Armed police on the streets of Bedfordshire

Foreword: I wonder what Bedfordshire police know about the state of affairs on the streets of Bedfordshire that the every day man on the street does not that compels them to be armed and attend 2 - 3 armed response incidents a day?

They know better than anyone what they face on the streets of Bedfordshire, and I wonder if the large Pakistani Moslem community throughout the County that is a known centre for Al Qaeda terrorism has anything to do with it?

Osama Bin Laden did declare War on Great Britain from there and open it up as a frontline after all.

County police are armed more often
BY CLIVE GRESSWELL

Armed police in Bedfordshire have more calls to incidents than anywhere else in the country outside the Metropolitan area of London.

The figures were released on Thursday by the Home Office.

Martin Stuart, Deputy Chief Constable, and the force's lead on firearms said: "Firearms are issued where it is believed staff will need to protect themselves or the public from someone who has a firearm or presents a danger through other means."

"This often includes reports of knife carrying."

"It is presumed from the national data that some forces may not deploy their firearms teams to such incidents. We do and will continue to do so, due to our clear responsibility to protect the public of Bedfordshire and our staff."

He added that Bedfordshire Police is a recognised lead force in firearms training and deployment.

The reality, he said, is that firearms police are deployed to 'some two or three incidents a day'.

Home Office spokeswoman Janine Lloyd-Jones said: "The policy in this country has long been that the police should not generally be armed.

"That gives a character to our policing that we should not readily give up.

"But where an operational need arises specialist armed forces should be available to be deployed.

"Thankfully the use of firearms by police is rare and it must always be a last resort."