Police on target to increase armed police numbers

National Police Chiefs’ Council  Lead for Firearms, Deputy Chief Constable Simon Chesterman, said: 

“Following the recent terrorist attacks in Europe and escalation of the terror, we assessed our ability to respond to similar attacks in the UK and committed ourselves to recruit and train more armed officers to strengthen our response.

“Our recruitment and training programme is now well underway. This is a rolling programme with the majority of new firearms officers to be trained and deployable by April 2017. We are on schedule to meet our targets. Recruitment to those roles will be a challenge. New authorised firearms officers will be existing police officers who volunteer for a highly responsible and dangerous job to protect the public. 

“Armed officers accept the high levels of accountability that come with the job however, they should be recognised as highly trained  professionals who were carrying out their duty on behalf of the state, with the intention of protecting the communities they serve.”

Further information:

The uplift of firearms officers was announced in April 2016 so this increase would not be shown in the period covered by these statistics.