Police firearm use by country

In some countries including Iceland, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, the United Kingdom (Northern Ireland excepted), Maldives, the police do not carry firearms unless the situation is expected to merit it. A survey conducted in Great Britain in 2004 found that 47% of citizens supported arming all police while 48% were opposed to the idea.[1]

The Australian police forces are monitored by the Australian Institute of Criminology, which has recorded police shooting deaths since 1989. Police in Australia routinely wear firearms which are personally issued to them. All fatal police shootings are subject to a mandatory coronial inquest.[2] A 2013 review by the Australian Institute of Criminology found that 42% of victims of fatal police shootings had a mental illness.[3] A more recent history of deaths by police shootings is tabulated below.

1.^ Data provided by the Australian Institute of Criminology[4]

Police in Austria are monitored by the Austrian Interior Ministry. Since 2006 the records of police firearm use have been expanded to show whether or not a round was targeted at people.

1.^ 10 injuries, severity not specified.

Data reported on by Heute[5]

Since 1965 all Danish police officers have carried a police pistol when performing their duties. Danish police used Walther PPK 7.65 mm as the standard pistol until 2000, and then the Heckler & Koch USP 9 mm was introduced. In 2008 police began to carry pepper spray in addition to their firearm.

The appropriate use of firearms is described in the Act on Police Activities regulations, section 16 and 17 is translated into English in.[6]

16. (1) The police may use force only if necessary and justified and only by such means and to such extent as are reasonable relative to the interest which the police seek to protect. Any assessment of the justifiability of such force must also take into account whether the use of force involves any risk of bodily harm to third parties.

(2) Force must be used as considerately as possible under the circumstances and so as to minimise any bodily harm.

17. (1) Firearms may only be used:

(i) to avert an on-going or imminent dangerous assault on a person; (ii) to avert other imminent danger to the lives of persons or of such persons incurring grievous bodily harm […] (iv) to secure the apprehension of persons who have or are suspected on reasonable grounds of having commenced or committed a dangerous assault on another person unless the risk that such persons will commit another such assault is deemed not to exist;

(2) Before the police fire shots involving a risk of harm to a person, the person must be informed in so far as possible, first by shouted warnings and then by warning shots, that the police intend to fire if police orders are not observed. It must also be ensured, in so far as possible, that the person is able to observe the order.

(3) In case of an obvious risk of hitting third parties, shots may only be fired as a last resort […]

(5) If police shooting has caused harm to a person, the person must immediately be examined by a doctor.

In Denmark the police use of weapons is recorded by the police department. The police department classifies tear gas as the use of a firearm. In 2006 the death of four people by police shootings prompted an investigation into the use of firearms by the Danish police force from 1996 to 2006. The investigation found no significant trends of increased firearms use by the police.[6]

1.^ Includes warning shots and tear gas fired.

2.^ Includes shots aimed at vehicle tyres.

More recent figures have been published separately in a different format.[7]

Police in Finland have access to weapons including a Glock 17, Heckler & Koch MP5, Taser and pepper spray. The use of firearms is recorded by the Police College and the Finnish ministry of the Interior.

Data reported on by YLE uutiset[8]

In France the police are regularly armed, however, there is no official record of how frequently firearms are used.[9] An independent group A Toutes Les Victimes has tracked the number of deaths and injuries by police which have been published in the media since 2005.

1^ Unofficial data from the A Toutes Les Victimes census[10]

German police forces routinely carry weapons. Police firearm statistics dating back to 1996 are available,[11] a summary of recent years is tabulated below.

Icelandic police do not regularly carry firearms. In 2013 the first fatal police shooting took place where one man was killed. As of October 2019 this remains the only fatal police shooting since Iceland became an independent republic in 1944.[12]

All routinely uniformed officers are unarmed. The strength of the Garda Síochána is approximately 15,000 officers, of which approx. 4,000 are licensed to carry firearms. Uniformed Gardaí wear stab-proof body armour and carry expandable ASP batons, handcuffs and pepper spray.

Armed support units include the Regional Support Units (RSU) and the national Emergency Response Unit (ERU), which is comparable to American SWAT or British SCO19 and operates a variety of lethal and non-lethal devices. All Gardaí (Police Officers) who train as detectives carry a sidearm, and many plainclothes/undercover officers are also trained and deployed with the use of concealed handguns.

The policy of unarmed police has been in place since 1922, when the Garda's armed predecessor, the Royal Irish Constabulary, was replaced upon the Irish Free State's secession from the United Kingdom.

The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) investigates complaints made against police by members of the public. Section 102(1) of the Garda Síochána Act 2005 requires that "the Garda Commissioner refers to the Ombudsman Commission any matter that appears to the Garda Commissioner to indicate that the conduct of a member of the Garda Síochána may have resulted in the death of, or serious harm to, a person."[13]

The GSOC 5 yearly report provides statistics for the total number of fatalities referred to the GSOC for investigation.

