Police dramas

So I've been watching a little bit of British TV here. When it comes to police dramas and solving crime, there are two things I've had to keep in mind I forgot about before.

1. Police don't carry guns.
This was an issue for me in one episode I saw of Torchwood recently. ('Torchwood' is actually not a cop show, but rather has characters like those of 'Firefly', finding aliens like in 'X-Files', and hunting/vanquishing them like 'Buffy'. I recommend Torchwood, though it is a little bit gory and a little bit sexual, so is not for everyone. No experience of Doctor Who necessary.) The main character was a police officer, but in this particular episode the Torchwood leader teaches her how to shoot a handgun.
Wait a minute!, I thought, didn't see learn that in Police Academy? Nope.
You'd think they'd at least have a little experience in case they needed it? Nope.

2. CCTV is everywhere.
A lot of signs around say things like "No bill-posting. CCTV surveillance." "CCTV in operation" around, and now I've become used to them. It's not that you're watched every step on the sidewalks, but a lot of entrances, intersections, and shady areas have cameras, in many cases for traffic purposes, in many other cases as a crime deterrent.
So on these shows they'll have a sticky situation usually in which a crime was committed just off-camera, or with the perp's back to the camera, or some other way of getting around the fact that if the CCTV worked properly they would have the guy already.

That said, CCTV so far has not helped one bit in identifying the jerks who do stupid things about Pollock, like all our fire alarm troubles and de-landscaping the new shrubbery.