Using firearms officers at routine jobs is ‘efficient’

USING firearms officers to deal with more routine jobs can be an efficient way for Essex Police to use its resources.

Mark Smith, Chairman of Essex Police Federation, says that as long as there isn’t a firearms incident to attend to, it makes sense for firearms officers to respond to emergency calls if they are the closest crew.

He said: “I can’t object to that really. Let’s take Stansted Airport – as long as you’ve got the visible presence that you have to have at any one time, checking all the areas they need to check, if you’ve got officers that are closest to deal with something then I think we should use them because they are still resources to be used. Even if they start to deal with the incident and other units attend as quickly as they can to take over.

“Armed response vehicles for the county used to be traffic officers, so they would still be dealing with traffic incidents unless there was a firearms job, and of course they would start dealing with it and somebody else would take over, so they’re a resource to be used, I believe.

“We can’t just have a car driving around not doing a lot all day just in case. I think we should be able to use the resources but it’s how that’s managed. It’s making sure that they are freed up to be able to attend if another job comes in and they can attend.

“Our main firearms unit are dealing with far more firearms incidents than ever before, so I think in some ways they may not be able to deal with the other incidents, but that doesn’t mean that if they’re free and we have resources free we shouldn’t use them.”