Armed Police 'Want To Go Back To Patrol Cars'
A campaigner says firearms officers want to quit as the PM launches a review into protections given to police who shoot to kill.
Sunday 20 December 2015 10:01, UK
Armed police officers are considering quitting their roles over fears they will end up being tried for a crime, it has been warned.
Police campaigner Norman Brennan has told Sky News officers who carry guns have said they would rather go back to driving patrol cars because of the threat of prosecution.
It comes as .
Earlier this week, amid an investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission following the fatal shooting of a man outside Wood Green prison.
The UK also remains on heightened alert over the threat of a Paris-style terror attack on British soil.
Mr Brennan, a former London police officer, said: "When police officers open fire, it's not a shoot to kill policy, its a shoot to stop. If you shoot them to stop them they may die.
"What police officers feel now, and I've been in touch with a number of firearms officers this week, (is) 'enough is enough'.
"(They think) 'we put ourselves forward to protect society, we are highly trained, we are not trigger happy, but when we are at the scene when our life, or that of the public, is in imminent danger, what is it that the public expects us to do?
"Is it to hesitate and think 'if I fire this bullet, is my life as a police officer going to be ruined? Am I going to be in the dock charged with a homicide? Or am I going to be thanked for carrying a firearm and challenging those who have no qualms about shooting or damaging anybody?'"
He added: "There are police officers who are saying to me 'I carry a firearm, but I'd better go back to driving an area car'."
Crossbench peer Lord Blair, the ex Met Police Commissioner, said what is needed is for the investigation that takes place after every police shooting to be speeded up.
He told Sky News: "In the latest shooting case in north London, they've arrested the officer. That's not necessary. He can be interviewed under caution. This is sending a very bad message to the rest of the officers.
"It doesn't mean that police have to be free from accountability, but anything that takes seven or ten years to resolve is ridiculous."
In July, a, having been charged in 2014.
Mr Blair said that after another case - Harry Stanley who was shot dead in 1999 - armed officers had threatened to quit on mass because of the effect of the subsequent investigation on their work.