Police firepower
As incidents involving firearms increase in the UK, the police have to be equipped to respond.
THE USE OF FIREARMS in all manner of crimes, from domestic to terrorist, is a familiar aspect of today's news, and it is the task of the Metropolitan Police force's firearms unit (SO19) to respond. The officers that make up this unit are specially trained in the use of a variety of firearms and in assessing a situation in the fastest and safest way. Guns have been used in crime for a long time in the UK, but the killing or injuring of a police officer was not a common occurrence until quite recently. It was just not done. However, all this changed in the 1970s when guns, usually shotguns, were used increasingly in raids, but the average policeman was still not armed as a matter of course. In 1991 the first armed-response vehicles (ARV) went out on the streets of London. Before that only a very few officers were issued with a sidearm and these were limited to some officers in Special Branch and the Royal Protection Squad. However, in 2003 SO19 is busier than ever before. Officers who attend a firearms course are given a week's basic training with the Austrian-built Glock 17 9mm automatic pistol and the German Heckler & Koch MP5 carbine. This may not sound much but chosen applicants enter another more intensive three-week training course with the ARV branch.
Following successful training they will be posted to the ARV and spend three days in every six weeks in further training. Following two incidents with the unlawful use of licensed firearms, successive governments pandered to a minority and hand guns - not shotguns or rifles - were banned from being owned by UK citizens. This did not cut gun crime, no one ever suggested that it would, rather it increased the availability of firearms, many from the former communist countries of eastern Europe. Because of this many more officers had to be trained to use firearms effectively. A police officer has to attend refresher courses on a regular basis. Probably the highest profile on the streets of the biggest cities in the UK is the ARV that may look like a normal traffic/patrol police vehicle, but it carries quite a punch.
The ARV branch patrols 24 hours a day, 52 weeks of the year. These vehicles are crewed by three officers, the driver whose task is to get to the reported incident as quickly and as safely as possible, the operator who handles all the communication equipment and the observer, whose task is to work out the best route to the incident. All three are armed with the Glock 17 and MP5 and are fully trained in their use. On arrival at the incident they will have to liaise with other police officers at the scene and assess what action is required. Other weapons also may be carried in the vehicle as appropriate. SO19 also has to work closely with the anti-terrorist branch (ATB) (SO13) that was formed as a specialist unit in 1970 and uses the same weapons as SO19 with whom they frequently exercise.
Allied to the ARV and ATB are other armed units, mainly the Royalty Protection Branch (SO14) and Special Branch. The latter was formed in 1883 and was the UK's original counter-intelligence agency. Special Branch provides armed personal protection to heads of state and visiting VIPs, along with other duties including working with the armed forces as and when required.
Standard UK police weapons are the semi-automatic Glock 17 pistol, the Smith & Wesson .38 Model 10 revolver and the highly effective Heckler & Koch MP5 sub-machine gun. The Model 10, first produced in 1899, has become a standard law enforcement weapon of good standing for very many years and it, along with its predecessors and its many variants, is in use by police forces around the world. A more recent addition to the arsenal is the Austrian Glock 17, an efficient, compact (186mm x 138mm) 9mm pistol that is proven in action.
This robust and reliable weapon first appeared in 1983 and although it is being improved continually it may soon be replaced in British service. A possible replacement for the Glock 17 is the newly introduced Heckler & Koch P2000, also 9mm and already chosen by several continental police forces. The military variant P8 also has been chosen for use by the German army.
In the UK, the Force Firearms Unit uses the Heckler & Koch MP5 semi-automatic 9mm carbine. This is a version of the fully or semi-automatic MP5 A4 that is another exceptional weapon. It is compact, of modular design and ideal for carrying in a police squad car. The UK MP5 can be converted to a fully automatic and also into a two- or three-shot single burst if required. In use it has been found to be very accurate with less recoil than many similar calibre weapons.
The Heckler & Koch HK33SG1 automatic sniper rifle, with special sight mount and telescopic sight, is also used by SO19 officers, especially during sieges. Whenever SO19 is called out, the media is always on hand to record the situation, armed officers at airports and ferry terminals are accepted by the general public, but they recoil from the knowledge that they are in our midst and on the streets of some of our cities and large towns.
Sadly, it is a measure of what has happened in a short time to the UK that consistently has resisted the issue of arming officers as a matter of course. However, as more and more patrol vehicles and foot-patrol policemen are involved in firearms incidents, the scales have to tip in favour of arming the British bobby.
For more information visit Metropolitan Police website.
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