Queensland police should carry a rifle in every squad car, with every officer trained in how to use them, a senior officer has argued.

Police headquarters would not rule out the sizeable increase in weaponry but criminologist and former cop Terry Goldsworthy warned it was uncalled for.

Special Emergency Response Team police officers at the scene of a siege in Redbank Plains on Saturday morning. Credit:Rob Williams

But Senior Sergeant Tony Collins, officer-in-charge at Brisbane’s Moorooka police station, said the policy change was essential to keep up with a changing world.

“There are members of the senior executive who are opposed to rifles and rifle training for no reason other than that it is their personal opinion,” he wrote, in the latest Queensland Police Union journal.