Dale Cregan: Brother of PC David Rathband and widower of PC Sharon Beshenivsky demand officers are armed

• Darren Rathband said the current stance on arming police 'beggars belief'
• His twin brother David was blinded by gun maniac Raoul Moat in July 2010
• Paul Beshenivsky said killings should 'open the public's eyes'
• But police chiefs insist officers would rather remain unarmed
• Home Office says there are no plans to routinely arm officers
  

By Jack Doyle and Rob Preece

PUBLISHED: 02:10 EST, 19 September 2012 | UPDATED: 06:55 EST, 19 September 2012

The twin brother of shot Pc David Rathband and the widower of murdered Pc Sharon Beshenivsky have demanded that British police routinely carry guns in the wake of the killing of two female officers.

Darren Rathband, whose brother was was shot and blinded by gun maniac Raoul Moat in July 2010 and was found dead at his home 17 months later, wrote on Twitter: ‘Give them more than a bloody piece of plastic and some spray. Tragic!’

His call was backed by Paul Beshenivsky, whose wife was gunned down when she attended a botched robbery at a travel agent in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in 2005.

Mr Beshenivsky said the killing of officers Pc Fiona Bone, 32, and Pc Nicola Hughes, 23, in Tameside, Greater Manchester, on Tuesday should 'open the public's eyes' to the need for police to be armed.

But chiefs have warned against the move, with one insisting it was the 'clear view of the British police service from top to bottom' that officers would rather not be armed.

And Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said there would be 'considerable risks' to giving every police officer a gun.

The Home Office said there were no plans to routinely arm officers.

Darren Rathband, a former policeman in Staffordshire now serving in South Australia, said it ‘beggars belief’ that British officers routinely face criminals unarmed.

He added: 'How many officers need to die before the powers realise it is the 21st century?

‘No job is a routine job and there is always the potential for conflict. We don’t go on jobs where people are happy to see us.

‘I am angry some other families have now lost a daughter, sister, mother or wife and it makes me angry that the thin blue line is getting thinner and thinner.

‘If the public knew how thin that blue line was, they would be ashamed.’

Mr Beshenivsky, whose wife was a West Yorkshire Police officer, said: 'You wouldn’t think it’d happen again, but it has.'

He told ITV News at Ten: 'I think policing, as regarding going to scenes of crimes, should be monitored better, and I think police, in honesty, should be armed, walking into situations that they’re not totally aware of.

Victims: The killing of Pc Fiona Bone (left) and Pc Nicola Hughes (right) has prompted calls for police officers to be routinely armed

'You can’t have armed response at every situation, but I think, as an officer being armed, walk into a situation, feeling more comfortable, walking into that situation, thinking, "I could respond to that situation".'

Pc Beshenivsky, a 38-year-old mother-of-three, who also had two stepchildren, was shot and killed on her youngest daughter’s fourth birthday as she responded to an alarm call.

Her colleague, Pc Teresa Milburn, was wounded.

Unlike many of their overseas counterparts, British beat constables are not routinely armed and instead rely on 6,500 specialist firearms officers.

The president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, Sir Hugh Orde, warned against a rush to routinely arm officers.

'Guns don't necessarily solve the problem,' he said. 'You only have to look at the American experience. Many colleagues in America are lost without even drawing their gun at close ranges.'

Sir Hugh said it was the 'clear view of the British police service from top to bottom' that officers prefer to be unarmed because the public dislike approaching constables bearing weapons.

He said minimum use of force and intervention was the 'bedrock' of Britain's policing model.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme policing is 'a risk business', adding: 'As we speak, officers will be responding to calls not knowing what they will get to and not knowing exactly what they will be dealing with when they arrive.

'It's just a harsh fact of policing and, tragically on occasions, things go horribly wrong.'

The Chief Constable of Greater Manchester force has also rejected calls for more guns on the streets.

Sir Peter Fahy said: ‘We are passionate that the British style of policing is routinely unarmed policing.

Concerns: Sir Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, warned against a rush to routinely arm officers

‘Sadly we know from the experience in America that having armed officers certainly does not mean, sadly, that police officers do not end up getting shot.’

Mr Clegg said: 'I don't think this is the time to rush to instant judgments, this really is a time for mourning and support, of course, for the family and friends of the two women who have been killed.

'We have a long tradition in this country, which is a great tradition, of policing in the community, of the police being part of the public and the public supporting and giving their consent to the police.

'I think if we were, in an instant to, in a sense, arm our police to the teeth so they become separate from the public, that would be quite a big change which would have considerable risks attached to it.

'I think it is the kind of thing that you need to look at very carefully and certainly not, even though I know emotions are running high, in an instant way after this terrible, terrible tragedy.'

Passionate: Greater Manchester Police Chief Peter Fahy does not want to arm officers

Mr Clegg, speaking at a central London youth club, added: 'Of course there are going to be lots of questions about the nature of armed violence and gang violence in Manchester and elsewhere.'

But he added: 'I really just think right now everybody is reeling with shock, that these two brave women have been gunned down in this extraordinarily cruel way.'

Jayne Willetts, of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: 'We have firearms officers regularly patrolling the streets of the UK already and colleagues up and down the country have very mixed views about carrying firearms. It is a very personal choice.'

Speaking on ITV Daybreak, she described the killings of Pc Bone and Pc Hughes as 'absolutely dreadful'.

'It is difficult for our colleagues who have got to carry on with the job today, because our job goes on, we are professionals and we have a service to deliver," she said.

'Yesterday was absolutely dreadful, for every police officer and part of our family across the UK.

'It made me feel sick to the bottom of my stomach when I found out the news. It is the call that we dread.

'We do work together, we pull together as a large family - from the communities as well as the police family - to look after each other.'

Lord Tebbit, who was a senior Cabinet Minister in Margaret Thatcher's government, said he would be 'reluctant to see' routine arming of the police but called for the reintroduction of capital punishment to be considered.

Writing for the Daily Telegraph, he put: 'Effective policing demands that the relationship between the police officer and the public should be a comfortable one, reflecting that the constable is a member of the public and historically had few powers which were not also possessed by any other citizen.

'The carrying of guns would widen the gap which has grown between the police and the public in recent years.

'That does not mean that the whole question of the deterrent effect of capital punishment should not be re-examined.'

A Home Office spokesman said: 'As the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, Sir Peter Fahy, and Sir Hugh Orde of ACPO have clearly expressed, the British style of policing is based on policing by consent with police officers part of the communities they serve.

'This is not something we should readily give up and the majority of police in this country do not want to be routinely armed.'

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