11 MARCH 1955, Page 5

ARMED POLICE

THE cry 'Arm the police' is heard less frequently nowadays: but anybody who imagines that he would feel safer if they carried firearms would do well to read the report of a recent case in America, where a small boy playing with some com- panions was shot by mistake. Last Saturday there was a case nearer home. In Northern Ireland special constables fired on a passing van that was slow to stop at their signal, killing the driver. One of the constables was nineteen years old; he stated at the inquest that he had fired his rifle from the hip. At the inquest it was revealed that the brakes of the van were inefficient: a road test showed that at 30 mph it took 90 feet to come to a standstill.