Policing & Firearms

Policing and firearms: it is a crucial relationship. Should police be routinely armed? If so, what restrictions should be imposed on the use of firearms? Where police are not routinely armed, there is still a need for specialist armed police: how do these units operate, and are they effective?

This ground-breaking edited book explores the nexus between policing and firearms with a genuinely international focus. Contributors from Ireland, Germany, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Mexico, the United States, Venezuela, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada explore the issues from a range of perspectives, including human rights, militarization, police legitimacy, and the risks police firearms pose to the community and to police themselves.

This thought-provoking collection is an indispensable resource for law enforcement policymakers and students of policing and criminal justice.

1. Introduction
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Part 1: Policing, Firearms and Human Rights
. - 2. Unarmed Police: Myths, Rights and Realities. - 3. Are the Brazilian Police Forces lethal weapons? . - 4. The Routine Arming of the Police in Britain, the Right to Life and the Security Theory of John Locke and Benedict de Spinoza. - 5. Armed responses and Critical Shots: Learning lessons from Police involved shootings in England and Wales. -
Part 2: Policing, Firearms and Militarization
. - 6. `Gung-ho ? An examination of the move to militarise policing in Australia. - 7. Direct and indirect militarization of public security in Mexico and gun use during arrests. - 8. The myth of `routinely unarmed policing. - 9. Racism down the Barrel of the Colonial Gun. -
Part 3: Policing, Firearms and Risk
. - 10. Access to firearms A risk factor for police suicide? . - 11. How do police die in Venezuela? A comprehensive analysis of the death by homicide of State security force/policing officials. - 12
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Pathways to preventing fatal police-involved shootings of people in mental health crisis. - 13. `Facing death gave him new life : On-screen police gun violence and Weapon Product Placement . -
Part 4: Policing, Firearms and Legitimacy
. - 14. Predictors of public reactions to armed police: Findings from the UK. - 15. Armed police in an unarmed country: Legitimacy and self-legitimacy of English firearms officers. - 16. Public Acceptance of Police Use of Deadly Force: An Exploratory Study. - 17. Connecting officer appearance with officer safety: A survey of police officers perceptions of uniforms and accoutrements.