigned to airports, docks, government buildings and royal palaces. These places are the kind of targets that a well planned attack beforehand would be aimed at. Terrorists have the advantage of being able to strike anywhere at any time.

British intelligence probably do the best job possible in keeping a watch on radical types but in this last tragedy obviously this bloke despite a criminal record and known radical tendencies still managed to slip through the cracks

scrubbedexpat099

It is a numbers game, 3 million of which 15 to 25% fall into the potential radicalised element.

How can you possibly keep an eye on that sort of number?

mrken30

By monitoring email accounts, social media activity and general web activity. Tied to that monitoring movements of suspects.

robin1234

And railway stations? There are always teams of police officers with automatic weapons at London mainline termini. But there are also unarmed officers in those places too. It wouldn't make any sense having all officers at Heathrow, Gatwick & Liverpool St. station armed, but officers at other places all unarmed?

scrubbedexpat099

Facebook, obviously....

mrken30

The City of London Police also used to be armed, I assume it is still the case. Doesn't Liverpool St. come under the City of London?

dc koop

If there was time to get the vehicles into position and assuming that there were a number of police vehicles already at the location where the attack was suddenly carried out but the chances are that there wouldn't be. Any terrorist can just decide to mow down as many people as possible at any time and at any place. The reality is that pedestrian crowded streets are vulnerable at all times and murder by vehicle is much more effective at achieving a high casualty rate in a very short time than even a high powered firearm could.

As for shooting the driver I think it would be better to shoot out the tires which are an easier target