The vast majority of interactions with the public can be taken care of with non-lethal means, tasers, etc… (if any are even necessary).
Lethal weapons should be in a remote lock holster in their cruiser, and must be unlocked remotely by a supervisor on a per-case basis depending on the facts at hand (suspect’s history, potential risk, etc…)
Maybe that’s pie in the sky optimism, I don’t know.
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It should be pre-emptive.
Johnny beat-cop walking the street dealing with traffic stops, vagrants, etc…; nothing that for the vast majority of times requires anything more lethal than a taser.
Suddenly they get called to attend a potentially dangerous scene with a high likelihood of violence occuring and the supervisor says “okay, based on the suspect’s history and the run down of the situation (or whatever), I’m authorizing weapons unlock for this one”.
Exactly.
The odds of being in line at Starbucks and having to respond to an armed gunman is incredibly low. Especially since said shooter is going to see the cops and decide to go next door or wait until they leave.
Similarly, a lone beat cop on patrol (or even a pair of them) aren’t going to be running towards the gunfire. If anything, we have documented proof that much larger numbers of cops would rather establish a perimeter and play flappy bird while keeping anyone from rescuing the hostages.
Contrast that with getting a call that they were to investigate a high risk disturbance and have use of their frearms authorized and unlocked.
But people love to pretend the world is Die Hard and everyone will be saved because that one cop got to carry his glock on an airplane or whatever.