The spread of armed officers was one aspect of “Strathclydisation”, where tough Glaswegian tactics were rolled out to the sticks. Use of stop and search also increased. Methods that work on inner-city gangs are unsuited to places where duties include rescuing cats from trees…
The Economist, in ‘Scotland’s national police force finds its feet’
Egon Bittner, a sociologist, once defined policing as responding to “something that ought not to be happening and about which someone had better do something now”
The Metropolitan Police, which covers most of London, was founded in 1829 on the principle of “policing by consent” rather than by force.
Giving everyday police officers guns sends the wrong message to communities, so this thinking goes, and can actually cause more problems than it solves.
Why London doesn’t arm most of its police officers, March 23, 2017 at 05:09PM
Use my marker 