Do we need to send armed police to every interaction with the public?

[Yavin4]

Doesn't having armed police automatically escalate a situation? For example, do we need to have armed police for a traffic stop? Do we need to have armed cops for a domestic violence dispute?

I understand that I am proposing a radically different approach to policing, but it seems to me that when you arm and armor the police, you create a cultural mindset in the cops that it's some sort of urban warfare.

[RockRaven]

1. If there weren't 300 million guns in the US, that would be much more feasible.

We're stuck in a no-win situation so long as the US tolerated the type and volume of gun ownership we currently have.

Cops need to behave differently, be trained differently, be equipped differently, be held accountable differently, etc, but cops don't sign up to be martyrs and we should not ask that of them. Until there is less gun ownership, I don't see how we can disarm the police.

[Celerity]

4. there are over 400 million now (adjusted for 3 years later), and probably a lot more than that

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimated_number_of_civilian_guns_per_capita_by_country

[Yavin4]

8. Once you've given people a weapon and plausible immunity, they will use it.

No amount of training is going to overcome that. We only know about George Floyd because it was captured on a cell phone camera. If it wasn't, those cops would be walking the street freely.

We send other employees to deal with the public without arming them, teachers, bus drivers, DMV clerks, mail carriers, etc. Why not try some policing without arming them all.

[MineralMan]

2. What do you mean by armed? Every cop I see is carrying

a service pistol in a holster. The traffic cop, the cops that show up for domestic calls. Everyone. Do you not consider that being armed?

Perhaps you mean something else.

[Yavin4]

3. What I mean by that is...

Don't arm every cop.

[MineralMan]

5. That's not going to happen.

The tradition in this country is for police to carry sidearms. They're not going to give that up. It's not happening.

In England, on the other hand, the tradition has been for cops to be unarmed. Not here, though.

[Yavin4]

6. I've found that the weakest rationale for continuition of things is...

"that's how it's always been done".

We don't need to send armed officers into every situation, every call. If there's been a traffic accident, do we need to send armed police?

[MineralMan]

7. And yet, tradition is followed almost always.

I'm not saying that's a good thing, but I am saying that tradition will be followed when it comes to armed police in this country.

I can pretty much guarantee that, actually. Disarming the police is not going to happen, I'm afraid.

[Yavin4]

9. At one point, tradition meant human bondage.

Tradition meant more than one wife at a time. Tradition meant forcing people to work in unsafe conditions.

I'm not saying disarm ALL police, but some of them? Yes.