Legal protection for armed police to be reviewed

Prime Minister David Cameron has ordered a review into whether armed police should have greater legal protection in the event they use their weapons.

The review is expected to examine whether current laws go far enough to protect firearms officers and prevent hesitation in the event of an attack, following concerns that police do not have the necessary backing to work with confidence.

The issue was reportedly debated during a National Security Council meeting last week, with Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan Howe raising concerns over the current support given to firearms officers.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has said they review could damage community relations. He said: “If you want the public as a whole to have confidence in the police force and confidence they can cooperate with them in the future, any shooting on the street diminishes that confidence.

“There has to be a very robust and strong independent inquiry into what the police do. Like any other public organisation, they must be held to account.”

Shadow Business Secretary Angela Eagle stressed the need for balance on the issue. She said: “There have to be safeguards because we know what happens when people are shot wrongly ... but we also need to give our armed police the confidence if they’re dealing with a marauding terrorist of the sort we saw in Paris that they can get that person down and get them on the ground and save life.

“It’s important to get the balance right, it’s got to be democratically decided. We just can’t have shoot to kill without any kind of democratic involvement. There’s no yes or no answer to that.”

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