When unarmed black Briton Chris Kaba was killed by a single shot from a London Metropolitan police officer in September 2022, his family and communities of colour demanded answers. A year later, they have the beginnings of one – the Crown Prosecution Service announced it was charging an officer with murder. In response, over 100 armed Met officers voluntarily stood down from firearms duties, suggesting they were alarmed by the decision to prosecute one of their own.
Armed police are relatively rare in the UK. Just 4% of the 142,526 officers in England and Wales are armed (compared to all 708,000 in the US). In England and Wales only 6,677 officers are authorised to carry firearms.
