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Like most Londoners, residents of the Peabody housing estate in the west of the city have become accustomed to seeing more cops on the streets, reminders that the capital has been under threat. Two of the four men wanted for trying (unsuccessfully) to bomb the London transport system on July 21 were arrested without bloodshed in a Peabody apartment last Friday, thanks in large part to what Peter Clarke, head of the counter-terrorist operation, called "specialist tactics." Londoners are relieved that the suspected terrorist cell has been rounded up, but the police methods — which include the use of semiautomatic rifles, tear gas, stun grenades, Taser guns and, most controversial of all, a shoot-to-kill policy for potential suicide bombers — will take some getting used to.

Cops and the public in Britain have resisted the idea of armed police, believing it safer to keep guns out of circulation altogether. In 2003, only 7% of London police were authorized to use guns, and then only under strict controls. Semiautomatic weapons have been very rarely seen; there was an outcry in February 2003 when police carried them on antiterror patrols in airports. The dangers of armed police were brought home on July 22 when plainclothes officers, mistakenly believing they were pursuing a potential suicide bomber, chased Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes into Stockwell tube station, tackled him and shot him eight times, seven in the head. The episode horrified the British public. "If he had died in the bombings, it would have been much easier for us," his Brazilian girlfriend Adriana de Silva Lima told the Daily Mail. "But it was a summary execution of an innocent man." De Menezes' funeral in his hometown of Gonzaga attracted thousands of mourners. "Nothing can justify what has happened," Leonardo Monteiro, a Brazilian politician who attended the ceremony, told the Guardian newspaper. "It is disgusting that anyone who has different hair or skin should be treated as a suspect by the British police."

But with groups of young men possibly out there ready to commit mass murder, can police afford to revert to their old gunless ways? Since the first attacks on July 7, there have been some 250 incidents when police thought they might be confronting a suicide bomber, according to Ian Blair, chief of the Metropolitan Police. Shots were almost fired seven times. That shows bobbies are not generally cowboys, but also shows why the police are reaching for more effective approaches for a more dangerous era. "A new face of policing has emerged," says Charles Shoebridge, a security analyst and former counterterrorism intelligence officer. "The special weapons and tactics being employed go back some way [to elite forces like the SAS]. What's new is their use on such a wide scale and in full public view."

So to start with, commuters can expect to find more heavily armed police — both uniformed and plainclothes — on the transport system. "The presence of an armed officer is unlikely to deter a bomber intent on suicide," says Shoebridge.

"However, a uniformed police presence can reassure the public and provide a contact point for their vigilance." There will also be more sniffer dogs and greater use of Taser guns and tear gas. The shoot-to-kill policy will continue too, even though police chief Blair admits that "somebody else could be shot" in error. Most people, though wary, will accept these methods as necessary evils. Tactics once thought specialist are having to go mainstream.

• JESSICA CARSEN / London
• The killing of an innocent Brazilian by armed police has placed attitudes and behavior under the microscope