Armed police out 10 times a week

Greater Manchester’s armed police are being deployed to incidents up to 10 times a week.

Figures published yesterday by the Home Office show there were 497 authorised firearms operations in 2007/08 across Greater Manchester up from 481 the previous year.

Nationally, there was a 17.5 per cent increase from 18,032 to 21,181 in the same period.
Despite GMP’s small increase there has been a significant reduction since 2001/02 when armed officers attended 580 incidents.

The number of GMP officers trained to carry firearms has increased from 217 in 2006/7 to 250, according to the Home Office.

Assistant Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police Dave Thompson said: “Every incident we attend is thoroughly assessed to ensure the safety of the public, police and the offenders.

“Our officers are specially trained to manage and defuse difficult or hostile situations in a safe manner and the decision to grant firearms authority is not made lightly.”

He added: “We will always consider whether the incident can be resolved without the use of firearms and this will continue to be assessed throughout.”

The figures came as Home Secretary Jacqui Smith unveiled a CSI-style national gun crime database, pledging to equip detectives with “the best possible tools” to get firearms off the streets.

The National Ballistics Intelligence Service (Nabis) is the first system of its kind in the world. The database stores forensic information from all firearms and ballistics material recovered by police across England and Wales.

It will allow forces to access intelligence on suspects, weapons, locations and incidents and ballistics comparison capability to link crimes and incidents within 24 to 48 hours.