1^ Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission five year report[14]

The Jamaica Constabulary Force's (JCF) use of lethal force has been monitored by Amnesty International. From 1983 to 2000 the Jamaican police force has been reported to kill between 121 and 355 people each year with an average of 171 deaths.[15] A subsequent report by Amnesty USA shows that from 1998 to 2015 between 101 and 307 people were killed each year with an average of 192 deaths.[16] In 2010, the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) was established as an independent oversight body to tackle the frequent use of lethal force by members of the Security Forces. which has made progress towards reducing the problem.[17] A summary of recent years, is tabulated below:

Uniformed officers carry sidearms, typically the New Nambu M60 revolver while on duty only. Security Police and Special Assault Team carry semi-automatic pistols and heavier submachine guns and rifles depending on the situation.

Law enforcement in the Netherlands regularly carry firearms, in every incident where a firearm round hits a person there is an investigation conducted to determine if the use of a firearm was justified. The results of the investigations are made publicly available, the cases for each year are tabulated.

Data from firearms use investigations[18]

The New Zealand Police do not routinely carry sidearms. Under normal circumstances, police in New Zealand carry pepper spray, batons, and Tasers, though all are trained with the Glock 17 pistol and Bushmaster M4 semi-automatic rifle. These firearms are carried in all frontline police vehicles and are available for use should a situation require it. There are times when due to a credible threat, New Zealand's 12 district police commanders have the authority to arm all of their frontline officers.[19] After the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings all frontline police officers throughout the country were instructed by the Police Commissioner to carry guns while on duty.[20]

In October 2019, New Zealand's Police Commissioner announced a 6-month trial of Armed Response Teams (ARTs) in three Police districts. The ARTs are specialist armed police personnel who are part of the Armed Offenders Squad. The teams are a minimum of three, in specialised vehicles equipped with tactical options and operate seven days a week.[21]

When force is used (excluding handcuffs) a tactical operations report is filed. Use of tactical options is published by the police force.[22]

A summary of tactical options used in 2010–2014 was published in 2015. In 33,198 events over the four-year period, firearms were drawn 1,422 times, resulting in 5 injuries.[23] Tactical operations resulting in fatalities are not recorded in the database.

Since 1916, New Zealand Police have used lethal force 40 times.

The Norwegian Police Service formerly only carried firearms in response to specific situations, keeping their Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine guns and Heckler & Koch P30 pistols locked in the patrol cars. In early 2019, the NPS started implementing permanent armed carry on officers. The use of firearms is recorded by the police department which publishes detailed statistics on the annual use of firearms. The information presented in the 2014 report is detailed in the table below.[24]

The South African Police Service is monitored by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) which releases an annual report on the performance indicators of police activity. The IPID publishes deaths as a results of police action and deaths in police custody. Use of firearms forms the majority of the killings by police; shootings by police are all classified under deaths as a result of police action.

1^ Includes all categories of deaths as a result of police action with labels "Shot with service firearm", "Shot with police firearm" and "Negligent handling of a firearm leading to death". Excludes suicides.

The Swedish Police Authority always carry firearms when on public duty. The standard weapon issued to officers is the SIG Sauer P226. The police authority report that normally police will threaten to use their weapon but do not discharge it, this happens about 200 times per year. In a typical year the police shoot 20 warning shots aimed at people or vehicles.[31] An investigation reviewing the use of weapons by police details the firearm use from 2003 to 2014.[32]

Only the most serious use of violence is counted, if an incident involves both warning shots and shots for effect it is only counted in the shots for effect section.

Police forces in the United Kingdom are managed by different bodies and thus have different standards for firearms usage. Police in Northern Ireland regularly carry firearms whereas the police in Great Britain do not.

Generally, all law enforcement officers in the United States are armed with semi-automatic pistols at a minimum. There is no consistent recording of firearms use across all states, some bodies such as the New York Police Department (NYPD) report on firearms discharge. In 2015 NYPD reported a record low of eight deaths as well as fifteen injuries caused by police firearms discharge.[39]

The Federal Bureau of Investigation publish the number of justified homicides by law enforcement.

In response to the lack of published data, the organization Campaign Zero launched Mapping Police Violence to collect comprehensive data on people killed by police in the United States. Similarly, the British newspaper The Guardian launched "The Counted" - a program to record the number of fatal police shootings throughout the United States. The Guardian reports that 1,146 people were killed in 2015 and 1,093 people in 2016.

1.^ Justifiable homicides recorded by the FBI[40][41][42][43]

2.^ Mapping Police Violence. Unofficial figures based on media reports[44]

3.^ The Counted. Unofficial figures based on media reports[45]

4.^ Fatal Force. Unofficial figures based on media reports[46][47][48][49]