Too few officers are willing to carry a gun to tackle a Paris-style attack through concerns they will be treated as criminal suspects
Police chiefs are struggling to recruit enough officers willing to carry a gun to tackle a Paris-style terror attack, because they fear they will be treated as criminal suspects if they use their weapon in the line of duty, the country’s top firearms officer has warned.
Deputy chief constable Simon Chesterman said potential recruits were being deterred because of fears they could spend years under investigation after a decision to fire on a suspect.
After November’s terrorist gun and bomb attacks on Paris, senior security officials believe Britain needs an extra 1,500 armed officers. But because half won’t make it through rigorous training and selection, police chiefs need 3,000 volunteers to come forward.
Chesterman, the national lead for firearms, said: “We might have a challenge attracting the right number of volunteers and retaining the people we have got.” He added: “It is not a crisis but it might become one.”
A representative of firearms officers in England and Wales has warned that in the event of a determined terrorist gun attack targeting civilians such as that carried out in the French capital six months ago, significant parts of Britain would be left vulnerable.
Che Donald of the Police Federation, who represents the current 5,647 firearms officers, said while major cities such as London had sufficient cover, other large towns and cities did not. “Currently there are not enough firearms officers who could deal with an incident in quite a lot of areas of Britain.”
Britain’s police are largely unarmed and officers need to volunteer to carry a gun.
British police chiefs devised new strategies after the November attacks in Paris, which they viewed as a “game changer” because the terrorists used new tactics and displayed greater capability to kill on western territory than previously thought.
Key among the new plans was the need to deploy armed police officers, faster and in greater numbers than before in the event of an attack. The theory is that it would take a minimum of three armed officers to confront and neutralise one armed terrorist.
Assessments after Paris suggest the loss of life was limited to 130 people because the French police, who are routinely armed, could get officers carrying guns onto the streets far faster than the British state can.
This need to boost numbers coincided with increased disaffection among firearms officers, caused by several factors.
Chesterman and Donald say firearms officers were rocked by the arrest in December 2015 of a police officer on suspicion of murder.
The officer known as W80 was arrested by the Independent Police Complaints Commission after a suspect, Jermaine Baker, was shot dead in December in Wood Green, north London. Baker was thought by police to be part of a plot to spring a prisoner from custody. He was shot while sat in the front passenger seat of a car. An imitation firearm was found in the back of the car, on the floor.
Donald said the arrest caused anger. “It had a huge effect. It sent shockwaves through the entire armed policing community.”
continued at the link –→ archive.is
