ARMED police are preparing to draw their weapons in nearly four times as many incidents as they were 10 years ago – with half as many officers, new figures have revealed.
Home Office figures show the Cambridgeshire force authorised the use of firearms on 207 occasions in 2006 to 2007, compared with just 54 in 1996 to 1997. But over the same period, the number of police trained to use guns in the area fell from 90 to 4
6.
Inspector Ian Ford, of the county's Tactical Firearms Unit, said the apparently alarming rise in authorisations did not mean police were facing more guns in the hands of criminals.
He said: "Our calls for specific firearms-related incidents have increased. The reasons are primarily, I think, that the public are generally more aware of firearms because of the media culture, and if they see anything that looks like it could be a firearm, they will call us.
"And our approach to tackling firearms incidents has improved and developed over the years. Before, if someone reported seeing a youth with an air weapon, they might only have got an unarmed divisional response.
"Now, 99 times out of 100 they will get an armed response vehicle that will require authority, and that will deal with it. So our own approach and robustness in dealing with incidents accounts for some of the increase.
"There has been a small increase in firearms usage in Cambridgeshire, but it's not just that which is reflected in these figures."
Authority for firearms to be used in response to incidents usually comes from a trained and accredited inspector in the force control room, although armed officers can "self deploy" when a life is in danger.
For planned operations, firearms authority is granted by a chief inspector or superintendent.
The Home Office statistics on numbers of authorisations give Cambridgeshire one of the largest increases across England and Wales over the 10-year period, with only eight force areas out of more than 40 seeing a bigger hike in percentage terms.
Insp Ford was not surprised, but said: "I have been in the force for quite a while, and I can't remember there being 90 officers in Cambridgeshire.
"What would have had an effect to a degree is that this force used to have responsibility for former Prime Minister John Major, because of his residence near Huntingdon. As a result, quite a lot of officers were permanently deployed there to offer protection.
"There has been a gradual decrease, but because of the high demands, I wouldn't be surprised if in the next two to three years the numbers increase, because we are quite busy."
The full article contains 451 words and appears in Peterborough ET newspaper.
