Downing Street has ordered a review to assess whether firearms police in England and Wales should have greater legal and political backing when they use their weapons, in the wake of the Paris terror attacks and the atal shooting of Jermaine Baker.
The review will assess whether the law provides enough support for armed officers to make a split-second decision to use their weapons without fear of prosecution, particularly in the event of a Paris-style attack in the UK.
Under current legislation, England and Wales's 6,000 firearms officers are allowed to use "reasonable force" and open fire when they have an "honest" belief that they need to do so – but some have expressed concern that this is not enough.
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"These are men and women who go to work to do an incredibly dangerous job for which they volunteer and if they do their duty and shoot somebody because they have to... they should not be treated as criminals," former Met Police commissioner Lord Blair told the BBC.
The comments came in the wake of the fatal shooting of 28-year-old Jermaine Baker by armed officers in north London on 11 December. A police officer involved in the shooting has now been arrested after the Independent Police Complaints Commission announced they would be conducting a homicide inquiry.
The policy governing firearms officers has already proven politically divisive, particularly within the ranks of Labour. Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn has expressed reservations about the so-called "shoot to kill" policy in regard to terrorists, and believes that the police need to be responsible to the public for their actions.
However, shadow business secretary Angela Eagle said that there could be a need to change the current policy in the light of recent terrorism attacks, but stressed the importance of finding a balance within any changes. "There have to be safeguards because we know what happens when people are shot wrongly," she warned.
Former Scotland Yard chief Brian Paddick stressed that there needed to be a trade-off between the personal and legal rights of firearms officers involved in a fatal shooting. "You can't have police officers above the law, especially if they use lethal force," Lord Paddick said.
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