No jokes today. Sorry.
Not long after the grand jury voted not to indict Ferguson, Missouri, policeman Darren Wilson for shooting Michael Brown, Wild Thing and I were sitting around the kitchen table with J. and M., talking about cops and guns. J. is a retired British policeman, which is another way of saying that he’s used to working without a gun. U.K. police forces do have armed response teams, but they’re the exception, not the rule. The cops you see on the street are unarmed.
J. did some training for the German police, who are armed, and he came away from it convinced that the gun can be a liability.
Deeply Irrelevant Photo: Red berries in the fall
“Everything they do is about protecting the gun,” he said, angling his body so one hip was away from us and one elbow blocked the imaginary pistol. It means they keep a distance, he said, and that means they have to talk louder. So instead of de-escalating a situation, they stand apart, shouting directions, and everyone gets anxious and angry. In some situations, their guns gave them a false sense of security. He once saw them not search the area around a prisoner in a drug den, although a chisel was within grabbing distance.
What J. learned in his career was to de-escalate. Even in a drug raid, when he was leading a team that had just broken down an apartment door, he found he could keep a normal distance and speak quietly, bringing calm to the situation.
Not carrying a gun, he says, means British cops have to be sensitive to danger and attentive to what is going on around them; carrying a gun means having to keep your distance, because if someone comes at you quickly and you’re too close, you won’t have the chance to use it. That distance changes how policing works.
It’s something to think about.
Notes from the U.K. 
If the only object between you (police good guy) and them (maybe don’t know yet bad guy) is the conversation you are about to have…a sure bet the “point of direction” will be gotten to very quickly. Yes I agree…verbal point…not weapon.
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It’s the “maybe don’t know yet” in this that seems so important. Remembering that could save lives.
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Something to think about is right. Thanks for this.
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I’ve never considered this aspect of armed law-enforcement. Of course, if we were to disarm police in South Africa the crime rate will drop significantly, as an alarming percentage of crimes are actually committed by them…
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There is that to consider.
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Ahhh… but think of all those macho war toys sitting around not being put to use. I’ve heard that they’re giving the surplus from Iraq and Afghanistan to the local police forces.
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I’ve read that as well. I’d find it a bit hard to justify a police force needing, say, a tank, but hey, maybe it’s an efficient way to stop shoplifting.
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Some great food for thought. I have never looked at it in that way before, but it makes sense.
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It’s nothing I would have thought of either. We get so locked into our own small realities that it’s hard to consider other possibilities.
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Hi there, a bit off topic, but I really love your blog and have just nominated you for the Leibster Award… Could you please check out my post here: http://scribblewoman.wordpress.com/2014/12/09/liebster-award/ Its all explained there, but if anything is unclear, please ask… Rowena. :)
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Rowena, I’m hopelessly flattered, really I am, but Notes is an award-free zone–something I decided the last time I was nominated for one and realized I just wasn’t comfortable with it. The fact that you think Notes is worth an award is an award of its own. Thanks.
For more on the subject, see https://notesfromtheuk.com/2014/10/22/declining-an-award/.
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I had no idea that British police officers did not carry weapons upon them! A very interesting perspective from your friend J. This must mean that they are trained in an entirely different manner from officers elsewhere who do carry weapons?
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From J.’s description, yes, very different. I’m working from a sample of one, which isn’t what you’d call scientific, but he talks a lot about de-escalating conflict–not at all what I expected.
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