In the wake of the 7/7 attacks,'London riots' in 2013 and the Daesh attacks in Paris in 2015, there have been increasing calls for more police in the UK to carry firearms, and for all police officers to be trained to use electric tasers . Politically marginalised communities are those most likely to feel the impact of police violence - as described by Betsy Barkas in a previous edition of WRI’s Broken Rifle magazine, "the UK’s Black and migrant communities have always suffered disproportionately heavy policing... there is a long and shameful history of the use of lethal force by the UK’s police officers."

Recently, several high-profile police training exercises have taken place , designed to test their response to an extremely violent "marauding" terrorist attack. These have been heavily publicised in the media.

Security and Policing trade show

The UK also hosts the annual “Security and Policing” trade show. According to Campaign Against the Arms Trade, the show is “a secretive annual event organised by the Home Office and the arms industry trade body, Air Defense Security Space (ADS).” The organisers promote Security and Policing as "the UK's premier security and law enforcement event". The fair hosts companies like BAE Systems, Heckler and Koch, the Gamma Group and The Hacking Team, who promote their wares to 66 countries, including those committing human rights abuses.