Council leaders have unanimously backed a report opposing the police policy of some officers carrying sidearms in public on regular patrols.
Police Scotland chief constable Sir Stephen House is to be invited to a meeting of the local authorities umbrella group, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla), after yesterday's decision in Edinburgh. It comes after Police Scotland completed its own regular internal review of the policy. Its recommendations will now be put to Sir Stephen for an operational decision on issues it has raised.
These include the impact the policy is having on communities, the types of vehicles used to carry firearms, and how armed officers are deployed.
A Police Scotland spokesman said: "We will consider any recommendations that come from these reviews."
Two parallel reviews launched by the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS) are also under way.
These have been welcomed by Police Scotland, which is determined to reassure the public that armed police officers will never be a common sight on the streets. It has pointed out that for every 1,000 officers, there are only 10 officers armed and on shift, but they need to be available to deal with all types of calls as they are trained officers first and foremost.
Cosla will take representations to the two reviews, to the Convener of a Holyrood sub-committee on policing and to Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill.
None of the councils object to the arming of police. But they have not been persuaded that it is necessary to have some officers always armed when on duty.
Council leaders say the firearms could be left in a gun safe in the boot of armed-response vehicles, as had previously been the policy in many areas until just before the creation of the single police force in April 2013.
The force has said that armed officers must keep themselves equipped with weapons once they are deployed at the start of the day on regular patrols and operational tasks.
Police say this avoids the need to race to arm themselves in a high-pressure situation should they be needed for an incident.
There are only 275 armed response officers, less than 2% of the force, across the whole of Scotland.
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