Surprised to see guns
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Waking the Dead
heykincaid — 11 years ago(March 15, 2015 10:03 PM)
I just watched the first season of "Waking the Dead" on DVD and was surprised to see Spence and Mel draw firearms in two different episodes. Cops with guns are normal in America, but it has always been my understanding that cops don't carry guns in Great Britain. In fact, in most of the British crime shows I've watched the only cops with guns are the SWAT teams (or whatever the equivalent is in Britain), so it was a bit of a shock to see two British detectives pulling their firearms. I had only seen this once before, in "Touching Evil", and I wondered about it then, too. So which is more accurate, the shows where they don't carry guns or the ones where the do? Thanks.
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. -
ib011f9545i — 11 years ago(March 21, 2015 03:16 PM)
It is a common error that British police have never been and are never armed.
We had an interesting discussion about this on the LUTHER and MI5/SPOOKS sites in the past.
From what I have read (there are a couple of good books,one called LONDON'S ARMED POLICE,I can't recall the author,same author wrote an updated book later.)police were armed routinely until the late 1888s/90s when untrained police could take out guns and swords for night patrols.
Society became less lawless and the police more subject to public scrutiny and so the use of arms by police was reduced.
The whole idea of the British police comes from the founder Robert Peel and his idea of policing by comsent,not the same as continental europe's armed police Gendarme idea.
But there have always been incidents involving armed criminals and so the police have been armed on occasions to meet the threat.
You might want to google SIEGE OF SYDNEY STREET,HARRY ROBERTS,BRAYBROOKE STREET MASSACRE.
After the BRAYBROOKE STREET MASSACRE the police were all over Britain looking for HARRY ROBERTS,newsreel footage shows police officers with world war 2 revolvers and even Lee Enfield Rifles.
The number of police officers authorised,and poorly trained to use guns increased as criminals used guns more often and we had the threat from the IRA.
See SPAGHETTI HOUSE SIEGE and BALCOMBE STREET SIEGE.
There was a incident involving the shooting of the wrong man by police (can't recall his name)and there was a reform of the way police used guns.
Specialist trained units were created(SO 19/CO 19 in London,you seem them in lots of British crime dramas).
As gun crime increased in urban areas all police forces created special unit called usually ARV (ARMED RESPONSE VEHICLES with trained officers carrying guns at all times.).
Anti Terror units are armed as well of course.
To sum up British police (there is no national force but they all follow similar policy paths)have always sometimes used guns but even now most police you meet in most places will not be armed.
Sorry if this is not the greatest post I have ever done but I am half asleep.
There is a good article on WIKIPEDIA on this subject. -
puppyaddict — 10 years ago(June 23, 2015 11:00 PM)
I have seen this in other modern-era setting BBC cop shows as well, where the police don't routinely carry guns, but often will check them out or may have one they keep locked up & will take out if they suspect they are going into a particularly dangerous situation.