Andy Redhead is a former National Police firearms tactical advisor, having worked both for the Met and Northumbria Police. Here, he explains why giving every police officer a gun will not prevent tragedies such as the murders of officers Fiona Bone and Nicola Hughes

THE untimely and tragic deaths of Greater Manchester Police officers Fiona Bone and Nicola Hughes on Tuesday has unsurprisingly raised the issue again as to whether all police officers in the United Kingdom should be armed at all times.

Whenever a police officer pays the ultimate price carrying out their duty and dies in a firearms-related incident the issue of the UK police service as a whole becoming an armed force comes up for debate.

It is perfectly understandable that discussion and debate of this nature arises on each occasion when an officer loses their life at the hands of a gunman. Emotions are running high and a knee-jerk reaction is not needed at this time.

Mercifully, situations like this are rare, although one incident is one too many. In the latest, we now know the two officers were gunned down while attending the report of a burglary at a house in the Hattersley area of Tameside, Manchester. A short time later, Dale Cregan, a man wanted in connection with two violent murders earlier this year, gave himself up to police.

Cregan was the subject of an extensive ongoing manhunt operation by Greater Manchester Police at the time of Tuesday’s tragedy involving the assistance of other forces and law enforcement agencies.

No doubt, in time, we may well learn what happened when those two police officers were gunned down. Personally, I have always been opposed to the routine arming of all UK police officers. This was my view when I was a serving police officer and also during my 20 years of being an authorised firearms officer. Since retiring, my opinion has remained the same.

The Hungerford and Dunblane tragedies paved the way for firearms deployment and police response capabilities across the UK to be radically revised. They led to the introduction of the armed response vehicle becoming a 24/7 addition to police forces able to deploy at a moment’s notice.

Twenty years later and the men and women who work within tactical firearms units and other specialist operational firearms units across the country are some of the bestequipped, best-trained, committed and dedicated officers anywhere in the world.

Their primary role is exactly the same as any other unarmed colleague – that of preservation of life, be it themselves, their unarmed colleagues, members of the public and, indeed, even those they are dealing with who choose to carry a firearm or other weapon to carry out their criminal activity.

Possibly deploying to an incident and ultimately taking the life of another human being is the reality of working on a firearms unit and it is a daily reality. The role is not for everyone.

In the latest poll carried out by the Police Federation in the UK more than 80 per cent of our serving officers do not wish to carry a firearm. That is a figure which deserves respect.

If it were a compulsory requirement, how many officers would quit rather than be forced to carry a firearm? How much policing experience and expertise would be lost if experienced officers left?

What the unarmed vast majority of officers want is swift specialist support if they are at an incident and the dynamics change. What armed officers want is the equipment and capability to assist and deploy unhindered to any occasion when their skills are needed.

WHAT no one wants is for any officer to deploy to an incident and not be equipped to deal effectively with what they encounter. In reality, officers deploy to potentially life-threatening incidents day in, day out across the length and breadth of this country.

It is a fact of life and every police officer knows this to be the case.

With regard to firearms, I believe the balance is right. I also believe the public are comfortable seeing armed police at airports and in London and around the country every day, but they would be less keen for all police officers to be armed.

Firearms are a necessary weapon in the police toolbox to keep our streets safe in the 21st Century. Highly-trained and well-equipped firearms specialists – yes. All police officers routinely armed – no thanks.

I do believe that, if he is convicted of these crimes, Dale Cregan should never be freed and should die in prison. There should be no parole and this should be the same for anyone convicted of killing a police officer in the execution of their duty