Peter Squires & Peter Kennison 
Shooting to Kill? 
Policing, Firearms and Armed Response

Shooting to Kill? Policing, Firearms and Armed Response
explores the dilemma of armed response policing in the UK, and
policing in a gun culture.

* Offers the first critical exploration of the ACPO code of
guidance on Police Use of Firearms and other tactical manuals

* Includes interviews with senior police firearms managers and
critical case studies of police firearms incidents

* Features the first in-depth, academic analysis of the Stockwell
shooting incident and the Kratos policy

* Provides a review of key developments in armed response
policing around the world

* Describes the crucial phases in armed response policy
development in Britain and explores the consequences of arming the
police

Table of Content

Preface.

About the Authors.

Acknowledgements.

List of Abbreviations.

1. Introduction: The Hardest Job in Policing?

Shots Around the World.

Controversy.

Changes, Mistakes and Learning in Police Circles.

Contexts, Command, Frequencies and Victims.

Structure and Contents.

Timeline on Police Weapons and Firearms.

2. The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes and ‘Operation
Kratos’.

Stockwell, 22 July.

Briefing and Kratos.

3. Old Myths and Changing Realities.

Discourses Within and About Policing.

Tooling Up?

Driving out the Dixon Myth.

New Problems and ‘Exceptional’ Measures.

4. Shootings, Policy Shifts and Competing Pressures.

Continuing Official Caution.

Hungerford.

Tragedy and Farce.

After Hungerford.

‘Event Driven’ or ‘Gun Driven’.

Shooting to Kill?

Men, Guns and Ammo.

Replica Arguments and Replica Weapons.

5. Police Politics and Morale.

Hanging, Shooting and Opinion Polling.

Click by Click?

The ‘Greatest British Defeat since Dunkirk’.

New Frontiers and Supply Side Questions.

The Most Important Decision for the Future of British Policing –
Since Last Year.

War and Order: The New Continuum of Force.

The Dunblane Primary School Massacre and its Aftermath.

6. Policing in a ‘Gun Culture’? Policing of Guns and Policing
with Guns.

Unpacking the Notion of a ‘Gun Culture’.

Guns and Gangs.

Gang Studies and ‘Cultures of Violence’.

Policing and Enforcement Action in ‘Gangland’.

Gun Crime Hotspots and ‘Problem-oriented Policing’.

Operation Ceasefire.

Bringing It All Back Home: ‘Gunchester’.

Policing of Guns, Policing with Guns.

7. Intelligence Dilemmas, Armed Response Policy and
Research.

Gang Culture and the ‘Trident Model’.

From Reactive to Proactive.

Intelligence-led Dilemmas.

Research on Recent Police Shootings.

8. Critical Case Studies of Selected Police-involved Shooting
Incidents.

The Shooting of James Ashley in Hastings, 1998.

The Shooting of Harry Stanley, 1999.

The Shooting of Andrew Kernan, 2001.

Caution at Highmoor Cross, 2004.

Ambush at Chandler’s Ford, 2007.

9. Concluding Themes: Losing by Appearing to Win?

Bibliography.

Index.

About the author

Peter Squires is Professor of Criminology and Public Policy
at the University of Brighton. He has published a number of books,
including Gun Culture or Gun Control and Community
Safety. Squires’ recent work has focused upon gun crime
and policing, and gangs and anti-social behaviour.

Peter Kennison was a Senior Lecturer in the Department of
Criminology and Sociology at Middlesex University. He was also
Undergraduate Programme Leader for Criminal Justice and
Criminology, and Policing. Kennison was a police officer in London
for over 25 years.