The police need a capability to deal with such threats as frankly they will be the first to be called and first to attend.
Yup. But having that capability, and having it out on patrol, is not the same thing. And don’t say it’s a deterrant, you can’t deter suicide attacks with the threat of death.
It reminds me of when Blair decided to deploy tanks at heathrow, to deter, um… A suggested threat of surface to air missiles being fired at airliners. Which tanks would have no capability to do anything about. Any questions “what will these actually achieve in the event of this suspected attack” was met with be pure, be vigilant, behave, be afraid.