THE role of authorised firearms officer can be both \u201cthe best job in policing\u201d and \u201cthe worst job in the world\u201d, the new firearms lead for the Police Federation has said.<\/p>\n
Steve Hartshorn, who has just taken on the role from Vice-Chair Ch\u00e9 Donald, has described how work in firearms can be a \u201cvery lonely place\u201d and as such officers need all the support they can get.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Steve said: \u201cFirearms officers do a unique job within policing in England and Wales. Let\u2019s not sugar-coat the pill, they are trained to deal with immediate threats to life and every time they sign out their weapons they realise there is possibility that one day they may be required to pull the trigger. That may well mean that a person dies and such decisions are never taken lightly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are an extraordinary group of men and women and I was lucky to have been one of the few to have performed this role as an Armed Response Officer. It is so important for me as Firearms Lead for the Federation that I represent them to the best of my ability.\u201d<\/p>\n
Firearms policing has hit the headlines recently, after a suspect was shot in South West London and as calls were made for armed officers to carry out foot patrol in high crime areas of London to deal with increasing violence.<\/p>\n
Steve said: \u201cI know what it takes do this specialist role, the physical and mental toll it can take – not only the officers themselves but their family and friends as well. I want to ensure they have all the support and assistance they need.<\/p>\n
\u201cFull firearms kit, depending on the role or deployment, can tip the scales at up to four stone (25kg). Add to that the weight of expectation heaped on you by the service and society alike, it\u2019s certainly a heavy burden to shoulder.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve has promised to work with the Police Firearms Officers\u2019 Association (PFOA) and the Welfare Support Programme to ensure officers are protected in their highly-scrutinised and ultra-challenging role.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cI do have a real concern about what the reaction of society, the media and investigators alike would be if, or when, officers have to shoot a young person in possession of a lethal weapon. No doubt the pressure on them will increase and may well further harm the ongoing work to recruit and retain other armed officers. I consider being a firearms officer the best job in policing but I know there are times when it can feel like the worst job in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE role of authorised firearms officer can be both \u201cthe best job in policing\u201d and \u201cthe worst job in the world\u201d, the new firearms lead for the Police Federation has\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3779,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4923"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4923"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4924,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4923\/revisions\/4924"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}