Cops in other countries aren't killers

Police officers take pictures of giant puppets as they move through the streets of Liverpool, northern England July 25, 2014. (photo: Nigel Roddis/Reuters)

In 2013 British Police Fired Guns: 3 Times

By Public Radio International

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In 2012, 409 people were shot and killed by American police in what were termed justifiable shootings. In that same year, British police officers fired their weapons just once. No one was killed.

n 2013, British police officers fired their weapons all of three times. No one died.

According to The Economist, "British citizens are around 100 times less likely to be shot by a police officer than Americans. Between 2010 and 2014, the police force of one small American city — Albuquerque in New Mexico — shot and killed 23 civilians; seven times more than the number of Brits killed by all of England and Wales’s 43 forces during the same period. 

The Economist argues that the reason for this disparity is actually quite simple: guns are comparatively rare in the UK. Most cops don't carry them and criminals rarely have access to them. The last time a British officer was killed by a gun was in 2012. In the US last year, 30 police officers were shot and killed in the line of duty.

In December, PRI's The World reported on Icelanders grieving after their police force killed a man — for the first time in the country's history as a republic.