FWIW I grew up in one of those villages (well actually just over the border in Berkshire) and Oxford where Inspector Morse primarily takes places is a reasonable sized regional city by British standards. It has about 150k people, including some fairly deprived housing estates south of town like Blackbird Leys, with all the associated social issues that go along with that. They definitely have armed police.
At least in the books (it is some decades since I read them) neither Morse nor the society he is operating in are nearly as genteel as they are in the [original] TV series.
But only in extreme cases of danger or violence, when someone draws a gun or a knife at them. German police officers very rarely draw, let alone use their gun, and if they do, only in self-defense or the defense of a third party. It’s the norm that a retired officer has never used their gun in their whole career. The reputation of the German police is expressed in the slogan “Die Polizei, dein Freund und Helfer”, “The police, your friend and helper”. At least that’s how the police wants to be regarded, though of course there are asshole cops who violate that principle.
Unlike the common perception it’s the norm for a retired police officer in America to have never used their gun in their career. I can retire tomorrow if I want and I’ve never used my gun for anything other than euthanizing injured deer from time to time.
A friend (now dead) who retired from the police in the 1990s said, that after first parade, when you had to produce your ‘appointments’ (stick, handcuffs, whistle, notebook) he used to put his stick back in the locker and go out on the street, because you never needed it.
Yeah, that’s what I saw on those cop shows. They’d whip it out of a pocket, and with a flick of the wrist, they were ready to hand out a beat down.
Los Angeles. But I don’t remember if it was ever specified.
The likelihood a perp will be armed is not very high in Canada, unless it’s a rifle in a rural setting. I read somewhere that an illegal handgun here probably goes for over $2000. I’m trying to remember if I’ve ever personally seen a policeman in Canada with his weapon drawn. I cannot think of a time.