A confidential internal review by the Metropolitan Police Service has recommended that frontline officers routinely carry semi‑automatic handguns to protect them from knife attacks, but the Met has rejected the recommendation and said it will continue to follow national guidance that does not support arming all front‑line officers.
The report, produced by the force's public and personal safety unit after two officers were stabbed in Leicester Square in 2022, argued that issuing self‑loading pistols (SLPs) to patrol officers would better equip them to respond to spontaneous threats. The Met said firearms are reserved for highly trained specialist officers who are deployed to high‑risk incidents, major events and to protect key sites, and that all officers are currently equipped with batons and Pava spray, with a target to train and equip 10,000 officers with Tasers by the summer of 2027.
The review recommended SLPs be issued as routine belt equipment, saying this would avoid the need for vehicle firearm safes and would allow officers to respond more quickly to sudden violent incidents. "The advantages of the SLP is that it will remain on the officer's belt equipment and would not require the adoption of vehicle firearm safes," the review said. It added that the change "will not affect the work of dedicated firearms units (MO19) and in practice will work in the same manner as BCU officers carrying tasers."
The review was prompted by the 2022 Leicester Square attack in which 25‑year‑old Mohammed Rahman stabbed PCs Joseph Gerrard and Alannah Mulhall after being approached over a robbery. Rahman overcame batons, Tasers and Pava spray before stabbing the officers. He was later convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 20 years.
The report argued the force has a duty to do more to reduce risks to staff. "The dangers faced by police officers are genuine and can have catastrophic results," it said, adding that by not training to mitigate those dangers the service had "failed in its duty to safeguard its own staff."
The Metropolitan Police, while acknowledging officer safety as "of paramount importance," said it remains bound by College of Policing guidance. A Met spokesperson said the college "does not support the arming of all front‑line officers," and reiterated that specialist firearms officers, numbering in the thousands, play a vital role in keeping London safe and are deployed where necessary to support unarmed colleagues.
Calls to arm more officers have gained momentum amid publicity around other attacks on officers. In footage released earlier this year, Sergeant Jack Taylor was slashed on the wrist while confronting a knife attacker in Tower Hamlets; the body‑worn video showed him leaping from his patrol car and sustaining a cut that narrowly missed an artery.
The force's armed units have also faced recruitment and retention challenges following the decision to charge, then later acquit, a firearms sergeant over a fatal shooting. Sergeant Martyn Blake shot Chris Kaba through a vehicle windscreen in Streatham in September 2022 after armed officers boxed the car in during an operation. Blake was charged with murder in 2023, a move that prompted some firearms officers to step back from duties in protest; he was acquitted after a trial and has since been publicly defended and promoted by senior leaders, though he still faces a separate gross misconduct hearing.
Those developments have fed debate within policing and beyond about whether Britain's traditionally unarmed model of neighbourhood policing remains viable amid rising knife violence and threats to officers. A former National Police Federation branch chair, Rich Cooke, endorsed arming officers and contrasted UK policy with practice in other Western countries.
The Met review's recommendations have been reported to senior leaders but, as of the statement from the force, no change has been approved. The Metropolitan Police said it will continue to review practices, training and equipment to ensure officer safety while following national guidance on arming policy.