Why British police officers are not armed

⁣Every time someone is shot by the police in the UK, the case is referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) In practice, this means the officer is investigated by his professional standards body automatically and can face the sack and prosecution if it rules against him
These investigations are lengthy, stressful, and carry a huge amount of risk for the officer concerned In fact, they are so feared that not only do the police refuse to be routinely armed, specialist firearms teams struggle to find candidates willing to do the job