If the power to use deadly force against perpetrators were removed there would be few effective methods of control for police officers.
Like it or not, we live in an increasingly violent society, and it is the level of violence that often defines what action is appropriate for a police officer to use.
Other methods such as rubber bullets, stun guns, and tear gas are interesting alternatives, but it seems as if nothing would be able to replace the use of deadly force.
Sometimes deadly force is the only method that seems appropriate given what an officer knows about a situation.
For instance, if a suspect had a hostage, of what use would rubber bullets, tear gas, or a stun gun be to police officers to secure the safe release of the hostage.
None of those methods would be immediate enough to render the suspect impotent before he or she could harm the hostage.
Deadly force, as an immediate alternative, is both difficult to gauge and immediately effective.
Taking away an officer's option to use deadly force is not viable in today's world for all of the reasons listed above and many more.
There are so few options available that would produce an immediate, albeit violent, result, that to take away the use of deadly force would transfer a significant amount of power to the perpetrators of crime.
Additionally, there are too many criminals who have guns themselves.
It is difficult to imagine sending a police officer out into the streets armed with only stun guns, pepper spray, tear gas, and rubber bullets, to face criminals that are armed with all kinds of guns.
As a matter of fact, it not only seems ridiculous to do so, but rather criminal to do so.
If police officers were required to fight crime with a few mild mannered tools, there would be far fewer officers due not only to the fact that many more would die in the line of duty, but many would elect to never become officers in the first place.
Certainly, it makes sense to arm officers will all of the tools mentioned above so that, when deadly force is not mandatory, the officer has an arsenal of other methods with which to deal with a suspect, but it also makes sense to arm officers with the same weapons that the criminals have; and that means guns.
An officer's use of deadly force is seriously restricted to the point where, especially with the media making national presentations of police shootings of suspects, there is little chance that an officer would even try, let alone get away with, using deadly force in a situation that did not absolutely call for it.
Therefore, it makes sense to allow, if not encourage, the use of deadly force for well-trained and reasonably aware officers.