As British officials promised to end days of widespread riots with "more robust policing," and 16,000 officers fanned out across London, readers might be surprised to learn that most members of the force charged with ending the rioting remain unarmed.

Of the more than 32,500 officers in London's Metropolitan Police Service, just 2,740 were "authorized firearms officers" at last count. Outside the capital, the entire territory of England and Wales is policed with the help of just 4,128 more armed officers.

Despite the obvious difficulties officers had in regaining control of the streets on Monday, Britain's home secretary, Theresa May, initially resisted calls to deploy troops and let the police use water cannons against rioters.

In an interview with the BBC on Tuesday morning, May explained, "The model of British policing that we've always used has been different from that that we've seen on the Continent, so we haven't in mainland Britain used water cannon." After interviewer reminded her that water cannons had been used in Northern Ireland, she said, "It has been in Northern Ireland; we haven't in mainland Britain. The British model of policing has been different - it has been based on consent with local communities."

Hugh Orde, the president of Britain's Association of Chief Police Officers, echoed those comments. Orde said water cannons, which some commentators have called for, would be "entirely inappropriate and more importantly entirely ineffective" as they were unwieldy and used for fixed locations.

Despite those objections, PM Cameron said, "whatever resources the police need, they will get; whatever tactics the police feel they need to deploy , they will have legal backing to do so." He added: "while they are not currently needed, we now have in place contingency plans for water cannon to be available at 24 hours notice."