Armed police sent out to 5,000 ‘routine’ incidents

POLICE chiefs are reviewing the deployment of firearms officers after they were sent out to thousands of routine incidents.

Before May last year, armed police attended only serious incidents but rules were relaxed to allow them to respond to reports of domestic abuse and traffic accidents.

The specialist officers have now dealt with 5,250 routine incidents including break-ins and drug seizures, on top of 5,140 incidents where an armed response was needed. Only 415 were classed as ‘armed operations’.

Firearms officers carry a handgun and a Taser and have access to semi-automatic rifles and a launcher for baton rounds. Police Scotland said the officers, who are all trained first aiders, have saved lives and made the public safer.

But critics warned sending armed officers to routine incidents could have the opposite effect.

Yesterday, Community Safety Minister Ash Denham said the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) was reviewing the policy.

She added: ‘The deployment of armed officers is an operational matter for the chief constable and is overseen by the Scottish Police Authority.

‘When I spoke today to the chair of the SPA [Susan Deacon], she informed me that the SPA board had already planned to consider the first year of the revised deployment at its next board meeting later this month.’

Concerns about armed policing in Scotland were first raised in 2014 after officers carrying handguns were seen patrolling the streets in Inverness.

Following a high-profile backlash from the public and politicians, then chief constable Sir Stephen House announced armed police would only be deployed to lifethreatening incidents.

But that decision was overturned in May last year, with chiefs claiming it was necessary to protect officers from rising violence.

In June last year two police officers were stabbed while attending an incident in Greenock.

This led to calls from the Scottish Police Federation for further arming of police amid fears that officers were unable to protect themselves and the public.

Miss Denham added: ‘These changes have allowed armed officers to utilise their core policing skills and attend incidents where speed of response or vulnerability was a key factor.

‘The incidents referred to equate to around 0.3 per cent of the total number of incidents Police Scotland officers attend each year.’

Chief Superintendent Matt Richards, commander of Police Scotland’s Specialist Services Division, told BBC Scotland’s The Nine: ‘Our armed response officers are extremely highly trained. Overall, they’re providing a higher level of service – and more quickly – to the public.’

Mr Richards said the use of firearms is always a ‘last resort’, adding that in his experience even the presence of a Taser had ‘caused a huge drop in violence and in particular injuries to the public’.

Officer numbers in Scotland are at their highest in two years. Figures reveal there are now 17,251 officers north of the Border, which is 77 more than in the final months of last year. It means that since March 2007, the number of police officers in Scotland has risen by 1,017 from 16,234.

‘Huge drop in violence’