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Wednesday, 18 July, 2001, 09:28 GMT 10:28 UK
Between the baton and the bullet
![]() With two members of the public shot dead by police in as many weeks, the use of "live fire" by officers and the less-than-lethal alternatives have come under scrutiny.
The image of British Bobbies on the beat with little more than a truncheon to defend themselves no longer rings true. Today's police officers have swift access to far more lethal arsenals.
While a variety of self-loading pistols have been issued to officers, almost all UK forces have purchased Heckler and Koch MP5 machine guns (perhaps more familiar as the weapons used by the SAS to storm the Iranian embassy in 1980). Soft option Such weapons are perhaps even more deadly than their military equivalents, since police forces tend to load them with "soft point" ammunition - frowned upon by the Geneva Convention. These rounds expand on impact - giving up much of their energy - thus reducing what a recent Home Office report called the "risk of over penetration of the primary target".
Police marksmen are supposed only to fire "after conventional methods have been tried and failed or must, from the ... circumstances, be unlikely to succeed," according to Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) guidelines. The guidelines recommend firing at the torso - the main location of the central nervous system and a larger target than the arm or leg. While a recent study suggested there were 3,685 gun crimes in the UK in 1999/2000 (up 40% on the previous few years), armed police were deployed 10,928 times in 1999 - according to figures called "conservative" by The Guardian. Unarmed Of the 18 people fatally shot by police between 1989 and 1997, six were subsequently found not to be armed, according to figures presented to Parliament. Inspector Gary Crump, of Scotland Yard's firearms policy unit, says armed officers are also being summoned "to more and more knife incidents. But is that appropriate?"
Sean Howe, of Jane's Police Review, says there is an array of situations where equipment limitations give officers no choice but to resort to lethal force. "Officers now have long batons and CS spray to tackle suspects up close, but they have nothing available that works over a greater distance. Their next line of defence is firearms." Alternatives to guns Following the fatal shooting on Monday of a London man later found to be carrying a gun-shaped lighter, Home Secretary David Blunkett has vowed to explore "alternatives" to live fire. Baton rounds, so-called plastic bullets, have been used in Northern Ireland for many years. Often portrayed as non-lethal, the rounds have killed at least 17 people.
However, a Ministry of Defence report said that should an L21A1 hit a human skull "the severity of injuries to the brain is likely to be greater" than with the old plastic bullets. Yet even when fired at the torso, baton rounds can cause potentially fatal damage to organs and arteries. Less-than-lethal weapons The Police Scientific Development Branch is examining less dangerous "kinetic energy weapons" - including guns which fire bean-bags - as a means of subduing close standing assailants. The Police Federation has urged the Home Office to test the American A3P3 gun - capable of squirting a disabling stream of pepper spray over greater distances than current issue CS containers.
A Taser was infamously used in the beating of Rodney King by LA policemen. Human rights campaigners fear the device could easily be used not only to overcome suspects, but to torture them too. While comic book-sounding sticky foams and nets have also been suggested as "less-than-lethal" weapons to "take down" dangerous individuals, Sean Howe points out most methods reduce the risks of harm, but do not removed it entirely. "It is still possible people could be killed. The phrase 'non-lethal' describes the intent of the police, not the result." |
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