This is just a tiny fragment of a hugely complex discussion, so apologies if it seems narrow:

There is endless development of powerful weapons that can destroy the world many times over….if some tiny fraction of that budget were put into the development of more effective non-lethal arms for police, and advanced training, then many lives would be saved. Perhaps only select police should be granted lethal force capability after meeting very tough criteria. There are bad apples of course, but then there are probably a fair amount of “apples with bad judgement under pressure”. Bad judgement and a gun = somebody dead.

I’ve been in the UK many times and have always been impressed by the patience, courtesy and restraint of the UK police force, most of whom do not have lethal force capability (they have elite forces with lethal force capability). Of course the UK population doesn’t have guns like we do in the US, which makes the comparison flawed.

Taking a life should have huge consequences for a police officer, it should be the last option after all other possibilities have been exhausted. Personally I don’t think every cop should automatically be given lethal force capability on day one.