The less militarised the police forces is an indication of a more safer and mild society. People on this thread advocating mass arming of the police forces with assault forces etc literally do not even know the basics of policing and what a police force is supposed to be.
Apart from having specialized units, there is absolutely no reason why your average cops should like infantry fire teams. Again, the most important job for the police is crime prevention, law enforcement, protect personal and private property and preventing civil disorder etc. Not at all like what some folks on this thread are advocating.
Don't want to turn the Police in to private militias for provincial political warlords.
You are absolutely right and spot on. Many like
@Zarvan however wants police forces equipped to deal with any situations they can be confronted to,faced with the proliferation of heavy weapons in hands of criminals and terrorists.
He isn't asking for something really fancy,just decent protections (helmets,bulletproof vests) and decent armaments to fight back. If you are with a single pistol and without any protection against heavily armed terrorists/criminals with AKs for exemple,you aren't going to last long........ we sadly "made the experience" of it. I can give you few exemples ;
-When a police patrol came in front of the Kouachi brothers who just attacked Charlie Hebdo journalists,they were totally underpowered against terrorists with bulletproof vests and AKs,they couldn't have done much. Luckily,none were injured. They could have been stopped much earlier if police were properly equipped and protected.
-A local Gendarmerie patrol quickly rushed to the scene where the Kouachi brothers were later spotted. The pair were able to heavily injure one of the terrorist (in the neck) but had to retreat after coming under heavy fire because ,they weren't properly equipped to face terrorists with AKs.
They could have neutralized them much earlier if they were properly equipped and armed. But we had to wait the intervention of specialized units (GIGN) to neutralize them once for all.
-During the hostage taking at the Bataclan concert hall,a pair of first responding officers entered in the hall and were able to take out one of the terrorist. However they had to retreat as they weren't properly equipped (no heavy body armor,no helmet,no assault rifles) and outgunned by heavily armed terrorists.
Lot of similar stories against heavily armed criminals. Few days ago were heavy gunfire exchange between Gendarmes and criminals.
I know what you would think,obviously these are rare incidents and that is true. Officers are being given heavy protections (body armor,helmets,shields) and assault rifles (thing they never had). On apparence they don't look like infantry soldiers.
The equipment is locked in the patrol car trunk.
The proportion of interventions on which they'll use these equipments is very low. I myself wouldn't like to see them permanently heavily armed. However,they are now armed to deal with any situations.
@Kaptaan