No change in shoot-to-kill policy, says Boyd
Lord Advocate insists firearms use is operational matter for chief constables
The Lord Advocate told MSPs yesterday that deployment of firearms would remain an operational matter for Scotland's chief constables.
Colin Boyd QC was responding to a question from independent MSP Dennis Canavan, who had asked about the circumstances in which officers were authorised to shoot to kill. Mr Canavan called for a review of the policy of leaving the decision to chief constables in the wake of the shooting in London of the young Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes, who was mistaken for a suicide bomber.
The Lord Advocate said that lethal force could only be used where there were reasonable grounds for believing there was an imminent threat to life and no other way of averting the danger. It was right that police officers as the professionals trained to make such decisions were entrusted to do so, conscious that they had to act within the law.
It would be very dangerous, he continued, if politicians were to substitute their own judgment for that of professional police officers.
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