SCOTTISH
POLICE FEDERATION
5 Woodside Place, Glasgow, G3 7QF
MEDIA
RELEASE
The Scottish Police Federation represents all police officers in the
ranks of chief inspector and below, about 16,000 people, over 98%
of all police officers in Scotland.
To:
Date:
Subject: |
Editor
21
November 2005
Murder
of police officer in West Yorkshire |
Mr
Joe Grant , General Secretary of the Scottish Police Federation said,
“I
speak for all Scottish officers when I say our thoughts are with Sharon
Beshenivsky's family and with Teresa Millburn. We wish Teresa a speedy
and full recovery and we wish West Yorkshire Police every success
in detecting those responsible.
This
brutal murder and attempted murder has once again started debates
on whether police officers should be routinely armed and the appropriate
sentence for murdering a police officer.
Our
policy on routine arming was written in 1999 when the majority of
our representatives believed officers should not be routinely armed.
Some still hold that view while others feel that firearms incidents
have escalated (a 20% rise last year) to the point where an unarmed
police force is no longer sustainable. There is also a feeling that
a larger percentage of officers should be armed and that we should
be less reluctant to deploy firearms.
The
Scottish Police Federation present policy is that capital punishment
should be the penalty for the murder of a police officer, but, in
the absence of capital punishment, life imprisonment should mean for
the remainder of the offender's life.
These
are difficult issues and not best decided in the immediate aftermath
of a tragedy such as this, but neither should the shock and pain being
felt now be totally excluded from the meeting rooms where these things
are decided. Those feelings are real now for us all but they will
always be there for Sharon 's family and the families of other officers
who have had their lives taken in this way.
We
must do all we can to ensure our policies and procedures are the correct
ones for the circumstances we face in today's world. We must never
forget Sharon and those other police officers who have given their
lives or been seriously injured while serving and protecting the public.
The
Federation keep these matters under constant review and undoubtedly
we will be debating them again in the very near future.
