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20/09/2012
Home Secretary Says Routine Police Should Remain Unarmed
In the wake of the “savage” killing of two female officers in Manchester, home secretary Theresa May has said police should not routinely carry guns.
The home secretary cut short her holiday to return to the UK to visit the headquarters of Greater Manchester police on Wednesday.
She was given a two-hour briefing by senior officers conducting the investigation into the double murder of their own colleagues, which she described as "savage acts of pure brutality".
Constables Nicola Hughes, 23, and Fiona Bone, 32, died in a gun and grenade attack on Tuesday morning after being lured to a house on the Hattersley estate, Tameside, on a routine call. Shortly afterwards Dale Cregan, from Droylsden, walked into Hyde police station nearby, where he was arrested on suspicion of the officers' murders.
The 29-year-old had been the subject of a huge manhunt following the murders of a father and son in separate attacks in the area earlier this year.
The home secretary pledged to support police in their investigation but again stated that government policy was against the routine arming of officers.
She said: "I think that routine unarmed policing that goes on in our streets is right. I don't think this is the time to be calling for the arming of police."
(H)
The home secretary cut short her holiday to return to the UK to visit the headquarters of Greater Manchester police on Wednesday.
She was given a two-hour briefing by senior officers conducting the investigation into the double murder of their own colleagues, which she described as "savage acts of pure brutality".
Constables Nicola Hughes, 23, and Fiona Bone, 32, died in a gun and grenade attack on Tuesday morning after being lured to a house on the Hattersley estate, Tameside, on a routine call. Shortly afterwards Dale Cregan, from Droylsden, walked into Hyde police station nearby, where he was arrested on suspicion of the officers' murders.
The 29-year-old had been the subject of a huge manhunt following the murders of a father and son in separate attacks in the area earlier this year.
The home secretary pledged to support police in their investigation but again stated that government policy was against the routine arming of officers.
She said: "I think that routine unarmed policing that goes on in our streets is right. I don't think this is the time to be calling for the arming of police."
(H)
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