That's a common misconception. I talked to a Brit who corrected me on this issue, since 9/11, police in the UK use guns. There was a time when they couldn't though.
He also gave me a long list of guns you can and can't own. Apparently semi-autos aren't allowed, so some people owned semi-autos with "neutered" systems so you'd need to cock the action every time like a bolt action. He said he had an AR in this configuration.
As for sidearms, I used to talk to a guy on another forum who serves "over there" as a sniper, and he carried a SIG P228 as his sidearm. He took some pictures of it, but they are too hard to find in the forum history (and I rarely visit there anymore).
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