Euskadi forces all local police officers to carry a pistol. The measure affects the slightly more than 3,000 municipal police officers of this autonomous community.
The exception is a minority and occurs mainly in municipalities with very few inhabitants. In a total of 42 municipalities it is already mandatory, compared to another 40 municipalities that do not yet require it, mainly in areas with a small population. The use of firearms, as with the rest of the police forces, will be governed by the principles of “appropriateness, necessity and proportionality”