3 February 2008

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."

5 comments:

LOKI - Nana said...

Being an American, I have always been quite baffled at the fact that all British police don't carry firearms!!

Anonymous said...

To: veritas (loki): In the good old days, British police didn't need to carry firearms. Perhaps a baton, but not guns. Why? Because most British criminals also didn't use firearms, and had more respect for the public and the Law than today's armed criminals, most of whom are You-Know-Who.....!

Anonymous Lady

Anonymous said...

Perhaps they're getting armed to the teeth because it's open season for bloggers.

Ronbo said...

British police forced to carry firearms? The world is turned upside down! And they say civil war is not happening in the United Kingdom?...Paging Oliver Cromwell..

"Out of chaos comes order." -- Nietzsche

Always On Watch said...

Two articles of interest:

ONE

TWO

Amounting to shari'a law being enforced in the UK, in my opinion.