In this assignment, I will be looking at the role of the armed police, looking at varying definitions and arguments of what the polices role in general is as well as looking and discussing how legitimacy and accountability play a part in the police using firearms. Theoretical perspectives such as rational choice theory in connection to police being armed and differences in UK and US police gun culture will additionally be looked at. Firstly, the role of the police in general is a heavily debated and discussed issue. There are many differing functions of the police (Klockars 1895). Bittner (1970) stated that the police are called upon to deal with a varying range of tasks from dealing with small scale issues like traffic control to dealing with terrorism. The police are ultimately called for a variation of tasks which unifying features are that in the public's eyes, the tasks the police are supposed to deal with are situations that should not be happening and need to be dealt with immediately (Bittner 1974). With regards to legitimate force, Citizens have a small measure of power, and are allowed to use legitimate force in certain situations such as when making a citizen's arrest. However there might arise situations where members of the public do not have the legitimate power or the tools and resources to use force where it may need to be implemented, and it is in situations like these the public will expect the police to use force instead, even extreme force, if it is viewed as necessary depending on the situation (Bittner 1974). However, police are expected use force appropriately and be held accountable, since the trust in the police to not misuse this power and use unnecessary extreme force is what the public takes into account when giving consent to be policed in the first place(Squires,2010). It is this issue of the need and use for extreme force that leads to the topic of police bearing arms. In the UK there is no capital punishment, gun use is strictly governed and is exclusive to units known as ARU (Armed Response Unit). Essentially their role is to deal with armed crimes, and police using arms in some instances can help showcase legitimacy, an example of this would be with the Raoul Moat incident where the metropolitan police sent out what the media described as " elite firearms officers - the most highly-experienced marksmen and women in the country, trained to confront suicide bombers and to take split-second decisions on when to pull the trigger." (BBC.co.uk,2014). ARVs (Armed Response Vehicles) were first introduced in 1966 when Robert Mark Chief Constantable of Leicestershire of the time announced police cars in the area surrounding Leicestershire prison would be equipped with military guns (Hamilton,1997). The role of these ARVs during their introduction, was act as an extreme deterrent, in this case to deter individuals from plotting to free membe