Armed police call-outs fall in Bedfordshire amid rising officer numbers

Armed police are being deployed to fewer incidents in Bedfordshire amid a boost to officer numbers, figures reveal.

Home Office data shows Bedfordshire Police conducted 380 armed operations in the year to March.

This was down 10 per cent from 2018-19, when there 421 firearms operations, and 56 per cent from a decade ago.

Meanwhile, the number of armed officers in the force rose from 56 to 65 over the period. That was higher than a decade earlier, when there were 54 armed officers in Bedfordshire's ranks.

Superintendent Paul Sandwell from Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Joint Protective Services said: “Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire share a collaborated firearms unit which provides armed support across the three counties.

“Protecting the public is our priority and our armed policing capability and capacity is reviewed to ensure it is appropriate to the level of threat that our communities face.

“Weapons can put lives at risk and we will continue to work with the public on securing information and intelligence in order to protect them from these crimes.”

Nationally, the number of police firearms operations also fell for the first time in four years to 19,372, down 4 per cent from 2018-19. During that time, officers’ guns were fired in just five incidents, eight fewer than the year before.

The most recent period includes the London Bridge attack in November 2019, when convicted terrorist Usman Khan stabbed five people, killing two, in central London. He was shot dead by armed officers.

National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for armed policing, Simon Chesterman, said using a weapon is "always a last resort".

He added: "A mark of the quality of training that armed officers receive is how infrequently they have to use their weapons."

Despite the dangerous nature of the job, firearms officers, who undergo weeks of training, do not receive a higher salary and can be subject to scrutiny for their actions on duty.

Steve Hartshorn, the Police Federation of England and Wales’ lead on firearms, said armed police are "fully accountable", and make "split-second decisions based on knowledge, skills, training and reading of situations".

A Home Office spokesman said armed officer numbers might have been impacted in the short-term by the coronavirus pandemic.

He added: “More than 4,000 officers have already joined as part our pledge to recruit 20,000 additional officers in the next three years and the policing system has been given its biggest funding boost in a decade."