There have been calls made for Scottish police officers to be armed following the terror attack on Westminster.
Four people were killed at the hands of Khalid Masood, including unarmed Police Constable Keith Palmer.
The Sunday Post reports that the issue will be discussed by rank and file officers at the Scottish Police Federation’s annual conference on Tuesday.
Although the topic was not originally on the agenda of the event, it is now “a racing certainty” to be examined.
It is believed by some federation members that it is time for Scottish officers to be armed “given the expectations placed on them to deal with terror situations” and not simply be “potential victims to add to the body count”.
Professor Anthony Glees, director of Buckinghamshire University’s security and intelligence studies, is also calling for more armed officers on our streets.
He said to the Sunday Post: “We have sent an extremely brave man – PC Keith Palmer – to deal with an Islamist terrorist who was armed with a knife.
“You don’t send soldiers into battle unarmed. Times are hard now and we need more armed police.
“We have got to stop pussy-footing around. When the terror threat is reduced we can get rid of the guns.”
Recently, the number of armed officers to cover Scotland has increased by around 400.
Police Scotland will not reveal the exact figure on duty at any one time, due to operational and security reasons.
However it’s widely accepted to be only a “tiny fraction” of the specialist resource.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel