Do Police Need Guns?

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Richard Evans, Clare Farmer

   Pages 1-5

3. The Edge of the Knife: The Paradox of Police Power

   • Richard Evans, Clare Farmer

   Pages 7-20

4. ‘Only the Minimum Degree’: The Minimum Force Tradition

   • Richard Evans, Clare Farmer

   Pages 21-32

5. ‘As Well Armed as the Criminal’: The Armed Tradition

   • Richard Evans, Clare Farmer

   Pages 33-51

6. Operationalising Minimum Force: The Need for Evidence

   • Richard Evans, Clare Farmer

   Pages 53-66

7. ‘The Law of the Instrument’: Examining the Nexus Between Safety and the Routine Arming of Police Officers

   • Richard Evans, Clare Farmer

   Pages 67-109

8. ‘The Devil’s Right Hand’: Policing, Media and Weapons Product Placement

   • Richard Evans, Clare Farmer

   Pages 111-133

9. Do Police Need Guns?

   • Richard Evans, Clare Farmer

   Pages 135-141

This book challenges what are, for many people, deep-rooted expectations regarding the routine arming of police and compares jurisdictions in which police are routinely armed (Toronto, Canada and Brisbane, Australia) and those where police are not routinely armed (Manchester, England and Auckland, New Zealand). With a focus on Western jurisdictions and by examining a range of documentary, media and data sources, this book provides an evidence-based examination of the question: Do police really need guns?

This book first provides detailed insight into the armed policing tradition and perceptions/expectations with respect to police and firearms. A range of theoretical concepts regarding policing, state power and the use of force is applied to an examination of what makes the police powerful. This is set against the minimum force tradition, which is typified by policing in England and Wales. Consideration is also given to the role played by key tropes and constructs of popular culture. Drawing on Surette’s model of symbolic reality, the book considers contrasting media traditions and the positioning of firearms within narrative arcs, especially the role of heroes. The book concludes by drawing together the key themes and findings, and considering the viability of retaining and/or moving towards non-routinely armed police.

• Weaponization of policing
• Armed policing tradition
• Perceptions and expectations of police and firearms
• Policing, state power and the use of force
• Minimum force tradition
• Effect on safety of routinely arming police
• Force, the state and police power
• The place of guns in culture
• Minimum-force policing
• policing

• School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia

  Richard Evans, Clare Farmer

Dr. Richard Evans is a Lecturer in criminology at Deakin University. Richard is the author of four books including Disasters that Changed Australia (MUP 2009) and The Pyjama Girl Mystery (Scribe 2004). A former journalist, his teaching and research interests include drugs and crime, disasters, surveillance, policing, and miscarriages of justice. He believes that criminology can and should help build a more just society.


Dr. Clare Farmer has been a member of the Deakin Criminology team since 2010. Her research interests include the challenge of balancing the competing needs of offenders, victims and the wider community within/across the criminal justice system; responses to anti-social behaviour; police powers; human rights; young offenders; and sentencing principles and practices. Clare’s Ph.D. examined the growth of discretionary police powers in Victoria: their rationale, scrutiny and the consequences for due process and individual rights.

Policies and ethics